Noc s Krausem a Sýkorou

Allan Elgart / Czechoslovakia / 1966 / 14 min.

synopsis

The film captures a performance by the actors of the Toulavý Kabaret (Wandering Cabaret) in the Reduta Hall, featuring characters with real names but fictional backgrounds and biographies. The individual sketches take place against a black backdrop and are imbued with black humour and absurdity. Kraus was already an experienced stage actor at the time, and Sýkora had appeared in major films of the Czechoslovak New Wave, whose directors also cooperated with cinematographer Dodo Šimončič. Following the August occupation of Czechoslovakia, both actors emigrated – Kraus to West Germany and Sýkora to the USA, the latter of which was also home to the film’s director. This work is a television exercise by second-year students of the Department of Directing.

biography

Allan Charles Elgart (1941–?) travelled from New York to the film school in Łódź, where he studied for a year. He then transferred to FAMU for his second year and graduated from there with a degree in film and television directing in 1969. While at FAMU, he also directed Můj čas je tvůj čas je náš čas není čas (My Time Is Your Time Is Our Time Is No Time, 1966), starring Ctibor Turba and Boris Hybner, and a studio exercise on directing actors entitled Změny a proměny (Changes and Transformations, 1967). He appeared in the graduation film Revolution (1969) by Danish director Christian Braad Thomsen. Nothing is known of his subsequent life.