Rozmarná léta – Menzel Jiří (2013)

In his memoir, Jiří Menzel describes his childhood and the formative cultural background of a Prague bourgeois family; his studies at FAMU and the circumstances of his decision to pursue film despite his original love for theater; the realization of his most famous films, such as Closely Watched Trains and Capricious Summer during the time of the film "new wave." For the first, Jiří Menzel won an Oscar and became one of the "men of the year 1968," which makes the description of the following period, the stifling seventies, a bizarre story about the struggle against the dullness and incompetence of superiors and the party-bureaucratic apparatus, about deals and compromises. The memoirs are brought up to the year 1988, on the threshold of the restoration of freedom in Czechoslovakia. Thanks to the connection between the author's personal and professional life with the historical and social reality, the reader also receives a part of the history of Czech society in the post-war period. More personal memories are contained in monographic subsections, where he reflects on teachers (primarily Otakar Vávra), cameramen, actors, film critics, and figures of "film diplomacy." It is not (just) about proverbial funny anecdotes from filming; Jiří Menzel provides insight into the genesis and formation of his creative method, his views on film, and his convictions...