Věra Chytilová

Directing

Věra Chytilová

Born 1929-02-02 · Ostrava, Czechoslovakia

Věra Chytilová (February 2, 1929 – March 12, 2014) was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. At the age of 28 she was accepted into the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). While attending FAMU she studied underneath renowned film director Otakar Vavra, graduating in 1962. Chytilová is best known for her once highly controversial film Sedmikrásky (Daisies) – (1966). Daisies is known for its un-sympathetic characters, lack of a continuous narrative and abrupt visual style. Chytilová states that she structured Daisies to “restrict [the spectator’s] feeling of involvement and lead him to an understanding of the underlying idea or philosophy”. The film was banned within Czechoslovakia upon its initial release in 1966 until 1967, but in 1966 the film won the Grand Prix at the Bergamo Film Festival in Italy. After Daisies the government made it very difficult for Chytilová to find work within Czechoslovakia, even though she was never officially classified as a 'blacklisted' director. After the Soviet Union invasion in 1968 it was virtually impossible for her to find work and she resorted to directing commercials under her husband’s name, Jaroslav Kučera. In 1976, due to the low cinema attendance she was approached by the government to begin directing films through a state-run production company. At the same time the United States was assembling a 'Year of Women' Film Festival and contacted Chytilová to gain permission to screen Daisies as their opening film. She informed the festival that the only non-censored prints of the film could be found in Paris and Brussels, and that her government would not allow her to attend the festival, nor were they allowing her to direct films. The festival then began to apply international pressure upon the Czechoslovakian government by petitioning on Chytilová’s behalf. In accordance with this international pressure Chytilová wrote a letter directly to President Gustáv Husák. Due to the success of the international pressure, and Chytilová’s personal appeal to President Husak, Chytilová began production of Hra o jablko (The Apple Game, 1976). The Apple Game was completed and then was screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and won the Silver Hugo and the Chicago International Film Festival. Chytilová described herself as a control freak and was known as being actively critical of the Soviet Union, stating that “My critique is in the context of the moral principles you preach, isn’t it? A critical reflection is necessary”. She would routinely cause havoc to make films that were loyal to her vision regardless of the heavy censorship that was routinely imposed. Věra Chytilová’s last film was released in 2006, and she has taught directing at FAMU. Chytilová embodied a unique cinematographic language and style that does not rely on any literary or verbal conventions, but rather utilizes various forms of visual manipulations to create meaning within her films. Chytilová used observations of everyday life in accordance with allegories and surreal contexts to create a personalized film style that is greatly influenced by the French New Wave, and Italian neorealism.

Acting credits

Caterwauling poster
7.5

In a rare instance of literary adaptation, Chytilová was inspired by Franz Kafka’s writings. Mr. K stashes stolen jewelry away at home and seldom allows his wife to wear it. A nosy neighbour, Mr. B, drops in. A cat observes it all.

Caterwauling

1960

The Emperor and the Golem poster
7.0

The Emperor's mismanagement of his country is provoking some in his court to plot to overthrow him. He feels successful, at least, when he discovers the legendary Golem, which he believes can protect him and even cure his imaginary illnesses but, when he disappears while on a bender, his kindly baker, who looks just like him, is mistaken for him, and begins to put things in order. However, the conspirators, not to be outdone, determine to bring the Golem back to life to do their bidding.

The Emperor and the Golem

1951

Pravda poster
5.8

Filmed clandestinely in Czechoslovakia on 16mm. It's one of the films Godard made with the Groupe Dziga Vertov - a Marxist film about the political situation after the '68 revolution.

Pravda

1970

Chytilová Versus Forman poster
8.0

An intellectual match between two dramatically different artists, one permanently unsure and frustrated and questioning everything, the other an astonishing storyteller perfectly at peace, unacquainted with introspection and reliant on intuition.

Chytilová Versus Forman

1981

Searching for Ester poster
8.0

Ester Krumbachová - a costume designer, screenwriter, director; one of the boldest personalities of the Czech New Wave. She worked in theatre, she was a writer and an illustrator. She co-created films such as O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Sedmikrásky (1966), Vsichni dobrí rodáci (1969), Pension pro svobodné pány (1968), Valerie a týden divu (1970), Slamený klobouk (1972) and many others. In the 1960s, she was a 'pivot' of the art scene in Prague, attracting artists who were on the threshold of their career, just setting out to find their own form of self-realization. Those who underwent her tutelage remember her forever. Director Vera Chytilová talks to those who knew Ester Krumbachová, who worked with her, befriended her, loved her. She sets off on a search that is to end by answering the question: Who was Ester?

Searching for Ester

2005

The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun poster
4.8

A bachelor named Faun with a Don Juan complex, seized with a hypochondriac's fear of the ineluctable approach of death, enters a race against time's passage. Faun's sexual love is imbued with the narcissistic vanity of a self-satisfied bacchant who even towards old age can't manage to forgo his lifelong pose as an irresistable seducer of women. He desperately searches for meaning in superficial, fleeting sex.

The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun

1984

No artwork available
6.2

A look at an over-loaded freight train departing from Prague.

Green Street

1962

To Make a Comedy Is No Fun poster
5.8

Documentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others.

To Make a Comedy Is No Fun

2016

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about the making of Vera Chytilová's film DAISIES

Naughty Young People: Chytilová, Kučera, Krumbachová

2012

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel poster
6.5

An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaimed exponents - Closely Observed Trains director Jiří Menzel.

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel

2018

Ceiling poster
5.5

The young Marta has made a break in her medical education to fully invest in her career as a model. We follow her for a day in her life, almost completely without hearing her voice. It is seldom that Marta gets the space to speak, instead she is mostly subject to the voice of others.

Ceiling

1962

Konec jasnovidce poster
8.3

Private psychic Mathias Scibolini practices his profession properly and to the full satisfaction of his clients. When the integration of the clairvoyants into the municipal enterprise occurs, he continues to divine under his civil name Mathias Scibolini. The administration is broken up, the fortune-telling services are sloppy and client satisfaction declines. After hours, however, it is possible to go to the clairvoyant's apartment, where everything is as it used to be.

Konec jasnovidce

1957

Journey: Portrait of Věra Chytilová poster
4.0

Documentary about Czech filmaker Vera Chytilova.

Journey: Portrait of Věra Chytilová

2004

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965.

An Occasion to Speak

1966

Behind the camera

Daisies poster
7.3

Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.

Daisies

1966

Daisies poster
7.3

Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.

Daisies

1966

Pleasant Moments poster
4.7

Hana is a psychologist and a thoroughly independent woman. Her unemployed husband, jealous of his wife, finds a younger girlfriend, but their teenage son Honzik is frustrated; everyone ignores him. Hana's patient Eva, an attractive middle-aged woman, is having problems with her 25-year-old son; she is in love with her son's friend and her son is offended by her behavior. To complete the circle, he falls in love with Hana and Honzik is utterly disgusted by their affair. Another of Hana's patients is Dub, a millionaire who can have pretty much anything, or anyone, he wants. He wants Hana. But he can't have her.

Pleasant Moments

2006

Pleasant Moments poster
4.7

Hana is a psychologist and a thoroughly independent woman. Her unemployed husband, jealous of his wife, finds a younger girlfriend, but their teenage son Honzik is frustrated; everyone ignores him. Hana's patient Eva, an attractive middle-aged woman, is having problems with her 25-year-old son; she is in love with her son's friend and her son is offended by her behavior. To complete the circle, he falls in love with Hana and Honzik is utterly disgusted by their affair. Another of Hana's patients is Dub, a millionaire who can have pretty much anything, or anyone, he wants. He wants Hana. But he can't have her.

Pleasant Moments

2006

Caterwauling poster
7.5

In a rare instance of literary adaptation, Chytilová was inspired by Franz Kafka’s writings. Mr. K stashes stolen jewelry away at home and seldom allows his wife to wear it. A nosy neighbour, Mr. B, drops in. A cat observes it all.

Caterwauling

1960

Caterwauling poster
7.5

In a rare instance of literary adaptation, Chytilová was inspired by Franz Kafka’s writings. Mr. K stashes stolen jewelry away at home and seldom allows his wife to wear it. A nosy neighbour, Mr. B, drops in. A cat observes it all.

Caterwauling

1960

No artwork available
8.0

Chytilová was not allowed to direct films between 1969 and 1976. The sole exception was the made-for-TV film Kamarádi, now virtually unknown.

Comrades

1971

No artwork available
8.0

Chytilová was not allowed to direct films between 1969 and 1976. The sole exception was the made-for-TV film Kamarádi, now virtually unknown.

Comrades

1971

No artwork available
10.0

The life of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first elected President of Czechoslovakia following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.

TGM the Liberator

1990

No artwork available
10.0

The life of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first elected President of Czechoslovakia following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.

TGM the Liberator

1990

Traps poster
5.1

After two troubled but powerful men rape a young hitchhiker who happens to be a vet, she drugs them and removes their testicles.

Traps

1998

Traps poster
5.1

After two troubled but powerful men rape a young hitchhiker who happens to be a vet, she drugs them and removes their testicles.

Traps

1998

No artwork available
NR

Chytilová ran for Senate in 2006 as a Rovnost Šancí (The Equal Chance Party) candidate. The film is a collection of monologues by female party members from across the nation.

Troublemakers

2007

No artwork available
NR

Chytilová ran for Senate in 2006 as a Rovnost Šancí (The Equal Chance Party) candidate. The film is a collection of monologues by female party members from across the nation.

Troublemakers

2007

The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday poster
6.8

Bohus is indolent and spends his days drinking brandy. One day he finds he has inherited a brickworks, several shops and a five-star hotel. Bohus sets out to tour his new empire, insulting everyone on the way.

The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday

1992

The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday poster
6.8

Bohus is indolent and spends his days drinking brandy. One day he finds he has inherited a brickworks, several shops and a five-star hotel. Bohus sets out to tour his new empire, insulting everyone on the way.

The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday

1992

A Bagful of Fleas poster
6.1

Eva is a new member of a girl's boarding school and textile factory. She looks up to the free-spirited Jana who struggles against conformity and discipline. Jana's conflicts with the staff and other girls have consequences for all.

A Bagful of Fleas

1963

A Bagful of Fleas poster
6.1

Eva is a new member of a girl's boarding school and textile factory. She looks up to the free-spirited Jana who struggles against conformity and discipline. Jana's conflicts with the staff and other girls have consequences for all.

A Bagful of Fleas

1963

The Apple Game poster
6.1

Sarcastic comedy about the Czechoslovakia of the seventies. A young gynaecologist can't figure out whether to get serious with a young nurse or to stay casual with his married lover. Things get complicated when both women don't want to play his game anymore.

The Apple Game

1978

The Apple Game poster
6.1

Sarcastic comedy about the Czechoslovakia of the seventies. A young gynaecologist can't figure out whether to get serious with a young nurse or to stay casual with his married lover. Things get complicated when both women don't want to play his game anymore.

The Apple Game

1978

Fruit of Paradise poster
6.3

An experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of the loss of innocence.

Fruit of Paradise

1970

Fruit of Paradise poster
6.3

An experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of the loss of innocence.

Fruit of Paradise

1970

Expulsion from Paradise poster
4.8

Philosophical movie, staged at the least philosophical environment imaginable: A closed scenery of a nudist spot, where some hired Czech stuff is making a plain erotic movie for a rich Russian producer. Nothing in this movie is what it seems to be at the first superficial glance.

Expulsion from Paradise

2001

Expulsion from Paradise poster
4.8

Philosophical movie, staged at the least philosophical environment imaginable: A closed scenery of a nudist spot, where some hired Czech stuff is making a plain erotic movie for a rich Russian producer. Nothing in this movie is what it seems to be at the first superficial glance.

Expulsion from Paradise

2001