This year's silent film section will focus on the work of Ernst Lubitsch, who is renowned primarily for his biting Hollywood comedies full of erotic tension. However, we will journey back in time with him to Germany, where he began his screenwriting, directing, and even acting career almost a decade before moving overseas. His cinematic style back then had been significantly more diverse than his later work in Hollywood – in terms of style, genre, mood, and humor. And it is precisely this breadth that our selected films will showcase through Lubitsch's collaborations with several key European stars, various shades of comedy ranging from expressionistically stylized to playfully raucous, and a pair of excursions into historical drama set in periods spanning from revolutionary France to ancient Egypt.
Programmers:
Radomír D. Kokeš, is a film historian, analyst, and lecturer at Masaryk University who strives to understand cinema rather than evaluate it. Although he has been enchanted by classical, especially silent cinema, his research was long focused on serial and modern Hollywood storytelling. By working for the Summer Film School and conducting research on Czech silent films, he is thus returning to his roots.
David Čajčík has been bringing global contemporary music to Czech audiences through Heartnoize Promotion. He is a concert promoter, booker, curator, and lecturer who works across genres with patience and enthusiasm. He loves the High Tatras, he is a mountain guide and an avid researcher into the final months of Jiří Wolker’s life.
Programme sections
