Movies: Bohumil Šmída

A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement’s directors. Based on stories by the legendary writer Bohumil Hrabal, the shorts range from the surreally ch...

Prague, during World War II. Hana Kaufmann, a Jewish ophthalmologist, marries Dr. Antonín Bureš, a Christian man. When her family is sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, their romance turns into a struggle for survival....

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In the morning twilight of Prague, the dead body of the safe-breaker Toufar is found floating on the river Vltava with a knife in his back. Police inspectors visit Toufar's lover, the prostitute Anna Kulatá (Jirina Bohdalová), nicknamed Umbrella, and...

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Sherlock Holmes likes to play violin and expects a great career in music. He gets a place in a spa orchestra, but he is again and again distracted by criminal cases. Therefore he is the only one who does not see that his violin has no future. He solv...

A military base. An awkward soldier. A statue of Bach. And suddenly all guns in the area change into music instruments. Great mystery is immediately found by TV station. And soon the military base becomes a stage for huge TV show....

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In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling ...

A man boards on a tram together with a naked boy. Somebody has stolen the boy's clothes when he was out bathing, leaving him with not even change for the tram. The man has taken care of him and is taking him home. At first nobody notices them but as ...

Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It just seems to be that sort of summer. Antonin runs the swimming bath with his portly wife Katherine....

Czech history movie....

On an early Sunday evening, people of the small town are reading lottery results that are hung on a board. Young man Karel Antos is annoyed that his lottery-ticket missed the main prize, a car, by only one number. Karel is going to the pub to drink a...

Vera, wife of the plumber Simandl (Josef Somr), is found murdered in the cinema next to the IDOC (Information and Documentation) agency where she worked. Police captain Marha (Frantisek Nemec), who is leading the investigation, is informed by Simandl...

A fictionalized account of Czech soldiers who fought for the French Foreign Legion in Vietnam....

Shown in Cannes 1946....

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In Vražda v hotelu Excelsior, the interwar period homicide detective squad from Prague investigates the murder of a wealthy woman, Mrs Matoušová, which threatens the reputation of the eponymous luxury hotel popular with Prague’s elite. Even the retir...