Jan Kraus

Comedy inspired by paperback crime novels tells the story of an adventurous search for a mysterious murderer who just after the end of the First World War has begun a rampage in Wilson City, a jerkwater town somewhere in Eastern Europe. The investigation is being led by an inhomogeneous pair of detectives - a greenhorn and local police cadet named Eisner and an experienced FBI officer Food, who has been sent to Europe by US President Woodrow Wilson himself.

5.3/10

A 19 year old nonconformist poet living in 1947 Czechoslovakia is blind to the Communist behemoth looking over him, and instead lives a bohemian life with sexually liberated girls.

6.4/10

This movie is about strange relationships in one "noname" gymnasium in Czech republic.

6.2/10

Produced by Czech television, Mestecko (Small Town) is the directorial debut of theatrical veteran Jan Kraus. This episodic comedy is set in the small town of Mestecko (which literally translates to "small town") right before the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Tonda (Vlastimil Brabec) leads an ensemble cast of townsfolk who are eager to experience capitalism, but are unaware of how it's supposed to work. They set out to pull get-rich-quick schemes and end up creating their own version of free enterprise. For instance, a group of men run for office as a political party called the"Independent Eroticists" so they can hire a stripper to perform for the town. Individual business owners plot various schemes in order to participate in the new economy as the town heads into the '90s

5.3/10

A husband asks the best friend to seduce his wife in order to get divorce.

5.7/10

Ten short unrelated stories that move chronologically through Slovakia's twentieth-century history as seen from the perspective of life in small towns and villages.

7.2/10

A very free adaptation of Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus', Goethe's 'Faust' and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. Svankmajer's Faust is a nondescript man who, after being lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.

7.4/10
7%

BREAKFAST: After eating breakfast, a man is transformed into an elaborate dumb-waiter-style breakfast dispenser - and the same fate befalls the man who obtains breakfast from him. LUNCH: After failing to catch the waiter's eye, two would-be diners end up eating everything within reach. DINNER: Portraits of various meals made up of human organs.

8.1/10

Komedie vás přesvědčí o tom, že i na chmurné stránky naší historie je možné se dívat s nadhledem a humorem. Čo bolo, to bolo... Major Terazky vede svůj šik pétépáků od průšvihu k průšvihu vstříc světlým zítřkům. Česká filmová komedie podle románu Miloslava Švandrlíka.

7.6/10

In the middle of a war between two kingdoms queen died tragically while giving birth to her third daughter. The king wanted a male heir to his throne and torn by the death of his wife, decides to sacrifice the girl and leads to the Cave of the Golden Rose to give her to the monster. The child is saved by the White Witch who promises her a wonderful future. With a rebellious temperament, the princess, named by his father Fantaghiro behaves like a tomboy. But one day she must confront the enemy, the king Romualdo, which is in love with her.

7.5/10

Young Eugene from the provinces travels to Prague in search of fame. Once there he gets an offer to write engagé lyrics for pop songs...

6.2/10

A narration of episodes from the life of the famous Czech poet, Karel Hynek Mácha. Throughout the film, we witness a deep analysis of Mácha's complex character (his relation to another Czech writer of the time Josef Kajetán Tyl, his unbearable jealousy, his solitude, his attitude to nature,etc.) on the well-depicted historical background with all its particularities.

6.6/10

Pan Tau, the friend of all children, now also helps the adults. A movie producer is in trouble and decides to shoot another Pan-Tau movie. But the old Pan-Tau actor Karasek is no longer young enough to walk the almost weightless walk of Pan Tau. Mr. Novak turns up - he resembles Pan Tau like a twin brother. He succeeds every pirouette. And as if by magic, he solves all the problems between people! Who is Mr. Novak? Is he really ...?

6.6/10

Why? (Czech: Proč?) is a 1987 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Karel Smyczek. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. The film deals with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games. The film deals with one of such episodes

7.1/10

After his sister is turned into a werewolf and subsequently killed, Ben White decides to help the enigmatic Stefan Crosscoe fight the growing population of lupine monsters, along with the lovely Jenny Templeton. Traveling to Transylvania, Ben, Jenny and Crosscoe attempt to hunt down the powerful werewolf queen, Stirba, and must face her furry followers, as well as other supernatural forces.

3.6/10
2.5%

Series about the life of Renaissance anatomist, scholar and politic Johannes Jessenius. Already legendary series today, was produced by Czechoslovak Television Bratislava, directed by Slovak director Miroslav Luther in the first half of 80's in Barrandov Studios in Prague. The story and screenplay of the series wrote Czech writer Vladimír Körner. Five-episodes epic historical narration is a biographical story of distinguished Renaissance scholar, anatomist and politic of Slovak origin, Johannes Jessenius (Ján Jesenský, 1566–1621). It displays his life from the first studies and successes. In 1594 he became professor of surgery and anatomy on Wittenberg University, which he had attended years before. From that moment, his life went through social and personal wins and losses, to the sad end on the Prague Old Town Square gallows, among 27 noblemen, knights and burgenses, after lose Bohemian Revolt in 1621. His destiny was coupled with key events of Czech history in the break of 16th and 17th century, when Renaissance and European humanism slowly fade out.

Matej and Jenda, two of the eight children of the poor Pelc family in the Giant Mountains, help in a glass works where the oldest brother Francek works. They hide into a tub not to be seen by supervisors checking on the ban of children labor. They miss the Epiphany carol (songs and treats door-to-door) and all neighbor village boys again on them in all the neighbor houses. On their way home they are passed by a fast moving big man with a large backpack. The boys send the customs officers, who are pursuing the strange man, to the opposite direction. The man then thanks them and rewards them the next day. Based on fairy-tales and legends the boys think the man is Krakonos (the giant living and ruling in the Giant Mountains).

7/10

Czech comedy from the 70ties.

6.2/10

The king Dalimil and the queen Eliska waited to see a longed-for offspring - a daughter Ruzenka. But Eliska's envious and bad sister Melánie curses her. When Ruzenka becomes 17 years old she will prick her finger and she will fall asleep for ages together with the entire kingdom.

7.1/10

The true story of the Bavarian Tailor Albrecht Berblinger who, after a strange encounter with a balloon starts building a flying machine. Although not an engineer by profession, he never gives up. No matter how many obstacles are put in his way nor how many failures he endures, his ardour is never dampened. He continues with his dream to fly like a bird.

6.5/10

A musical starring Jiří Menzel (whose part is sung by Achilles Michailidis) as a math and physics teacher employing innovative teaching methods.

6.4/10

A group of children are investigating a chain of mysterious events during the seventies.

6.7/10

Police find a girl with a bleeding face in a small town park at night. First the girl, a textile factory worker Jana, refuses to talk, and then she decides to tell the truth. After her father's death she, by herself, takes care of her younger brother called Pinda. She does not like the influence that a gang of older boys from the factory exercise over her brother. The gang leader Jirka, called King, is admire by local girls whose number exceeds boys in the town because there are many textile factories where only girls are working. They easily yield to him and then he easily gets rid of them. Jana is a hard nut for him. She refuses his purposeful courtesy and thus she unintentionally gets his attention. King inspires the gang on how to get money by stealing textile from the factory warehouse.

4.2/10

Sixteen-year-old students of a grammar school are supposed to write essays on "Love". The class best student Andrea (Jaroslava Schallerová) writes about a patriotic love to a country as she has no experience with a partner love. She has been living alone with her divorced pretty mother Eva (Milena Dvorská), a dentist, for many years. Recently, however, Eva met her former school-days love at a graduates' party, nowadays a famous hockey goalkeeper Brukner (Frantisek Velecký). Also his marriage fell apart; he leaves the national team and decides to leave Prague for his home town and to share flat with Eva. He takes with him his son Petr (Oldrich Kaiser), in Andrea's age, who gets his last chance to finish a grammar school in the town.

6.7/10

Dívka na koštěti or The Girl on the Broomstick is a 1972 Czechoslovak fantasy-comedy film directed by Václav Vorlíček. It tells a story of a teenage witch, Saxana (played by Petra Černocká), frozen in time as a punishment for 300 years, who finds herself in a modern world. A sequel was released in 2011 - Saxána a Lexikon Kouzel.

7.5/10

A prince meets a young man to whom he bears a striking resemblance. The two exchange places and learn to be better people in the process.

8.2/10

Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead, and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering.

8/10
8.8%

Widowed yeoman Tuma and his household are on their way to help the town of Kourim, which is under attack by the papist troops. His son Ondra is secretly following his father. Miksík the castellan, who is responsible for Ondra, finds himself forced to set off after the boy. They are both captured by soldiers from Kutná Hora. Miksík sacrifices himself to give Ondra a chance to flee. On the way, Ondra runs into the orphan Sulík. The two boys become friends and begin to wander together.

5.9/10

A dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an "execution" of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.

8/10

The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.

7.4/10

Oldrich is the runt of his village, beaten by his father, bullied by the other boys. But he has imagination of his side, and a wiry toughness they can’t defeat. The village is in turmoil, because the Nazi occupiers have just retreated and the Red Army is advancing. Oldrich dodges amid the mayhem and panic, taking his share of blows but always managing to stay one step ahead. Beautifully shot and darkly ironic, Karel Kachyna’s forgotten masterpiece jumbles reality, memory and fantasy to capture the intensity and confusion of childhood in a war zone.

7.4/10