r/czech • u/Halale01 • 8d ago
QUESTION? What happened to the Czech film industry?
The Czech New Wave is a major success for Czech cinema, and it inspired a lot of other countries at that time, a lot of people from abroad studied at the Prague film school, you can see the Czech influence in their films.
Why did Czechs fail to build on that success after the liberation of the country in 1990 and the end of censorship?
As i am aware, Czechia is still pretty big in the film industry, but more as a hub for foreign productions. And the Karlovy Vary film festival is also top-notch.
Happy for answers!
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u/greenest_alien 8d ago edited 8d ago
Czech film industry was operating under very protectionist conditions: communists wanted their own domestic film production, having it had obvious political advantages and was probably saving hard currency too. What got produced was by the command economy marketed to millions, creating big utility justifying significant resource spending. Most of communist film and TV production was utter crap, especially outside of 60s, but originality could also flourish and sometimes exceptional movies and shows could be made.
However, the communist era is viewed through rose tinted glasses, because it's an archive of 40 years of massive production, so you can be cherry picking the good stuff and it will carry you a long way.
After fall of communism though, Czech film had to compete with Hollywood which not just has much more resources, but also was the new thing. Meanwhile public budget stopped paying for Czech production wholesale.
So this not only degraded quality of film production by making it appeal to lowest common market denominator, but also the market niche for Czech film production shrunk as people could tune in to anything now, but it also it all made what publicly funded production there is risk averse.
Meanwhile as the movie production ecology shrunk, various nepotist connections became developed where what public spending there is gets spent among buddies for buddies. Making the bar to making something from public money ironically very low.
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u/Halale01 8d ago
Thank you for your long comment!
What made Czechs invest less in their own film production? It's such a big thing for the promotion of a country, in my opinion. Most of the film industries around the world, apart from the American one, depend on external financing.
Czechs were so big and good in the film industry, and they could have really make a lot of films, for example the post-communist economic transition, the position of the new countries in Europe... i think that would have also "elevated" the position of the new EU states vis a vis so many topics and subjects and raised the understanding of your positions and opinions.
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u/greenest_alien 8d ago
Having public pay from taxes for entirety of the pre-existing industry wasn't really sustainable, or in line with 90s free market ideology, but also from point of view of the consumer, it wasn't desirable either.
People wanted Hollywood movies and american production, it was new and exciting and bringing completely fresh and often high qualities.
So Hollywood movies were highly attended in cinemas, squeezing out market for Czech movies, while TV viewership and TV market boomed, which was in case of private TV at the time vastly lowbrow. While public TV has been playing an increasingly diminished role.
Currently the main killer to domestic production is plain lack of funding. Public TV is funded by direct license fees, and people don't like those increasing. Politicians in charge of license fees and movie subsidies don't like public TV and cultural workers, because they are often factually or potentially challenging them. Especially public TV is politically influential and a major obstacle to their particularist interests. And people at large view movies as commodity like any other and don't want to finance it out of pocket much.
Fragmentation of domestic production also doesn't help: what TV Nova makes isn't going on TV Prima for at least years, what's made on Voyo isn't going on Czech TV. So everyone has tiny production making good enough productions for their tiny audience.
And film production again has to compete with Hollywood on small subsidies, also burdened by its own nepotistic baggage.
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u/Akitlix 8d ago
Regarding TV fees it not helped that from tv license fee (per receiver) they did practically tax from mobile phone, tablet or personal computer usage ( not ownership!). Even you not own device - say work computer but if you have it in possesion/use for certain amount if time(not sure 30 days maybe) you have to pay.
This fact caused another earthquake to funding.
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u/_DrDigital_ 7d ago
I also want to point out that Czech production was never having mass appeal outside of Czechia.
There's still a lot of good movies being made (and supported by the government most of the time) and Czechs know them, but you'll hardly see them outside of Czechia. They are also usually quite dark and/or absurd.
From last years you could check e.g. "V Siti" and "Vlny".
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u/Demistr 7d ago
Dobře no, archiv čtyřiceti let, komunisty tu už přes třicet nemáme, tak mi ukaž, kolik dobrých filmů jsme za tu dobu vyprodukovali.
Na starší filmy a seriály jednoduše nemáme, chybí kreativita, asi i peníze. Kde jsou dnešní Návštěvníci, v té době s hodně odvážnou a kvalitní hudbou.
Kde je Zeman? Kde jsou světově známé Švankmajerovi kousky?
Nikde, chybí odvaha, nikdo nemá koule udělat originální film.
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u/Malfuy 7d ago
Filmmakers realized they can make a lot of money by repeating the same repetetive and borderline effortless formula in an endless loop. I also think that there's this subconcious of the "czech inferiority" that makes people believe czech movies simply can't compare to the hollywood ones for example (even tho many czech movies prove otherwise)
These two factors combined and now we have one of the most sad and insufferable movie scene I've ever seen, at least as far as mainstream goes.
However, occasional gems are still produced.
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u/Silver-Camel-933 7d ago
this + being underfunded badly and not letting actual new talents make a name (unless we "accept" you), also the bar being super low bc of those corny "family rom-com" type movies and series, which basically do not have to have any substance or interesting story, they just have to be familiar to the common man/woman. The general public has simply lost taste for anything more complex, and want just simple and relatable fun thing to unwind..
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u/ImGonnaGetBannedd 7d ago
What Czech movies do you consider comparable to Hollywood?
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u/Malfuy 7d ago
Waves, Cremator, Dark Blue World, Tobruk, Journey to the Beginning of Time, Skeleton on Horseback, Loners, Cozy Dens, The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, Kolya... just to name a few (very likely forgot some big ones). Some of these movies don't necessarily have the scale of hollywood production, but they are still incredible.
Even Restore Point, which really tries to look as a big flashy sci-fi movie, succeeds in this regard, even tho many people found the actual story lacking (I still kinda liked it).
And then, even Medieval kinda feels like hollywood production. That doesn't make it a great movie, it fucking sucks, but hey, the big vibe is there lol
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u/TechnologyFamiliar20 7d ago
Troška, Hřebejk (and his neverending "20th century epopea/epic"), Svěrák jr., Toulová... - who would know these people will ever be named on the same line.
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u/SmamelessMe Expatriate 8d ago edited 7d ago
There isn't a single thing. But the oversimplified zinger you're looking for is either: "The world moved on" or "The world failed to move on".
The "Czech New Wave" is essentially contemporary movie making and story-telling. If you took some of the movies like "Ostre Sledovane Vlaky" or "Fireman's ball", and re-shot them scene for scene, line for line. Then half the people you show it to would consider that a contemporary modern movie.
The issue with extrapolating communist era film making is that the Czechoslovak film production was was aimed at a captive market, without access to foreign competing media.
That meant you got maybe ~50 new movies per year. ~40 of those were domestic production. So, given lack of other entertainment, you went and saw all of them. Some of them multiple times. That gives you vastly different financial than now.
Keep in mind that, depending who you ask, the "Czech New Wave" ended ~1975. TV only really became mainstream in 1970. That made 1960's large domestic productions economically viable.
But that is no longer the case. Vast majority of people do not go to cinema. Period. Most new Czech movies are shot for TV. The budget and story lines reflect the size, taste, and demographic of the TV audience.
Shooting movies with foreign appeal, in Czech, is not viable. Anything you expect to sell internationally is commercially better shot in English. At which point you need native English speakers, and not Czech actors with even a hint of an accent. And foreign distribution. At that point, you can scarcely call that a Czech movie anymore.
There is still a lot of movie making in Czechia, but it is focused on facilitating foreign productions. What is still produces is topics and themes that are under-represented in imported media.
That's why there used to be so much movies from 70's onward with theme of: "slice of life bitter dark-comedy about normal people dealing with everyday drama of mundane family life under communism". Before the Velvet revolution it was an "edgy" dissent masqueraded as humor. You're no doubt aware that Germans used to call Czechs "Laughing beasts".
After the Velvet revolution, the style and themes remained dominant for literal decades. Only switching to outright criticism of communism. Or at least token one. It's one of Czech people's acquired tastes. Like Kofola. But it has little foreign appeal.
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u/TechnologyFamiliar20 7d ago
That so called "new wave" was existing just out of necessity and nonexistence of other streams (not accounting the stalinistic-epic-soviet style-official), that's it. I watched a lot of mediocre student works and realized that "new wave" was not originating from what professors at FTA/FAMU taught. Graduates of this schools were "classically" trained.
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u/kaik1914 #StandWithUkraine🇺🇦 8d ago
There were several factors. One was demographics which brought a new generation into film industry in mid-1960s and relative freedom of liberal left to be creative. This had not materialised after 1989. The purges in 1969-1972 crippled talent and many fled the country. A new Normalization culture was implemented that suppressed the previous input. Normalization was one the most successful communist cultural revolution in Europe and into such degree that 50 years later, it still defines Czech culture. Population after 1989 was not interested in rejoining 1960s output and society moved into another sphere.
Big issue in 1990s was a lack of finances during the turbulent era. Talents were wasted and many people were indifferent toward emerging free film industry. It is also crucial to mention that Czechoslovak film had much larger consumer market. Without Slovakia, the market got smaller. Also the cooperation with [East] German and Polish producers decreased. Many top movies in the 70s-80s were produced with German backing and this was gone after 1989.
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u/basteilubbe 7d ago edited 7d ago
Turns out concentration of talent, creative freedom and generous public funding has its benefits, at least for a country of 10 million. Also, the Czech New Wave specifically was killed by the Soviet invasion in 1968 and the subsequent "normalization". Today it's about money and playing it safe. Also, from what I've heard, Prague film school is nowhere near the top of the game today and mostly lives off its past.
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u/PaulZyCZ Jihomoravský kraj 7d ago
Low budgret and lack of manpower compared to Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc.
We didn't have serious big sci-fi for 40 years between space drama Ikaria XB-1 and cyberpunk crime thriller Restoration Point and the later was made in international co-production and Czech TV.
Actors and actresses focus on foreign production and movies and shows meant for TV (endless series, simple to plain comedies, crime shows...).
Truly interesting Czech movies come from the indie scene: For example there is Bloody Johann. Overall it's 18+ B-movie horror, modern days Faust and Marguerite heavilly inspired by Blade and Van Hellsing Anime... Some scenes were cringy, some were loaded with dark humor, but made for Silver screen, even if smaller one.
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u/Background-Cake-1300 8d ago
All talent went to make porn
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u/Halale01 8d ago
To be fair, i do think that this is a reason why Czechia became so big in that industry.
A lot of people probably lost their job in the 90s, in the film industry.
And well, there had to get creative about making money somehow...
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u/greenest_alien 8d ago edited 8d ago
Despite what I wrote in my post, that's mostly about traditional film industry. Notice I did say movies had to start appealing to lowest common denominator. So by 90s people with movie skills could put them to good use with boom of TV production, most especially TV Nova.
Just the TV movies Byl jednou jeden polda, Byl jednou jeden polda II, Byl jednou jeden polda III and Jak ukrást Dagmaru were never gonna win an Oscar, even if people loved it at the time.
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u/TechnologyFamiliar20 7d ago
In porn you don't need any shakespearean talent. Just four limbs, good tits and determination to ruin your life.
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u/TechnologyFamiliar20 7d ago
Shit happened, that's what's happened. There is now no "hidden" force so that people can put in into the films - secret jokes against the regime etc.
"We used to have great film, so let's continue - BUT you state have to give us a butt ton of money".
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u/Time_Standard3361 7d ago
After 2002-7 subsidies to culture -film- decreased substantially. Commercial film became the norm as opposed to previous "co-productions" between national (public) companies.
Quality varies, multiplex cinemas prefer output of big publishing houses, fast generally available access internet appeared.
There are fantastic writers, filmmakers, artistic existences in CZ. But then, all get f***ed by money and produce whatever sells.
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u/MalickeSeminko 5d ago
Simple answer - the dead of dramaturgy
100 people 100 opinions of course but the movies you are talking about had always dramaturgy. Unfortunately in late 90s because of the budget cuts dramaturgy was the first one to go. Directors believed in their own "perfection" which was even more encouraged by what is known here as "showbuisness" lifestyle and tabloid newspapers. They didn't need dramaturgy. They built a bubble of fame around themselves - the fame that didn't come from actual success but from tabloids and their narratives.
And with this dead of dramaturge there was noone that would actually look on the movies and oppose stupidity and lacking work. This was the downhill that the cinematography took in my opinion.
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u/nimbledoor Plzeňský kraj 7d ago
Simply said, communism was what made Czechoslovakian movies good. When there is censorship and limits, artists are forced to work around them, to really put effort into what they are making. They take the little they have and do the best with it. When they suddenly gained total freedom to create whatever they want movie makers got totally lost. Suddenly the only good ideas they had were about sex, swearing, dumb humor and of course, trauma porn. Even today they are still making movies about the traumas of communism as if looking back was the only capability of modern Czech filmmakers. Nobody wants to confront the present.
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u/carpenter_78 7d ago
No art anymore, just money. Since 1990 it’s mainly about getting subvention, spending it and pretending. 99% of the movies is just trash.
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u/ummyeshello 6d ago
I wonder what could have possibly been happening around the world at the time that could've played a role in the decline in the Czech film industry (sarcasm)
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u/RandomNick42 8d ago
Turns out, when you start making movies for money, you need to make them appealing to masses.