We regret to inform you that Oscar-winning director Jiri Menzel dies at age 82. The sad news was published on Sunday evening by his wife Olga Menzlova. The winner of the prestigious Oscar film award for the film Closely Watched Trains went to the film heaven on Saturday evening.
Jiri Menzel was born in 1938 in Prague as a son of famous writer and screenwriter Josef Menzel. In 1962 he finished his studies in directing with Otakar Vavra at FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague). In the 1960s, he was a co-founder of the Czechoslovak New Wave film. His first feature film, Closely Watched Trains, based on a literary masterpiece by his favorite author - Bohumil Hrabal - from 1966 won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Another of his films Vesnicko ma strediskova (My Sweet Little Village) was nominated for an Oscar in 1985. The safe film Skrivanci na niti (Larks on a String) received the Golden Bear Award at the International Film Festival in Berlin in 1990, and in 1996 he himself won the Czech Lion for his long-term artistic contribution to Czech filmography.
In 1977, he signed the so-called Anticharta, which condemned the declaration of Charter 77. He later said in an interview that the majority of Czechs served the communist regime at the time, and he is not ashamed of his signature, because it is a shame especially of those who forced him to sign.
From 1977 to 1979 he was a member of the ensemble of the Jara Cimrman Theater. Since the 1970s, he has also been involved in theater directing (he himself claimed that his main occupation was a theater director who only happened to be filming). He has also worked as a theater director abroad, for example in Sofia, Bulgaria and in the former Yugoslavia. He collaborated mainly with Prague theaters - Drama Club, Vinohrady Theater.
He taught at the FAMU in Prague and was a foreign member of the American Film Academy. He is the holder of the high French artistic title of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier des Arts et Lettres). He became the founder of cable television CS film.
Let's recall his major works.
As a director:
• 1965 – Pearls of the Deep / Perlicky na dne
• 1965 – Zlocin v divci skole
• 1966 – Closely Watched Trains/Ostre sledovane vlaky
• 1968 – Crime in a Music Hall/Zlocin v santanu
• 1968 – Capricious Summer/Rozmarne leto
• 1969 – Larks on a Thread/Skrivanci na niti
• 1974 – Kdo hleda zlate dno
• 1976 – Seclusion Near a Forest/Na samote u lesa
• 1978 – Those Wonderful Men with a Crank/Bajecni muzi s klikou
• 1980 – Cutting It Short/Postriziny
• 1983 – The Snowdrop Festival/Slavnosti snezenek
• 1985 – Cokoladovi cmuchalove
• 1985 - My Little Sweet Village/Vesnicko ma strediskova
• 1989 – The End of Old Times/Konec starych casu
• 1990 – The Beggar's Opera/Zebracka opera
• 1994 – Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin / Zivot a neobycejna dobrodruzstvi vojaka Ivana Conkina
• 2002 – short story One Moment in a project Dalsich deset minut (Ten Minutes Older)
• 2006 – I Served the King of England/Obsluhoval jsem anglickeho krale
• 2013 – The Don Juans/Donsajni
As an actor:
• 1964 – Misto v houfu
• 1964 – If a Thousand Clarinets/Kdyby tisic klarinetu
• 1964 – Kazdy den odvahu
• 1964 – Obzalovany
• 1965 – Nikdo se nebude smst
• 1965 – Bloudeni
• 1966 – Closely Watched Trains/Ostre sledovane vlaky
• 1967 – Soukroma vichrice
• 1967 – Dita Saxova
• 1966 – Navrat ztraceneho syna
• 1966 – Hotel pro cizince
• 1966 – Flam
• 1968 – Crime in a Music Hall/Zlocin v santanu
• 1968 – The Cremator/Spalovac mrtvol Remastered
• 1968 – Capricious Summer/Rozmarne leto
• 1970 – Nevesta
• 1973 – 30 panen a Pythagoras
• 1976 –The Apple Game / Hra o jablko
• 1978 – Those Wonderful Men with a Crank/Bajecni muzi s klikou
• 1979 – Modra planeta
• 1979 – Hra na telo
• 1981 – Buldoci a tresne
• 1981 – Ferat Vampire / Upir z Feratu
• 1982 – Hearty Greetings from the Globe / Srdecny pozdrav ze zemekoule
• 1983 – Fandy, o fandy (directed by Karel Kachyna)
• 1986 – Utikejme uz jde
• 1989 – Nezny barbar (directed by Petr Koliha)
• 1990 – Marta a já
• 1990 – Zvlastni bytosti
• 1991 –The Elementary School/Obecna skola
• 1992 – Das lange Gespräch mit dem Vogel
• 1994 – Joint Venture
• 1995 – Ma je pomsta (directed by Lordan Zafranović)
• 1995 – How to Deserve a Princess/Jak si zaslouzit princeznu
• 1996 – Truck Stop
• 1996 – Hospoda
• 1996 – Draculuv svagr
• 1997 – Franciska
• 1999 – All My Loved Ones/Vsichni moji blizci
• 2000 – Sametova kocovina
• 2002 – Utek do Budina (directed by Miloslav Luther)
• 2002 – Potonulo
• 2007 – Medvidek
• 2009 – Operace Dunaj
• 2018 – The Interpreter/Tlumocnik