FILMS WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES:

Czech/Slovak | German

CZECH/SLOVAK:

ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN  1968  115 min.  (VHS)

Director: Voytech Jasny
This film, one of the last completed prior to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, was immediately banned and won the Special Jury Prize of the Cannes Film Festival.  It weaves together stories about a group of characters in a small Moravian village following the socialization of Czechoslovakia in 1948.   Director Jasny was called "the spiritual father of the Czech New Wave" by Milos Forman

DAISIES  1966  74 min.  (DVD)

Director: Vera Chytilova

Cast:  Jitka Cerhova; Ivana Karbanova; Julius Albert

A freewheeling, madcap, feminist farce, Daisies features two uninhibited young women, both named Marie.  The two Maries develop outrageous pranks in this outlandish comedy.  Daisies' slapstick, destructive climax led to its immediate banning by the government.

DIVIDED WE FALL   2000, 122 min. (DVD)

In German-occupied Czechoslovakia , a young couple provides shelter to a Jewish neighbor, taking extreme and sometimes comical measures to protect him and themselves. Petr Jarchovsky, with director Jan Hrebejk, adapted his own novel for this Oscar-nominated feature that won the Czech Film and Television Awards for Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. "Mr. Hrebejk and Mr. Jarchovsky, working in the rich Czech tradition of absurdist humanism, construct a universe booby-trapped with impossible choices and ethical puzzles" (A.O. Scott, New York Times ).

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL  1991  100 min.  (VHS)
Director: Jan Sverak
Cast: Jan Triska, Libuse Safrankova
Nominated for the 1991 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "The Elementary School" is set in post-war Czechoslovakia, exploring the lives of a group of pre-adolescent boys in the interval between the departure of the Nazis and the arrival of the Communists.

THE FIREMEN'S BALL  1976  73 min.  (VHS)   
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: Vaclav Stockel, Josef Svet, Jan Vostrcil
An Academy Award-nominated comedy depicting the outrageous descent of a firemen's ball into total chaos.

THE JOKE  1968  80 min.  (DVD) 

Director:  Jaromil Jires

Cast:  Josef Somr; Jaroslava Obermaierova; Jana Ditetova; Jaromir Hanzlik

This tragicomedy revolves around a single joke: a professor, who is also an unrepentant ladies' man, is sentenced to six years hard labor for an irreverent postcard he sends to a woman he is trying to seduce.

KOLYA  1996  105 min.  (VHS)  
Director:  Jan Sverak
Cast:  Zdenek Sverak, Andrej Chalimon, Libuse Safrankova
Winner of the Academy Award and Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film.  A delightful comedy about a confirmed bachelor whose get-rich-quick scheme backfires, leaving the five-year-old Kolya in his care.

LARKS ON A STRING  1991  96 min.  (VHS)      

Director:  Jiri Menzel                                            

Cast:  Vaclav Neckar, Jityka Zelenohorska

While serving time for desertion and taking steps toward re-education, a rag-tag group of workers unite as a young couple decides to marry.  Even the prison guards can't resist this romance as the wedding and on-site honeymoon unfold in a series of hilarious plot twists.

THE LAST BUTTERFLY  In English:  1994  106 min.  (VHS)  

Director: Karel Kachyna 

Cast: Tom Courtenay, Brigitte Fossey, Milan Knazko, Josef Kemr

Set in World War II, a famous French actor is taken prisoner by the Gestapo and sentenced to perform in the town of Terezin.  As he rehearses with a group of Jewish children in what is to be the last performance of their lives, he refuses to play a role in the Nazi's charade.

LOVES OF A BLONDE  1966  86 min.  (VHS) 
Director:  Milos Forman
Cast:  Hana Brejchova, Vladimir Pucholt, Josef Sebanek, Milada Jezkova
This Czech New Wave classic was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  This romantic comedy follows a piano player who seduces a lovelorn factory worker.  

MURDER CZECH STYLE  1966  90 min.  (VHS)  
Director: Jiri Weiss
Cast: Rudolf Hrusinsky; Kveta Fialova; Vladimir Mensik
A chubby, clumsy office clerk gets a shot at true love in this black comedy.  Winner of the Grand Prix at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Donatello Prize.  

MY SWEET LITTLE VILLAGE  (SD)  1985  99 min.  (VHS & Beta format) 
Director:  Jiri Menzel

Cast: Janos Ban, Marian Labuda, Rudolph Hrusinsky

Menzel's gentle observations of commonplace events celebrate small town life and leave one longing to ba a part of this "sweet little village."

A PRAYER FOR KATARINA HOROVITZOVA  1991   60 min.  (VHS) 
Cast: Jiri Adamir, Lenka Fiserova, Cestmir Randa
Based on Arnost Lustig's award-winning novel, this film, the winner of the top prize of the Monte Carlo Film and Television Festival, tells the story of a beautiful Polish singer, set against the backdrop of a cruel game which involves trading Jewish lives for those of Nazi officers imprisoned in American jails.

THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET  1965  126 min.  (VHS)  
Director: Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
Cast: Ida Kaminska, Josef Kroner
The 1965 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language translates the horrors of the Nazi Occupation into simple human terms, combining pathos with humor to tell the story of a friendship between an elderly Jewish woman and a good-natured carpenter appointed as her Aryan controller, addressing the complex issue of moral responsibility while illuminating the tragedy of racism.

GERMAN:

COLONEL REDL  In German:  1984  142 min.   (DVD)    

Director: Istvan Szabo

Cast: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gudrun Landrebe

In the early part of the 20th century, Alfred Redl ruthlessly rises from his peasant back ground to become a high ranking member of the Imperial Austrian military.  But when Redl is sent to spy on the Russian Empire, his espionage is compromised by his secret double life as a homosexual.  As the world perches on the brink of war, Redl finds himself trapped in a web of deception.

EUROPA EUROPA  1991  121 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Cast: Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Hanns Zischler
Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe Award. In the midst of chaos in WWII Europe, Solly, a resourceful Jewish teen, narrowly escapes capture by Nazis. Separated from his family with little hope of survival, Solly vows to stay alive, even if it means donning a German uniform and posing as a Nazi soldier. Based on the autobiography by Solly Perel.

GOOD BYE LENIN  2003  121 min.  (DVD)

In 1989, Christine Kerner has lost her husband and is completely devoted to the Socialist East German state.  A heart attack leaves her ina coma, and when she awakens eight months later, the Berlin Wall has fallen and it's a whole new world.  To protect her from the shock,  her son Alex hatches a plan to keep her in the dark.  It's easy... all he has to do is turn back the hands of time.  Winner of six prestigious European Film Awards.

STALINGRAD  1993  150 min.  (VHS)

Director: Joseph Vilsmaier

Cast: Domonique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschimann, Jochen Nickel.

Depicts the Battle of Stalingrad from the perspective of German soldiers trapped in the city during the historic conflict.

SVD--CLUB OF THE BIG DEED  German titles and French narration:  1927  50 min.  (VHS) - Silent film
Directors: Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg
A cinematographic film in the fashion of Eisenstein and Pudovkin, celebrating the revolutionary Decembrist movement of 1825 St. Petersburg.  An early collaboration between the originators of F.E.K.S. (Factory of the Eccentric Experimental Actor).