„Podivné přátelství“ režiséra Steklého - Krátká poznámka o dlouhé barrandovské kariéře (1945-1985)
“Strange friendship” of director Steklý - Short observation about a long Barrandov career (1945-1985)

Author(s): Petr Kopal
Subject(s): Cultural history, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), History of Communism, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; 20th century; politics; culture; movies; Jiří Menzel; Barrandov; Miroslav Müller; Karel Steklý;
Summary/Abstract: The text comprehends the relation between the politics and culture (movies), everyday life of the filmmaker – especially after beginning of the normalization. It analyses the subject on the bases of the life of director Karel Steklý (1903–1987) and his long Barrandov career and quite a different example of Jiří Menzel (1938), the representative of the “new wave”, young but internationally famous holder of an Oscar for Closely Watched Trains (1966). At the beginning of the 1970s Barrandov’s new leadership made it impossible for him to work in the field. Menzel like other filmmakers naturally wanted to do his work and shoot movies. The conditions were clear: try to come to an agreement with normalization authorities, who on purpose dragged out the time of uncertainty, vagueness and humiliation (from the viewpoint of the cultural anthropology it could be specified as the clear linear phase of transition) with those “sinners”. Steklý became a holder of the Venice prize Golden Lion for the movie Sirens (1947) and in 1952 created movie Anna the Proletarian. After the beginning of normalization he certainly did not belong to the ostracized workers of Barrandov studios, on the contrary: Czechoslovak State Film strived after his services. In spite of that and for the sake of his career he entered into a “strange friendship” with Miroslav Müller, secretary and director of culture department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1972–1989).

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