Krabice filmu

Václav Sklenář / Czechoslovakia / 1958 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 23 min.

synopsis

This drama-documentary about student life at FAMU was presented as a series of episodes covering the student’s journey from the entrance interview and lectures to the making of a film. The narrative is stylised in a light-hearted, humorous manner, employing grotesque shorthand, irony, exaggeration and pantomime to illustrate the difficult lot of a film student faced with the school’s strict demands and the complexities of preparing and shooting a film. The film features students of the time – such as Pavel Juráček and Jaromil Jireš – and lecturers: A. M. Brousil leads a seminar on film criticism, Radovan Lukavský teaches film acting, František Daniel comments on a screenwriting exercise, and Jan Kučera assesses the footage: “Well, it’s not bad, but it’ll need some editing.” The film was produced by FAMU with extensive student involvement (camera, production, assistants, actors); however, it is not a student film, as its director had already been a graduate for five years and was teaching at the Department of Film Directing.

biography

Václav Sklenář (1928–2023) studied film directing (1948–1952, graduated in 1953) and worked as a documentary filmmaker for television (several of his popular educational films won awards at Academia film Olomouc in the 1980s). In the 1960s, he directed three feature films (his debut was the comedy Kotrmelec (Somersault, 1961), set in a mining community); at the same time, he worked at FAMU – teaching at the Department of Film Directing and serving as dean from 1980 to 1990.