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Ivan Blatný: a great Czech poet lost and found
05.09. 2010August 5 was the 20th anniversary of the death of one of the most important Czech 20th century poets. Ivan Blatný spent his last years in Clacton-on-Sea, a resort on the east coast of England. He had spent more than half his life in exile, and most of that time as a patient in various psychiatric hospitals. It was in these unlikely circumstances that he wrote some of his best poetry, after being virtually forgotten as a writer for several decades. David Vaughan has more in this week’s edition of Czech Books.
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New documentary takes close look at Czech BDSM scene
03.09. 2010Thursday saw the premiere of a new documentary on HBO Czech Republic by respected filmmaker and cameraman David Čálek. Called Heaven, Hell – the film was aired as part of HBO’s Bez Cenzury (Without Censorship) series tackling issues rarely examined on the big or small screens. Heaven, Hell is a year-long look into the lives of four people deeply involved in the BDSM scene – that is bondage, domination, and sadomasochism.
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A festival the kids can see, feel, smell
02.09. 2010As the school year begins, an uncommon sort of festival for children kicks off on Prague’s ancient hill of Vyšehrad. “Vyšehrátky” as it’s called, a romp on the old high castle, offers no cotton candy, no tedious clowns and no mind-numbing kiddie rides. Instead it brings in schools and families for a more avant-garde approach to children’s entertainment organised by students of the Academy of Drama. In this week’s Panorama, Christian Falvey found that they know how to please a young audience.
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Febio demise marks the end of an era in Czech documentary filmmaking
26.08. 2010Perhaps the most successful Czech documentary film studio, Febio, has produced over 1300 programmes since it was established in Prague in the early 1990s. At the height of its activity, its authors made over 100 film documentaries a year that were mostly screened by the country’s public broadcaster, Czech Television. But this week, Febio’s founder and director Fero Fenič announced the studio’s closure.
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“Heroes” the theme of 7th annual Fresh Film Fest
26.08. 2010The annual Fresh Film Festival has gotten underway in Prague, showcasing short and longer-length projects by student film directors and budding filmmakers from around the world. Over the next several days, audiences will be able to choose from 40 films in official competition in four categories: Fresh Generation, the Main Competition, Theatre Optique (looking at animated and avant garde film) and Fresh Czech (focusing on Czech productions).
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Workshop looks to Pixar to revive Czech animation
25.08. 2010Czech animation has a very long and rich history in the Czech Republic, but in the view of some young filmmakers it’s gotten behind the times. That’s why the studio Bohemian Multimedia has organised the Anomalia workshop, a two-month course in modern animation that has brought some of the best minds in the field – namely artists from the famed American studio Pixar – to the east Bohemian town of Litomyšl to share their knowledge with students from Central Europe and even other professional Czech animators. This afternoon we spoke with organiser David Toušek, who is currently at Litomyšl Chateau and told us more about the programme.
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Eddie Stoilow – The Face of ‘New Pop’
24.08. 2010In this week’s Music Express our guest is Jan Žampa the talented singer/guitarist for Eddie Stoilow – an unusual Czech band founded in 2004. The group has grown increasingly popular, especially following the long, much-awaited release of just their first album just last year. Humorously called The Best of Eddie Stoilow, the album brought hits such as Hey You, Floating, and the catchy Realize and Compromise.
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Czech literary treasures in London
22.08. 2010Not many of the thousands of passengers arriving every day at London’s busy St Pancras Station are aware that they are passing just a few dozen metres away from one of the largest and most diverse collections of Czech books outside the Czech Republic. Tucked in beside the station is the huge, but surprisingly inconspicuous complex of the British Library. In this week’s Czech Books, David Vaughan shows us some of the highlights of the library’s rich Czech collection.
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Crime thriller Kajínek breaks box office record
18.08. 2010In the first two weeks of its showing, the new Czech film Kajínek has shattered all of the country’s previous box office records. The ambitious home-grown take on the crime thriller genre, based on the story of convicted contract killer Jiří Kajínek, received massive promotion but its popularity has also been fuelled by persisting doubts about Kajínek’s guilt.
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Poet, prose writer Ludvík Kundera dies at 90
17.08. 2010One of the country’s most respected poets and literary scholars, Ludvík Kundera, died on Tuesday at the age of 90. The writer (a cousin of the internationally-renowned author Milan Kundera) had a wide scope, writing poetry, drama, prose and translating from several languages. Last year he received the Jaroslav Seiffert prize for life-long achievement.
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Tomáš Zilvar – magazine publisher focused on future media
16.08. 2010Back in the mid 1990s Tomáš Zilvar quickly moved from putting together DIY fanzines to publishing glossy titles like Tripmag and XMAG, magazines that were focused on electronic music at a time when that genre was really taking off among young Czechs. Today Zilvar, who is still in his early 30s, has two jobs: running the Prague office of the hip New York-based magazine and website Vice; and offering digitalisation services to Czech media outlets and authors keen to enter the age of e-readers.
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Oldřich Škácha – photographer of Havel and others
12.08. 2010In his basement studio in the Šelmberkovský Palace in Prague’s Malá Strana, Oldřich Škácha is visibly amused as he points out a shot he took in 1991. It features then finance minister Václav Klaus, grinning broadly, flanked by two bunny girls at a Playboy ball. Škácha says he likes to exhibit the picture today as a little jab at the president.
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New school in Prague center to offer Irish dancing classes
10.08. 2010A new school devoted solely to Irish dancing will soon open its doors in Prague. Lessons at Luas, Irish for speed, are due to start next month. Ahead of the start of the first course, the school’s director, Tereza Loužecká Bachová, invited all those curious about this dancing style to try it out themselves. She spoke to us before the sample lesson, about Irish dancing and why it fascinates her, and when classes will kick off.
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No end in sight in epic struggle over Mucha's gift to Prague
10.08. 2010There’s a bitter legal dispute at the moment over the fate of 20 massive paintings by the artist Alphonse Mucha, who created the style known as ‘art nouveau’ in the early 20th century. The cycle of 20 thematic paintings – known collectively as the Slav Epic - has spent the last 47 years in a crumbling castle in the town of Moravský Krumlov. Officials in Prague, however, now want them back, causing an uproar in Moravia, and elsewhere in the country.
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A band called Airfare
10.08. 2010Welcome to our first edition of Music Express, bringing you music and interviews with some of the Czech Republic’s brightest young stars and biggest names. Today: a group that first broke onto the scene just two-and-a-half years ago, called Airfare. Founded by Czech-American frontman Thomas Lichtag, now 23, the four-member band plays catchy, sometimes harder alternative rock, with all songs sung in English. The singer/guitarist came into the studio this week to discuss how the band got its start. He also talked about their first big hit Sorry Baby that launched them onto the Czech music scene.
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Despite rainy start, Sázavafest draws thousands of visitors
06.08. 2010On Thursday, Sázavafest kicked off in the Central Bohemian town of Kácov. Its site is located near the Sázava river, which provides both the name and the scenic backdrop for one of the country’s most popular music festivals. It drew some 20.000 visitors in 2009 and organizers are expecting a similar turn-out this year.
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15th International Organ Festival now underway at St James’ Basilica in Prague
06.08. 2010The 15th International Organ Festival got underway at Prague’s St James’ Basilica on Thursday night with a recital by the American organist John Scott. In a series of eight concerts over a month and a half, the city’s music lovers will have the chance to hear some of the world’s best players perform on greatest organ in the Czech capital.
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Highly-anticipated thriller hits Czech screens
05.08. 2010This Wednesday saw the premiere of the highly-anticipated Czech crime thriller Kajínek, partly based on events surrounding one of the Czech Republic’s most notorious convicts. Found guilty of two contract killings in the ‘90s, Jiří Kajínek would probably have remained forgotten behind bars had it not been for a daring escape from the country’s toughest prison. He has also always maintained he was innocent.
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A visit to set of ‘Leaving’, Václav Havel’s debut as film director
05.08. 2010The former president Václav Havel has had many professions in his life – poet, playwright, dissident, revolutionary, president, and published author. Now, at the tender age of 73, he’s adding a new string to his bow – film director. He’s currently directing a feature film version of his most recent play, Leaving, which is about – what else? - a politician trying to adjust to a new life after leaving politics.
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Daphne Carr - American music writer and scholar teaching at Charles University
02.08. 2010Daphne Carr is an American music expert and writer. The focus of her research is not classical but popular music, a field that only recently has garnered attention from academics. Carr’s passion for writing started within what is commonly referred to as the zine culture, zines being small and often underground publications that became popular in America in the 1980s and 1990s. She has stayed true to the underground and found a new favorite in the Czech Republic: the Plastic People of the Universe, who she learned about when she first came to Prague in 2000 to take summer courses. Carr now teaches a class on popular music at Charles University’s Institute of Musicology. Daphne talks about her course, the unique Czech genre of tramp music and what first piqued her interest in music.
