Eclipse Series 32 Pearls of the Czech New Wave

Films included:

 

PEARLS OF THE DEEP

Jiri Menzel, Vera Chytilova, Jaromil Jires… 1966

A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement's directors.

 

DAISIES

Vera Chytilova 1966

Daisies is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that's widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.

 

A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND GUESTS

Jan Nemec 1966

In Jan Nemec's surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up.

 

RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

Evald Schorm 1967

This raw psychological drama about an engineer unable to adjust to the world around him following his suicide attempt is at heart a scathing portrait of social alienation and moral compromise.

 

CAPRICIOUS SUMMER

Jiri Menzel 1968

Two years after his worldwide hit Closely Watched Trains, Jiri Menzel directed this amusing idyll about three middle-aged men whose mellow summer is interrupted by the arrival of a circus performer and his beautiful assistant.

 

THE JOKE

Jaromil Jires 1969

Jaromil Jires's brilliant adaptation of Milan Kundera's novel tells the fragmentary tale of a man expelled from the Communist Party because of a political joke.