Food and Epoch

Žižka never ran away from battle, nor did the most famous confectioner in Šumava, Karel Sedlecký, heir to a family tradition, who survived forced conscription into the Third Reich, collectivization, and imprisonment in the 1960s. The story of the master confectioner, thanks to whom production in Sušice grew beyond national significance, shows how the communist regime persecuted its own talents.

Everyone knows that frozen pork is best in summer, even in England. Only housewife Evička is unsure, so a TV guide advises her on how to prepare dinner from frozen meat so that František will enjoy it when he comes home from work. This educational film, presented from the perspective of a kind teacher, reveals the mechanisms and advantages of a progressive, centrally planned economy.

Miloš Kopecký comments on himself in the roles of restaurant guests who suffer from various social ills. This satirical parade of grotesque human characters, such as the angry man, the alcoholic, the womanizer, and the thief, reminds us to be kind to restaurant staff, as they truly have much to endure.

The stove is the saddest altar to which half of humanity sacrifices its abilities, strength, and satisfaction. This critical portrait bitterly comments on the double-edged meaning of emancipation in post-war society, which built up the image of the working woman, but did not abandon the cult of the housewife. Labour market reform is not complete without reform of the household.

Waiters and waitresses perform a ballet of salads, forks, and desserts as the main characters in a culinary performance at one of the restaurants operated by the Jednota co-operative. Under the watchful eye of their supervisor, the employees implement a set of rules, instructions, and regulations that represent a kind of shadow world of their own, hidden behind the scenes of the restaurant, and behind the backs of the diners.

Have another drink, you don’t know what’s waiting for you outside, advises a FAMU’s cinéma vérité-style report, filmed in the U Kocoura pub in the velvet year of 1989. The pub chanson, sung by Petr Hapka, accompanies the turmoil of overflowing human emotions, from exuberant merriment, to drunken melancholy, to a universe of silence, spilled tables, and empty chairs.

Meat evokes happiness hormones, but behind the gentle words “pork belly” or “neck” lies a meat factory where meat is divided, quartered, and cut up. With sharp candour, this critical morality play draws attention to the ecological, economic, and ethical implications of factory pig farming, and the striking contrast between the Czech culture of overeating, and starvation in Africa.

A nuclear reactor and a factory canteen, the jargon of engineers, and the earthy language of cooks. In her film-survey, the sensitive observer Vihanová observes two contrasting worlds that meet at the Dukovany nuclear power plant during a hydrostatic test on Unit II of the EDU. Science and life are permeated by Badinerie, from Bach’s Orchestral Suite in B minor. Art gives both worlds greatness.

What have we got here, bacteria? At first glance, they look like abstract paintings, but at second glance, they are swarms of pests filling hospital beds. Laboratory staff, acting as chemical police, search for sources of infection, and save society from pandemics. This jazz-inspired educational film takes a critical look at the hygiene conditions in food stores and production facilities.

Where there are temptations, there must also be control. Jan Špáta and inspectors from the consumer council of communist Czechoslovakia’s national committees visit butcher shops in Prague 2. However, his film survey does not examine dishonest vendors, but rather the characters of customers, emphasizing the active role of citizens in dealing with dishonesty. Only customers who defend their interests can ensure that the price we pay for our passivity is as low as possible.

A waiter who monitors the number of calories in restaurant customers’ meals is not a feature of a new app, but the hero of a popular science film produced by the Ministry of Health in the mid-1950s about healthy eating. The human body is presented as a power plant that must be supplied with the appropriate amount of recommended fuel, and the film’s guide ensures that well-fed citizens can feed the collective spirit of socialism with their energy.

Two hours a day—this is the price every working woman pays for producing culinary delights. Engineers at the research facility of the electrothermal equipment plant in Prague-Záběhlice have come up with a miraculous device that can fulfil women's dreams of having more free time. It is the magnetron stove, commonly known as the microwave oven.

The kitchen is an alchemist’s workshop, and the chef is a master of secret teachings. He commands molecules to bubble, boil, rise, change their state, shape, and colour. This educational film shows that cooking an egg or letting dough rise can be a fascinating chemical and physical process, and that our body is a small laboratory, with its own test tubes, gauges, and instruments.

The punishing fist of justice came down hard on the dark fingers of a gang of food stamp forgers who listened to the plague-ridden rhetoric of Wall Street banks and wanted to save their decaying capitalist world through contagion and war. The propagandistic montage of the trial fights for the idea of a better and happier socialist world, for which people were executed.

People devote only thirteen minutes a day to sports and active recreation. This is also the case with Mr. Holoubek, who radically changes his life after a heart attack. He gives up cigarettes, which gave him a pleasant feeling of mental balance, follows Charvát’s diet, and monitors his weight loss with a test disc called “Sám sobě soupeřem” (My Own Opponent). A humorous guide on how to deal with the disease of civilization known as “poor lifestyle choices”, and advice on how to enjoy life again.

If only you knew what I'm going through, complains Stella Zázvorková as Mrs. Lapáčková in the doctor's waiting room. A television mystery feature based on an idea by journalist and novelist Lenka Hašková about a patient haunted by a mysterious number, humorously pointing out the high cost of medical treatment and citizens' responsibility to themselves and the state.

You too can be in the movie, threatens what starts out as a playful satire against profiteers who take advantage of the shortage of food and other goods in the post-war period. A scientist examining various types of social pests under a microscope is actually a member of the “health” police. A vigilant white blood cell that shines a light on all thieves, even those in front of their screens. Are you smiling at this? Yes, you!

If you think shopping malls are crowded, you probably haven’t experienced a Prague canteen in the late 1940s. Two thousand hot dogs sold every day, two thousand human faces and destinies. This film essay presents Prague’s vending machines, snack bars, and cheap cafeterias as a mini-zoo crowded with human specimens. They fight for space, food, or a loving embrace under the microscope of a comically touching director, searching for a theme.

The poetic autumn landscape of the Mikulov region, accompanied by the voice of Jaroslav Satoranský, comes alive with grape harvesting, barrels of maturing wine, and wine tasting. The film, created in collaboration with Moravian Wineries in Mikulov, is accompanied by the stories of winemakers, which convey a deep connection to the place and nature.

To cure skinny five-year-old Pepánek, the doctor advises prescribing proper eating habits instead of pills. If his mother organizes the household better, she will have enough time for her son, for reading, and for her husband. The Ministry of Health’s mentoring guidance shows, with friendly indulgence, how to avoid parenting mistakes, and to enrich society with the next generation of pioneers.

Food is a narcotic, an idol, a refuge for sad people. This timeless popular science film by the Institute of Health Education searches for the cause of obesity in the new human species, homo sedentarius, the sedentary man, and develops various strategies to defeat the mountains of fat that have grown out of the patriotic triad of dumplings, sauerkraut, and pork.

Dagmar Veškrnová (now Havlová), Pavel Bobek, Jana Švandová, and Eliška Balcerová, with the help of pediatrician Hana Reinšteinová, share their parenting experiences with preparing formula and feeding children under one year of age. Činčera’s civil documentary does not take a patronizing or condescending tone toward viewers, but treats them as equal partners, with whom he shares his own insights in a friendly manner.

The winter pond sleeps, life beneath the surface has ceased. The rays of the frosty sun penetrate the ice crust, and fishermen release oxygen into the depths of the water through holes in the ice. Commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, this photograph reveals the beauty and richness of Czech ponds, and depicts the life of carp, from spawning and hatching, to harvesting.

While Michal Tučný sings about food and love, endocrinologist Rajko Doleček from the Regional Hospital in Ostrava calculates that disability pensions related to obesity cost as much as the Danube-Oder-Elbe canal or three hundred thousand cars. The final part of this ten-part television counselling series converts human life into numbers and evaluates people as a social product.

During socialism, Konzum was a chain of grocery and general stores, but it was also a place where unexpected events took place after dark. In the poetic interlude between the last and first customers, between dusk and dawn, herring and coffee come to life with stories from faraway places. The mundane everyday routine is transformed into a frenetic swarm of ships, conveyor belts, machines, and human hands working collectively to supply goods.

Medailonek o prospěšnosti společného stolování v zaměstnání objevuje ambivalentně emancipační rozměr závodních jídelen. Odborníci dohlížejí na skladbu jídelníčku a hygienické podmínky při přípravě jídla, aby zaměstnankyně nemusely trávit hodiny u sporáku. Mohou místo toho nastoupit na rutinní a méně placená pracovní místa po mužích, kteří se přesouvají k důležitějším činnostem.

Visiting the company cafeteria is like going through the nine circles of Dante’s Inferno. At least that’s how Valoušek, editor of Kulturní noviny, sees it when he unwittingly becomes the protagonist of a social experiment at the local company cafeteria, where everything happens the opposite of how it should. This humorous satire about the conflict between reality and ideals highlights the pitfalls of the journalism profession, and the fact that culture is created not by institutions, but by people.

A mother of two children expends the same amount of calories caring for her family and household as a tractor driver does during eight hours of work. A scientific experiment based on data from the Occupational Safety Research Institute and the Institute of Hygiene and Diseases converts activities such as doing laundry, carrying groceries, and bathing children into numbers, thereby highlighting the amount of work that society overlooks as a gender-specific given.