Či to chápať vieš?

Emil Fornay / Czechoslovakia / 1965 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 7 min.

synopsis

The film consists of two parts linked by the principle of contrast. The first (longer) part is a melancholically stylised musical collage based on the American folk song Where Have All the Flowers Gone, the German-language version of which – reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich’s rendition – is accompanied by static shots of a lonely girl in a bleak winter landscape and a cemetery. The second part consists of footage of the bustling street life of a modern city, filmed with a hidden camera and accompanied by lively music. The sad girl from the first part is played by Soňa Valentová, a student at the Academy of Performing Arts. This work is a fourth-year documentary exercise.

biography

Emil Fornay (1943–2020) studied cinematography (1960–1966) and worked in Bratislava as
a director and cinematographer on documentary and commissioned films (at Krátký film and
Zpravodajský film) as well as news and current affairs programmes for Czechoslovak
Television. Among other works, he directed Ostrov slobody (The Island of Freedom, 1978)
about Cuban socialism, Okolo Slovenska (Tour of Slovakia, 1982) about cycle races, and 125
rokov Matice slovenskej (125 years of Matica Slovenská, 1989).