... Prague - 1968 - Paris ...

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Monday, April 22, 2019

I don't really like documentary films so I was a little bit worried about what this is going to be. I liked the character of Anne who fell in love with director Jean. The actress is so good, she act very good and she is also pretty. But I didn‘t like the main character. In the beggining of the film, he was fine but minute after minute he started to be weird. He was so stressed and he was so snarky. He didn‘t have any respect to others especially police officer and also to his wife. In this way she is so stupid and I asked myself during the film how she could even married him. She trusted him so blindly and she just did what his told her to do. He acted really careless and what I really disliked was the he used so many bad words. Maybe it was supposed to make some fun but mostly, It wasn't fun at all. It didn‘t suit there. The main character was just against everyone and everybody.

The film has also some sad parts and main meaning is about director career and situation France. Everything was just mixed up toghether and everything was visibly on main character. The idea itself wasn't so bad. But maybe I would choose different actors and use some better words. Maybe in French it is better and i heard it in French but I didn‘t understand a word.

This film is just mix of everything and some people could really like it mainly because of history but I guess, I am not one of them.

Something in the Air - Review by Zuzana Morávková

The director and scriptwriter in one person, Olivier Assayas returned into his youth with student revolt on the background. Unfortunately youth and unrest in this film are absolutely boring. I have to confess that I had to fight with myself a lot because I wished I could stop this film. I have to warn you, reviews are subjective thing and this one is not going to be positive.

This film is about young man Gilles. He wants to be an artist. Gilles is involved into political events in France. He has got an radical political opinion, he reads about Mao, distribute leaflets and post the posters. Against this ,,political’’ life exist his own personal life. He has two girlfriends during the film. The first one is an actress. And the second one is a revolutionist. He has to make a decision, how he wants to live in the future. That’s the whole point of the film.

This film looked quite interested by signature, but step by step it became more boring and few times I almost fell asleep. It seemed to me like it had no meaningful sense. Maybe it was like that because, my biggest problem with this film was a language barrier. Because only version what got was the original version. So the characters spoke French and I had an English subtitles. The French confused me a lot, because it doesn’t sound naturally to me. And I had a problem with understanding to many words. So some sentences didn’t make a sense to me. But that’s not the film’s fault. It’s totally my problem.

I have a little warning for people, who don’t like violence or nakedness. Because both of them were in the film quite a lot. The film is full of romantic clichés like Gilles painting his girlfriend naked, etc.

Probably the only interesting thing in this film was the symbolic of girlfriends and choosing the lifeway. The actress symbolised the normal life and in the revolutionist I saw the political life. I don’t want to be so pessimistic, so I found one really good part of this film. This good thing (in my opinion) was the music, because I think it was really well chosen.

I’d like to say, that it was a really good film in conclusion. But I can’t do it, because it’s not true. I saw it ones and I don’t need to see it again. I recommend this film to somebody, who is interested in this era and this kind of film.

Something in the Air Review by Lucie Zimova

The film called „Something in the air“ responds to the events of the year 1971 which took place in Paris. At the time, Paris was the police town in which there were fights between police officers and students that didn’t take the end. Students naively thought that they cancel attack units. So they started to print mobilizing newsletters and Free press. Other actions were embossing posters and writting charges on the walls of the official buildings. They also wrote the protest of the young people. In my opinion it’s very wonderful time, maybe a little special. The french president invited Brezhnev to Paris when there were demonstrations and it’s nonsense for me. A high school activism is at the interface and future students are confronted with too loud solitude of their stormy days. Students want to do something but they don’t know where they can go and where it should go. It is not easy for graduates to cope with this fast-paced adulthood in this radical struggle. They can’t decide what they want to do, where they should stand and where and with whom to go. Whether Maoists or Trotskyists. The director filmed this film as a sensual and remembering reflection, creating a mosaic of associations, flying reminiscences and relatively autonomous, thematic episodes. The story is loosely linked by the character of the guide, Gilles, who guides us through the immature landscape and the high school environment. The theme is shot as a dramatic statement based on a dramatic, arched story. Its characters enter into conflicts and in overcoming obstacles, the characters gradually change. I don’t like this type of film because I’m not interested in this kind of film. The film was difficult from the point of view of the language barrier for me.
I warmly recommend this film to people who are interested in this issue.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

The Prague Spring

Here's an account of the Prague Spring by Ambre Arthur Mado and Noemi

Friday, March 15, 2019

The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky

As a class we have been working on reading, understanding and adapting the novel

The Cowards, by Josef Skvorecky since the summer.

Why The Cowards?

It is a fictional accounting, through the eyes of an adolescent, of the end of WWII.

It helps us understand what happened before 1968,

and the life of Skvorecky helps us understand the life of a dissident writer who remained committed to publishing works by his fellow countrymen.

We present here a summary of the novel,

a biography of Skvorecky produced by Lise Sevin and a

chapter by chapter adaptation of the novel.

Enjoy!

Summary:

The Cowards (originally Zbabělci) is a Czech novel by Josef Škvorecký. Written in 1948–49 but not published until 1958, it is a story from the very end of WWII in Europe. Narrated in the first person by a Czech at the end of his teens, Danny Smiřický, it takes place in the week 4–11 May 1945 in his home town, a fictional town called Kostelec in northeast Bohemia, close to the frontier with then-German Middle Silesia (now part of Poland).

Škvorecký modelled Kostelec on his own home town of Nachod, and Danny Smiřický is a semi aurobiographical character based on the author. Like Náchod, Kostelec is a border town on a river and overlooked by a castle. Like Škvorecký, Smiřický is the educated, middle-class son of a bank clerk, loves jazz music and has spent two years as a forced laborer in a Messerschmitt aircraft factory. For Danny, jazz is a way of mocking the bourgeoisie and is an attempt to express his spontaneous feelings. He belongs to a jazz band that plays in a local café and tries to impress the local girls. But everyone knows that Danny's love for the beautiful Irena is unrequited, and instead she loves Zdenek (her boyfriend) who shares her enthusiasm for mountaineering. Danny's moods fluctuate between exultation and despair as he feels raised up by his hopes and dreams and then dashed by the realities and disappointments of life. This account of the life of a romantic youth is highlighted by the events swirling around him during the last days of World War II, when bombing raids, battles, and sudden death became part of everyday life.

The novel opens with Kostelec still under German occupation, and ends a week later after the Red Army has liberated the town. The town's German garrison plans to retreat west in the hope of surrendering to the US Army rather than the Soviets. Kostelec's Czech civic authorities, who had cooperated (and in some cases possibly collaborated) with the German authorities, want to keep the town calm and avoid bloodshed. They fear that local Czechoslovak Communist (KSČ) partisans are planning a revolution not only against the retreating Germans but also to prevent restoration of the prewar capitalist order. The local elite thus organize "revolutionary troops" to disarm Czech population and keep the young men under control. Groups of disarmed youngsters are sent to patrol and to prevent the communist resistance from raiding the German ammunition train. Danny and his friends have lost the illusions and deserted.

In the following days the liberated prisoners of war and prisoners from concentration camps are streaming through the town. Danny helps them to find the food and shelter and he finally feels useful.
On 9 May, troops of the Waffen-SS refuse to respect the Unconditional Surrender. Their tank and infantry units are fighting a rearguard action against a Soviet forces and are approaching the town. The communist resistance takes over the command of "revolutionary troops" gives them guns and sends them against Germans. In the ensuing fight Danny kills one SS-man and incapacitates one German tank but he reports false name to the Soviet commander as he doesn't want to be misused by propaganda as a "hero".

Biography of Josef Skvorecky by Lise Sevin

Chapter one - Friday May 4th, 1945

by Ambre Jobard, Noémi Delaporte and Mado Carniello

Chapter two - Saturday May 5th, 1945

click on the link to view:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OhaZjCF4DWtWkFCixE6OY9JHYIES0NAi/view?usp=sharing

Arthur Roulier, Diana Oidsdu and Manon Escalant

Chapter three - Sunday May 6th, 1945

click on the link to view:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Tx_wgc7BnUuFYIcxpWwT2ybdn2cFFDx/view?usp=sharing

Alix Demouveaux, Jade Blanc and Maëva Doisneau

Chapter four - Monday May 7th, 1945