Czech Update

Czech crooners (dead and alive) on YouTube

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:37:28 -0400

Karel Hála, a star of Czech big band pop music since the 1950s just died as reported by Lidové Noviny. Here's a cliop of him and another stallwart of Czech pop Karel Gott. read more »

Czech animation reviving rich history

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:12:05 -0400

Czechs have always been on the cutting edge of animation (even helping with some of the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the 1950s and 1960s) and now it seems, things are looking up again, as this short article in Variety suggests. The name from the past to take note of is Jan Švankmajer who's cited as an influence on Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. read more »

Irglová: Czech singer and actress reaps fame rewards after Oscar win

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:55:19 -0400

"Co Čech to muzikant" (Scratch a Czech, find a musician) goes an old Czech saying (going back to 1800s at least) that used to be known around the musical world. And now it is again! read more »

Czech film boom predicted for 2008

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:49:06 -0500

Perhaps not the "new" Czech New Wave but certainly a hopeful sign for the Czech film industry.

Czech film boom - Prague Daily Monitor read more »

Dictionary of Czech culture

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:56:48 -0400

The Amazon reviewer got it right! read more »

Go see the Czech Dream but don't trust it

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:30:50 -0400

Czech Dream (Český sen) is a semi-documentary film about a hoax advertising campaign for a hypermarket of the same name that fooled thousands of people and tried to expose the 'lies' in advertising. read more »

The Prague Post Online: Tempo: Czechs on film

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:59:11 -0400

The Prague Post Online: Tempo: Czechs on film: Among Hollywood's outstanding directors were and still are Gustav Machatý, Miloš Forman and Ivan Passer. Jan Tříska, Herbert Lom, Karel Roden and Jan Rubeš rank among the more prominent current Czech film actors, while other names such as Francis Lederer, Hugo Haas and Vera Hruba-Ralston lurk in the past. Erich Korngold towers among film composers and Miroslav Ondříček among cameramen, while a plethora of little-known but no less capable Czech stuntmen helped make movies such as Titanic and Gladiator into classics. read more »

Cultural impact of change in Czech TV news schedule

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:32:31 -0500

Change in Czech TV main news time benefits Nova - 10-01-2007 - Radio Prague Many Czechs catch their television news in the early evening, between 7 and 8 o'clock. But which particular news programmes they choose to watch has changed somewhat since the New Year, when Czech Television brought its main evening news forward by 15 minutes. The change also affects hundreds of thousands of Czech children, as a popular animated programme also starts earlier.

It is interesting, if not surprising, how important TV schedules are for the cultural patterns of a nation. For Czech, culturally particularly important time is between 7 and 8 pm which is a transition between children's time and adult time. Children watch their 10-minute evening story - Večerníček, and then adults watch the news (boring for children) and than at 8 pm the main adult (as in not for children, not pornographic) programming starts when children go to bed. So a change of even as little as 15 minutes can have quite an impact on individuals' lives. Particularly when it comes down to the institution of Večerníček (so important it even has its own Wikipedia entry): read more »

Czech 'YouTube' to come out of Beta with Gynecology 2

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:15:23 -0500

Český „YouTube“ nabízí seriál od Čtvrtníčka - iDNES.cz
Na začátku příštího roku se má oficiálně rozjet český server, který nabídne podobné služby jako populární YouTube. Vedle možnosti zveřejnit zde svá videa se případní uživatelé mohou těšit i na původní tvorbu. Svá videa zde mají podle plánu vydávat studenti filmových škol, místo bude i na zprávy či reportáže.

New Year will bring a new online service to the Czech internet to challenge YouTube called Stream.cz. And to draw new audiences it starts with an original show called Gynekologie 2 (Ob-gyn 2) which is a very funny parody of medical dramas with only slightly lascivious content. Stream.cz differs from YouTube in several important respects: it features (at least for now) very professional-looking content created for the site by film students, the quality of transmission is high, live content is planned (mostly transmissions from night clubs), concert footage, news, etc. Not all the videos require Czech, such as this short film on Brutal Ping Pong or this animated gruesome take on What was left out of fairytales. read more »

Christmas on Czech TV

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:47:52 -0500

Vánoční „jistoty“ přebil Anděl Páně - www.lidovky.cz
PRAHA 27. prosince 2006 | 9:30 Všechny klasické, notoricky známé pohádky si děti i dospělí mohli dopřát i o těchto Vánocích. Nejlíp na Štědrý den - to jejich frekvence byla obzvlášť silná. Princezna se zlatou hvězdou a Tři oříšky pro Popelku (Nova), Pyšná princezna (ČT 1) či Byl jednou jeden král (Prima) nechyběly ani letos.

One way to know it is Christmas in the Czech Republic is to turn on the TV. read more »

Jára Cimrman to bring new Czech heaven

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 07:53:23 -0500

Cimrmanův divadelní kšaft - www.lidovky.cz
Zdeněk Svěrák a Ladislav Smoljak chystají patnáctou hru, kterou by chtěli oslavit podzimní čtyřicítku Divadla Járy Cimrmana. Nová hra by se mohla jmenovat České nebe s podtitulem Cimrmanův dramatický kšaft.

It is characteristic of many things in the Czech psyche that the greatest Czech of all time [also here], as measured by Czech TV's remake of BBC's 100 Greatest Brittons, never existed. It was Jára Cimrman who will celebrate 40 years of non-existence next year. And his 'discoverers', now revered Czech cultural icons themselves, have just announced they are planning to uncover the 15th lost play by this intellectual giant. The play may be called 'Czech Heaven' and with any luck will open in the fall of 2007. This is big news! Roughly on the scale of announcing the new Star Wars. Unlike the Star Wars, though, this is unlikely to disappoint. Want know why? Read this account by an American of the Czech hero's appeal who sums it up pretty well: read more »

"I served the king of England" in cinemas

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 13:49:46 -0500

Film, který vznikal dvacet let - www.lidovky.cz Film Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále je spojen s řadou očekávání: po dvanácti letech se jím vrátil za kameru režisér Jiří Menzel, který bývá označován za specialistu na Hrabala, jeho předlohy natáčel šestkrát, za Ostře sledované vlaky získal v roce 1968 Oscara. Okolnosti vzniku Anglického krále byly navíc velmi komplikované, takřka dvacet let trval spor o autorská práva na Hrabalovu knihu. Jiří Menzel začal Anglického krále točit letos v březnu v produkci AQS, koproducentem snímku s nadstandardním rozpočtem 84,5 milionu korun je televize Nova, Magic Box Slovakia, Barrandov Studios a UPP. read more »

Unbearable Lightness of Being in Czech after 20 Years

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:28:05 -0500

Kundera masterpiece becomes Czech bestseller after 20 year wait
Czech writer Milan Kundera's most famous novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" has become a best seller in his homeland after a 20-year wait for its general release in his native language.

Yes, it is true, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí, perhaps the best-known book written in Czech, was published for the first time in the Czech Republic this year more than 20 years after its original publication in France. read more »