The Barrandov Studios

A Central European Hollywood

Author: Herzogenrath, Bernd
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Serie: Eastern European screen cultures
eISBN Pdf: 9789048542017
Place of publication: Amsterdam , Netherlands
Year of digital publication: 2023
Month: September
Pages: 366
Language: English

Caption

The Barrandov Studios are one of the largest and oldest film studios in Europe. For more than 80 years so far, the studios have been the location of choice for over 2,500 Czech and International films. Barrandov’s founding fathers, the Havel brothers Vàclav and Milo. (the grandfather and uncle of later president Vàclav Havel), built the ‘Hollywood of Eastern Europe’ in the 1930s.

A legendary studio like this – and its story – has so far not been told to an English-speaking readership. This collection aims to correct this, presenting the studio’s rich history, its esteemed directors, and their most important films.

Cover
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Once upon a (Central European) Time
- Bernd Herzogenrath and Kevin Johnson
I. (Film) History
- 1. Barrandov and Its Founder, Miloš Havel
  - Tereza Czesany Dvořáková
- 2. The Concept of Regional Poetics of Cinema
  - Czech Films of the 1920s and Early 1930s
    - Radomír D. Kokeš
- 3. Barrandov’s First Fifteen Years
  - Genres, Stars, Germans, and the Nation
    - Kevin B. Johnson
II. Production History
- 4. Industrial Authorship and Group Style in Czech Cinema of the 1950s and 1960s
  - Petr Szczepanik
- 5. Marcela Pittermannová: Barrandov Dramaturges as Clients, Brokers, and Patrons
  - Pavel Skopal and Michal Šašek
- 6. Ambitious ‘Alien’ Beats Perestroika
  - Pražská 5 (1988), Home Video, and Producing Politically Subversive Cinema at Barrandov in the 1980s
    - Jindřiška Bláhová
III. Individual Directors
- 7. A Documentarian between Genres
  - Jiří Weiss – A Crossover Auteur at Barrandov
    - Lucie Česálková
- 8. The Loves of a System: Miloš Forman and Barrandov
  - David Sorfa
- 9. Barrandov and Chytilová
  - Peter Hames
- 10. Barrandov Baroque: The Tenacious Artistry of Juraj Herz
  - Jonathan Owen
- 11. Václav Vorlíček: A Dream within a Dream
  - Bernd Herzogenrath
- 12. The ‘Vault Films’
  - Matthew Sweney
Index
List of Figures
- Figure 1.1. Barrandov Hill in 1930. Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 1.2. Building of Barrandov Studios, 1932. Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 1.3. Official promotional photograph of the A-B Company. Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 1.4. Shooting at Barrandov, 1936. Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figures 2.1–2.5. Stills from Vražda v Ostrovní ulici (Murder on Ostrovní Street, 1933, dir. Svatopluk Innemann). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 3.1. Bumbling Czech underdog detective Vincenc Babočka (Vlasta Burian) attempts to communicate with the English-speaking Maharaja. Screen capture from the DVD of Tři vejce do skla (Three Eggs in a Glass, 1937, dir. Martin Frič).
- Figure 3.2. Czech patriots at the barricades against the Austrian military in the streets of Prague – the climactic sequence of Philosophical History. Screen capture from the DVD of Filosofská historie (Philosophical History, 1937, dir. Otakar Vávra).
- Figure 3.3. Bilingual (German and Czech) advertisement for a paper store from the film Skill of Gold. Screen capture from the DVD of Zlaté dno (Skill of Gold, 1943, dir. Vladimír Slavínský).
- Figure 4.1. Karel Feix. Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 4.2. Bohumil Šmída. Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 4.3. Example of the group style of Feix’s creative unit. Still from Tři přání (Three Wishes, 1958, dir. Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 4.4. Example of the group style of Feix’s creative unit. Still from Zde jsou lvi (Scars of the Past, 1958, dir. Václav Krška). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 4.5. Example of the group style of Feix’s creative unit. Still from Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera (Lemonade Joe, or The Horse Opera, 1964, dir. Oldřich Lipský). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 4.6. Example of the group style of Šmída’s creative unit. Still from Touha (Desire, 1958, dir. Vojtěch Jasný). Screen capture from the DVD of the film.
- Figure 4.7. Example of the group style of Šmída’s creative unit. Still from Žižkovská romance (A Local Romance, 1958, dir. Zbyněk Brynych). Screen capture from the DVD of the film.
- Figure 4.8. Example of the group style of Šmída’s creative unit. Postava k podpírání (Joseph Kilian/A Character in Need of Support, 1963, dir. Pavel Juráček and Jan Schmidt). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 5.1. From the left: dramaturgical group’s secretary Bohumila Šourková, an unknown person, Ota Hofman, Marcela Pittermannová in office of the dramaturgical group in early 1980s (source: Marcela Pitttermannová´s personal archive)
- Figure 7.1. Vstanou noví bojovníci (New Fighters Shall Arise, 1950, dir. Jiří Weiss) at the Festival of Czechoslovak Film in the Soviet Union. Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 7.2. Jiří Weiss shooting Můj přítel Fabián (My Friend the Gypsy, 1953). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 7.3. Jiří Weiss shooting Punťa a čtyřlístek (Doggy and the Four, 1955) with child actors. Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 7.4. Jiří Weiss used the shooting experience on the battlefields of WWII to make Uloupená hranice (The Stolen Frontier, 1947). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 7.5. Still from Romeo, Julie a tma (Romeo, Juliet and Darkness, 1959, dir. Jiří Weiss). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 7.6. Anne Heywood and Rudolf Hrušínský in Třicet jedna ve stínu (Ninety Degrees in the Shade, 1965, dir. Jiří Weiss). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 8.1. The opening shot of Konkurs (Audition, 1963, dir. Miloš Forman). Courtesy of the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv).
- Figure 9.1. Eva Bosáková in O něčem jiném (Something Different, 1963, dir. Věra Chytilová). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 9.2. Karel Novák and Jitka Nováková in Ovoce stromů rajských jíme (The Fruit of Paradise, 1969, dir. Věra Chytilová), a coproduction of Barrandov Studios (Czechoslovakia) and Elisabeth Films (Belgium). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 9.3. Jiří Menzel and Dagmar Bláhová in Hra o jablko (The Apple Game, 1976, dir. Věra Chytilová). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 10.1. Still from Morgiana (1972, dir. Juraj Herz). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 10.2. Still from Panna a netvor (Beauty and the Beast, 1978, dir. Juraj Herz). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 10.3. Still from Upír z Feratu (The Ferat Vampire, 1982, dir. Juraj Herz). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 11.1. Jessie says, ‘I love you’. Still from Kdo chce zabít Jessii? (Who Wants to Kill Jessie?, 1966, dir. Václav Vorlíček). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 11.2. The shoe fits! Still from Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Three Wishes for Cinderella, 1973, dir. Václav Vorlíček). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.
- Figure 11.3. Fairy tales – old and new. Still from Arabela (1979–1981, dir. Václav Vorlíček). Source: Barrandov Studios Archive.