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Gypsies (Cikáni) – Karel Anton (1921)
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Continue reading →: Gypsies (Cikáni) – Karel Anton (1921)Let’s take a step back in time with Cikáni, a film I had long postponed watching because of its daunting subject matter and its two-hour runtime. Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed — once again, my obsession with completeness got the better of me, at the expense of my own patience.…
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Czech Silent Cinema: Between Mystery and Horror
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Continue reading →: Czech Silent Cinema: Between Mystery and HorrorCzech silent cinema offers a fascinating variety of themes and styles. In today’s article, we’ll look at two very different films, both bound together by tangled tales of love. The first, Setřelé písmo, is a mystery with hints of the esoteric, featuring a very young Anny Ondra. The second, Ukřižovaná,…
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The Poisoned Light (Otrávené světlo) – Jan S. Kolár (1921)
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Continue reading →: The Poisoned Light (Otrávené světlo) – Jan S. Kolár (1921)Mystery and action — these are the driving forces of Otrávené světlo. In fact, it might be the third film to unite two of my long-standing threads: Czechoslovak cinema and early science fiction. After Melchiad Koloman (1920) and Pancéřové auto (1930), we can already see a fertile silent-era subgenre emerging:…
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Continue reading →: The Arrival from the Darkness (Příchozí z temnot) – Jan S. Kolár (1921)Příchozí z temnot is a fascinating yet little-known work that deserves rediscovery, much like much of the silent output of then-Czechoslovakia. Based on a story by Karel Hloucha and adapted by Jan Kolár, the film blends elements of horror and science fiction—genres with which Hloucha, one of the pioneers of…
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Continue reading →: Up There in the Mountains (Tam na horách) – Sidney M. Goldin (1920)Among the Czech silent films I had yet to encounter was Tam na horách, a recently rediscovered work with considerable importance in the history of Czech cinema. Directed by Ukrainian-born Sidney M. Goldin shortly before his departure for the United States, the film stands out for pointing Czech filmmaking in…
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Melchiad Koloman – Rudolf Liebscher (1920)
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Continue reading →: Melchiad Koloman – Rudolf Liebscher (1920)What better way to merge the Czech and Slovak film project with the sci-fi one than with a real piece of junk? Melchiad Koloman is truly, truly awful, and the fact that it holds the title of the very first science fiction film produced in Czech lands does nothing to…
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Some Short Films by Jan S. Kolár
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Continue reading →: Some Short Films by Jan S. KolárI know you’ve been missing the Czech project films, so today I’ll talk about three medium-length works by Jan S. Kolár released between 1920 and 1921. All three, along with Polykarpovo zimní dobrodružství (which I’ll cover in another article), are included in the double DVD featuring Otrávené světlo and Příchozí…
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Surreal Adventures in Czech Silent Cinema
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Continue reading →: Surreal Adventures in Czech Silent CinemaOver the years we’ve explored Czech silent cinema in its many facets, and today we dive into the surreal adventure genre. We’re in the transitional period between 1919 and 1920, when Czech filmmakers were eager to experiment with new ways of entertaining audiences—sometimes drawing inspiration from their own stage works.…
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Continue reading →: The Man Who Built the Cathedral (Stavitel chrámu) – Karel Degl & Antonín Novotný (1919)In 1919, the newly born Czechoslovakia felt the need to reinforce the symbols of its national identity. Cinema, too, joined this effort with a film about the creation of one of Prague’s most emblematic monuments: the neo-Gothic Cathedral of St. Vitus. Its construction had a long and troubled history, beginning…
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The Czech May Day in Silent Cinema
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Continue reading →: The Czech May Day in Silent Cinema– It Was the First of May (Byl první máj) – Thea Červenková (1919) This short film holds a special place in Czech cinema history, as it marks the debut of the country’s second female director, Thea Červenková. Though her career was brief, she managed to direct films, write screenplays,…
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