Autumn officially begins this week. The evenings are longer, the tea is warmer, and it is exactly the right time to curl up with a Czech film. Here are three that feel like autumn itself.
The first choice almost picks itself, because it carries autumn in its name. Autumn Spring (Babí léto, 2001) stars the unforgettable Vlastimil Brodský as an eternal dreamer in his seventies who refuses to accept that life should quietly wind down, while Stella Zázvorková plays the practical wife who loves him and despairs of him at the same time. It is wise, funny and deeply moving, a film about the art of living that only grows better with age. We wrote more about it in our earlier article. 
From the bittersweet we move to the golden. Cutting It Short (Postřižiny, 1980) is Jiří Menzel's sun soaked adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal, set in a small town brewery at the very end of a long summer. Magda Vášáryová's radiant Maryska, fresh beer, roasted pork and the scent of a world about to change: if any film captures the moment when summer turns to autumn, it is this one. The remastered edition is available on Blu-ray and on DVD.
And to finish, a film for everyone who has ever dreamed of a cottage in the woods. Seclusion Near a Forest (Na samotě u lesa, 1976), again by Jiří Menzel and written by the legendary duo Smoljak and Svěrák, follows a Prague family searching for their perfect countryside retreat. What they find instead is a stubborn old cottage, an even more stubborn old man, and one of the warmest comedies Czech cinema ever produced. 
All three films are available with English subtitles, so pour something warm, light a candle and share a Czech autumn evening with anyone you love.
🍂 Make it an autumn tradition: Autumn Spring, Cutting It Short and Seclusion Near a Forest.
🍷 And when Saint Martin's season arrives, revisit our article Saint Martin, Wine, and the Magic of Czech Autumn on Screen.
