Czech Postcommunist Cinema and the Prague Spring •Václav Klaus: Prague Spring 1968: a minor power struggle between two CP factions •Czech right wing media: the same view •Today´s students at Czech universities: the current image of the 1968 „heroes“ dissuades young people from accessing information about 1968 – „irrelevant“ Czech cinema rebelove.jpg •Rebelové (Rebels, 2001) – retro-musical •Young people in love •Three army defectors meet three girls • Rebelové (2001) •Desertion was not the most salient characteristic of 1968 •Grotesque images of teachers •„neglected“ Baroque church is actually painstakingly restored ucitele.jpg Rebelové (2001) •Private business – not the most salient characteristic of 1968 •Neoconservative perception: liberty equals consumerism •Natiowide political debate ignored •Communist ideological jargon on TV – was not the case in 1968. Rebelové (2001) tanke02.jpg •No jamming of Voice of America •High quality lyrics from the 1960s in a new, inane context •=>Rebelové is a film about the 1970s, with bits from the present time Pelíšky (Cosy Dens 1999) •Film about two families in a villa •Ostensibly takes place from winter 1967 until Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968 Pelisky1.jpg Pelíšky (Cosy Dnes, 1999) kraus3.jpg •Two stereotyped ciphers: • •Anticommunist Kraus • •Communist Šebek • •No real people Pelíšky (Cosy Dens, 1999) •Life in the normalisation era in the „cosy dens“ •Most intense at Christmas pelsikyvanoce.jpg Pelíšky (Cosy Dens, 1999) ohen.jpg •Childlike activity of adults: • •Debate about the size of the bear codiac •Setting your alkoholic breath on fire •Holding breath under water Pelíšky (Cosy Dens, 1999) •Factual errors: Literární listy did not appear until 1st March, 1968; in the film teacher Eva takes them to school before Christmas 1967, etc. • •Absolutely no political activity Pelíšky (Cosy Dens, 1999) •Film mocks pro-regime and anti-regime attitudes in equal measure => • •„Political activity is absurd“ • •„We desire life in privacy“ Czech postcommunist films about 1968: •Are in fact films about the normalisation period of the 1970s and 1980s, which is the most traumatic period in recent Czechoslovak history, • affecting the Czechs and Slovak deeply still today. • •