In his handling of “The Joke,” Jires “was able to find the right key to the characters which are the real antiheroes and the axis of the plot,” says Bregant. Kundera much preferred seeing “The Joke” onscreen to the sight of Philip Kaufman’s ambitious Oscar-nommed 1988 adaptation of his “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” despite standout performances from early-career actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche. Jires’ film proved to be one of the rare screen versions of his books Kundera actually approved of – likely because he co-wrote the screenplay. We speak about the New Wave maybe too often and thus sometimes forget about the complex image of Czechoslovak film culture and industry of that time.” “The Joke” indeed makes for a showcase project, Bregant explains, in that it illustrates “how varied in style the Czechoslovak cinema was in the 1960s. That mission has led to the digitalization of “hundreds of films of all types and genres,” says Bregant, “and among them there are a few each year which we select for big festivals because we believe that they can speak to larger audiences, both Czech and international.”Īs he puts it, “For us, the main purpose of digitization is to make classic Czech films available for current distribution channels.” Original negatives and prints, meanwhile, “stay in the vaults, well kept, as we know that they will be needed again for any new form of technical transfer in the future.” “We also know that our collection needs to be open and accessible.” The National Film Archive is focused on more than “preservation of the past for the future,” Bregant adds, noting education and outreach as key goals. Michal Bregant, head of the archive, says the time has come to once again celebrate two great Bohemian artists in Kundera and Jires. The film was banned in Czechoslovakia for 20 years.
Jires continued to work in the country, making less controversial movies. It was all over for the social satirist Kundera, who self-exiled to France. The story of a young intellectual whose life is ruined by the regime for writing a flippant postcard proved too much for the post-Dubcek authorities.
When the Soviet crackdown, known as Normalization, rolled into Prague along with Warsaw Pact tanks in the summer of 1968, a rich era crashed to a premature end with the return of Soviet-oriented Czechoslovak state control.
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