From the moment I started directing, the films that came closest to my idea of cinema were that group that came out from Czechoslovakia in the Sixties. They were all made in a way that I found very sympathetic, and they are still very much the template I have in mind when I’m working nowadays.
Ken Loach
With autumn breeze taking over the summer heat wave, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society proudly presents our latest program “Czech New Wave”, which features 12 Czech masterpieces from the 1960s. From 3rd to 22nd October 2006, these artistic and thought-provoking Czech films will be screened at HK Film Archive and UA Langham Place. They are sensational must-see’s for filmbuffs.
Since the days of silents, Czech cinema has enjoyed a rich and varied tradition. Despite the blows to artistic freedom inflicted by repressive regimes, Czech rose against the social realist party line in the 1950s. By the 1960s, Czech directors dazzled the world with masterpieces like Peter and Pavla, Daisies, Intimate Lightning and Closely Watched Trains, and seized major prizes at A-list festivals.
The movement brought together three generations in a united front against socio-political realities. The Czech New Wave reached full blossom during the Prague Spring of 1968. The Czech New Wave blazed a trail with the passion and courage to break out of the mode, becoming synonymous with a film vocabulary that intimated that “anything is possible.” Since the 1970s, these timeless works have had almost zero exposure in Hong Kong until now.
