During World War II, a mild-mannered Slovak carpenter Anton "Tóno" Brtko (Jozef Kroner) is offered the chance to take over the sewing notions store of an old, near-deaf Jewish woman Rozália Lautmannová (Ida Kamińska) as a part of the enactment of an Aryanization regulation in the town. As Tóno attempts to explain to Mrs. Lautmannová, who is oblivious of the world outside and generally confused, that he has come to be her supervisor and owner of the store, Imrich Kuchár (Martin Hollý, Sr.), a Slovak opponent of Aryanization, steps in and reveals to Brtko that the business itself is less than profitable, as Lautmannová herself relies on donations. The Jewish community then offers the amiable Brtko a weekly payment if he does not give up the store, which would otherwise be given to a new, possibly ruthless Aryanizer. Tóno accepts and lets Mrs. Lautmannová believe he is her nephew who has come to help in the store. Their relationship grows, until the authorities round up the town's entire Jewish population for transport, and Tóno finds himself conflicted as to whether he should turn in the senile Mrs. Lautmannová, or hide her. When the woman finally becomes aware of the "pogrom" all around her, she panics, and in attempting to silence her, Tóno accidentally kills her. The realization devastates him, and he hangs himself.
The animation is divided into three sections. "Eternal conversation" (Dialog věcný) shows Arcimboldo-like heads gradually reducing each other to bland copies; "Passionate discourse" (Dialog vášnivý) shows a clay man and woman who dissolve into one another sexually, then quarrel and reduce themselves to a frenzied, boiling pulp; and "Exhaustive discussion" (Dialogu vyčerpávajícím) consists of two elderly clay heads who extrude various objects on their tongues (toothbrush and toothpaste; shoe and shoelaces, etc.) and intertwine them in various combinations.
The movie takes place against the backdrop of the political radicalization of Europe during the 1930s, more specifically the demise of the golden era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Germany. Spiritually, the movie takes place in the aftermath of the death of Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama in 1933.
Le film se divise en trois épisodes de durées équivalentes. Ils sont précédés de très courts plans sur divers repas accompagnés d'un fond sonore propre à une cuisine (chocs d'assiettes et de couverts, conversations) puis d'un panneau indiquant le repas à venir. Les différents repas pourraient symboliser différentes classes sociales : la classe ouvrière au petit-déjeuner, la classe moyenne au déjeuner, les élites au dîner.
Two brothers, Mikoláš and one-armed Adam, along with a small group of men, ambushing a wagon and men traveling on a country road in the middle of winter. The attackers massacre most of the travelers, one escapes, Mikoláš chases and captures one and his men capture another. The man who escaped, a Saxon aristocrat, turns out to be the new Bishop of Hennau and a close ally of the local king. The two captives are the Bishop's son and his assistant. When Mikoláš returns to the site of the ambush, he finds a group of scavengers, led by Lazar, a neighbor of Mikoláš's, stripping the dead. Mikoláš' first impulse is to kill Lazar, but spares him after Lazar prays to Christ to forgive Mikoláš. Mikoláš returns to his village where his father, Kozlík, is the clan patriarch. Kozlík becomes furious at Mikoláš for allowing a man to escape, for bringing home two captives and for allowing Lazar to live. When Mikoláš explains that he took the captives for ransom, his father asks him if he intends to travel to Saxony to claim the ransom or if Mikoláš intends to invite the Saxons to bring their army to their small clan village.
The film's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a mentally retarded young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík's inability to perform even the simplest tasks. Pávek demands that Otík be transferred to assist another driver, who happens to be a choleric and suspicious man named Turek (Turk in Czech). Rather than work with Turek, Otík decides to accept an offer of employment in Prague, but finds he does not fit into the city life. After discovering that the transfer of Otík to Prague was a trick by a crooked politician to get a deal on Otík's large inherited house, Pávek agrees to give Otík a second chance and retrieves him from the city to resume their work together.
Dans les années 1670 en Moravie, un enfant de chœur remarque qu'une femme âgée dissimule le pain donné pendant la communion et en informe le prêtre, qui questionne la vieille femme. Elle admet qu'elle a pris le pain pour le donner à une vache afin de réactiver sa production de lait. Le prêtre rapporte l'incident au seigneur local qui, à son tour, en appelle à un inquisiteur spécialisé dans les procès de sorcellerie, Boblig von Edelstadt .
The film is set shortly after the World War II (1945 and 1946) in one of the suburbs of Prague (it was shot in Michle). The main character Eda Souček (Václav Jakoubek) attends a boys' elementary school where he belongs to a class with a complete lack of discipline. After their teacher Maxová (Daniela Kolářová) goes insane during one of her classes, the schoolmaster (Rudolf Hrušínský) has to implement special measures. He employs a new male teacher Igor Hnízdo (Jan Tříska), who is said to be a great war hero. Authoritative Hnízdo immediately introduces corporal punishment which, as he explains, is not normally allowed but the school has received an exception from the Ministry of Education as a result of their dreadful behaviour. Despite his strict methods, the boys soon become charmed by the man. They love his battlefront stories and the fact that he is always armed and wears a uniform. Eda sees him as the very opposite of his own father (Zdeněk Svěrák) whom he considers to be too cowardly. Hnízdo makes the same positive impression on all people he meets (including Eda's mother portrayed by Libuše Šafránková). Nevertheless, his persona is also surrounded by many controversies. For example his war heroism is disputed as he is unable to provide any accurate information about his military service. There is even an unconfirmed rumour that Hnízdo was only guarding goats during the war. But the boys from his class ignore all negative comments and even fight those who are spreading the rumours. Hnízdo's reputation suffers after he is accused of having a sexual relationship with local twins who attend a girls' school in the same area. He is forced to leave because this is not the first time he has been involved in a similar affair. The formerly unmanageable boys begin to defend Hnízdo and call for his return. The accusation is finally withdrawn and Hnízdo comes back to the class. He states that the way they were dealing with the accusation is a proof that the physical punishments are no longer necessary.
The film starts with the image of a mechanism beginning to work - as the gears move (behind the scenes), the sun slowly rises up over a town and a new day begins. The town, Hamelin, is shown to be one which is full of corrupted, petty people, where everything is wasted and money and social rank are the first priority. The waste leads to a gigantic rat infestation at night. As the town leaders meet to decide on the best course of action, a stranger appears in the doorway - a hooded piper who with the sound of his playing can entice rats to run over a cliff to their deaths. The town leaders are very happy and offer him 1000 gold coins as payment if he would get rid of all of the town's rats. The piper accepts, and begins walking through the city, leading all of the rats behind him. At the same time, a jewellery seller who was among the elite group of leaders walks into a woman's home and asks her to marry him. The woman (who is so far the only character who doesn't look grotesque, implying innocence) refuses. The jeweller persists, but before he can do anything the piper passes by her house and the jewellery seller is forced to jump out of the window at the sound of the music. After all of the rats jump into a lake, the piper comes back into town, on the way once again stopping the jeweller's advances on the woman. The piper and the woman sit on the bench together as he plays a beautiful melody that is accompanied by paint-on-wood animation (a complete change of style from the rest of the film).
The film stars Libuše Šafránková as the title character, a young woman who is put upon by her stepmother and stepsister. The film employs a twist, though, when a handsome prince comes knocking. Cinderella does not simply fall into the prince's arms. In this version, he must actively pursue the young woman who is a skilled sharpshooter prone to wearing hunting outfits. Cinderella also has three wishes at her disposal, gained from three magic nuts.
The film begins with footsteps leading to a pond. The camera continually moves upwards to show the flight of butterflies, birds, and a progression of historical aircraft ending with a rocketship travelling through space and landing on the moon.
The film is about a bitter married couple that consists of Ludvik, a senior official of Prague's ruling Communist regime, and his alcoholic wife Anna. They return home after attending a political party dinner and notice their home has been broken into. Several strange occurrences, including the disappearance of their spare house keys and dead phone lines, lead them to believe that they are under surveillance by their own government. As the night progresses, the flaws of their marriage and of each other are exposed.
The young Miloš Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and malingerers, is engaged as a newly trained station guard in a small railway station during the Second World War and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. He admires himself in his new uniform, and looks forward, like his prematurely-retired railwayman father, to avoiding real work. The sometimes pompous stationmaster is an enthusiastic pigeon-breeder with a kind wife, but is envious of the train dispatcher Hubička's success with women. Miloš holds an as-yet platonic love for the pretty young conductor Máša. The experienced Hubička presses for details of their relationship and realizes that Miloš is still a virgin.
M. Novak, héros du film, rentre chez lui avec un bouquet de fleurs : c'est l'anniversaire de son épouse qui doit arriver d'un instant à l'autre. Mais il sonne par erreur à l'appartement voisin.