Otakar Vávra’s excellent film “Witchhammer” was one of the earliest Czechoslovak films I saw, before I even started taking Czech classes. I occasionally go to Facets Film Forum¹ in Chicago, and I blind bought their DVD release of “Witchhammer.” I’m a fan of witch hunter movies like “The Blood On Satan’s Claw” and “The Witchfinder General,” so I was very interested. I loved the movie. While it was the same subject matter, it felt a little classier, less sleazy than many of the other Euro witch hunter movies. I’ve watched “Witchhammer” several times now, and my appreciation for it has deepened.

When reading about Czechoslovak film, Otakar Vávra’s name pops up again and again for good reason. From 1930 to 2002, Vávra directed 56 films (including shorts) and wrote or co-wrote even more. Besides filmmaking, he was one of the founders of the directing school at FAMU (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění, or Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts) with renowned directors Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, and Jiří Menzel amongst his students.

I’ve only seen a few of Vávra’s other movies: his first short “The Light Penetrates the Dark,” and the features “Krakatit,” “The Thirteenth Chamber,” and “Romance For Bugle.” I enjoyed all of them, and I thought it would be fun to watch his complete filmography as a survey of Czech film history. I started tracking everything down, but several movies were impossible to find, and most of them don’t have English subtitles available. I do often watch Czech movies without subtitles, but I’m not yet at the level to understand them well, so I try to save those instances for when the story isn’t complicated, or they’re visually interesting. I therefore decided to watch all of Vávra’s films that do have English subtitles, and only the key films or ones that interest me without subtitles.

Here is the list of movies I plan to watch:

1. Facets Film Forum was founded in Chicago by a Czech, Miloš Stehlík, and they’ve released several Czechoslovak films on DVD. Some of these titles now have Blu-ray releases, but most of them are only available in the US from Facets. They are bare bones discs, but they are affordable, and it’s better than nothing! Facets used to sell their releases online; they’ve been doing some rebranding for their 50th anniversary, and I can no longer find the online shop on their website. I’m not sure what the future holds for sales of their releases. They still do rentals, including their titles that have gone out of print. The rental website is currently still active: https://www.facetsmovies.com/user/homeNewUser2.php ↩︎