Taste of Cinema's 35 Visually Stunning Czech/Slovak Films That Are Worth Your Time

Created by bjornam.

Favorited 10 times, disliked 0 times, added to 6 watchlists.

"The cinema of former Czechoslovakia, as well as of current Czech Republic and Slovakia, is, perhaps, the richest and most visually striking of all Eastern Europe. Even though fun-as-bricks Commies have tried the best they could to stifle it, the zany and wonderful artistic visions found a way to reach the audience.

EDIT: Taste of Cinema changed the headline of this article to simply "The 35 Best Czech/Slovak Movies of All Time" at some point between when this list was posted and now. I'll keep the old title for now, it feels more humble and honestly less debatable.

From the very beginning, the traditions of visual audacity reigned supreme, due in a large part to cultural traditions rich in imagery, imagination, symbolism, and surrealism. From medieval castles to Kafka, from puppet theatre to theatre of the absurd-all the filmmakers had to do is mine the fantastic and hilarious cultural gold.

It may be noticed that a large portion of the films in this list are from the 1960’s. It really was the true Golden era of Czechoslovakian cinema. The so-called “Czech New Wave” rivals the French one in freshness of ideas and unique works. Slovakian cinema too came into prominence at that time. Though a Communist country, Czechoslovakia espoused a more humane and breathable variety.

It all changed after 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled in and the so-called “socialism with a human face” was crushed. The best filmmakers either left for the West (Milos Forman, Ivan Passer), were condemned to periods of silence and inactivity (Jan Svankmajer, Jan Nemec), or had to find ways to retain their creativity while not crossing the multiple taboos that the oppressive regime forced upon them.

Of course, the restrictions largely went away with the fall of Communism, but now new realities set in-those of market economy, changing political and societal structure, and competition with the worst of the West. The fact that they continue making worthwhile and creative works is the best testament to their talent and spirit.

A note-in this list, Czech and Slovak filmmakers are presented jointly. In reality, their visions, though equally striking, do differ. Czechs urbanized fairly early, and benefitted from both the dark medieval city streets and the “wonders” of technological revolution. Whereas, even for the large parts of XXth century, Slovakia remained more rural.

While both Czech and Slovak cinemas benefit greatly from surrealism motifs, their respective surrealisms are often as different as the city is from the village, though taking away nothing from the visual feast."

Missing from imdb: #22. Dies Irae (1972)/Insane Light (1973) and the overall cinema of Petr Skala

Vlacil's trilogy (Devil's Trap, Valley of the Bees, Marketa Lazarova) is given one entry in the source list.

EDIT: Taste of Cinema changed the headline of the source article to simply "The 35 Best Czech/Slovak Movies of All Time" at some point between when this list was posted and now. I'll keep the old title for now, I honestly feel it's more accurate :)