Věra Chytilová

Biography

Věra Chytilová (February 2, 1929 – March 12, 2014) was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. At the age of 28 she was accepted into the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). While attending FAMU she studied underneath renowned film director Otakar Vavra, graduating in 1962. Chytilová is best known for her once highly controversial film Sedmikrásky (Daisies) – (1966). Daisies is known for its un-sympathetic characters, lack of a continuous narrative and abrupt visual style. Chytilová states that she structured Daisies to “restrict [the spectator’s] feeling of involvement and lead him to an understanding of the underlying idea or philosophy”. The film was banned within Czechoslovakia upon its initial release in 1966 until 1967, but in 1966 the film won the Grand Prix at the Bergamo Film Festival in Italy. After Daisies the government made it very difficult for Chytilová to find work within Czechoslovakia, even though she was never officially classified as a 'blacklisted' director. After the Soviet Union invasion in 1968 it was virtually impossible for her to find work and she resorted to directing commercials under her husb…

Directed

1. Daisies (1966) — Director
2. Fruit of Paradise (1970) — Director
3. The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992) — Director
4. Pearls of the Deep (1966) — Director
5. Wolf's Hole (1987) — Director
6. Something Different (1963) — Director
7. A Bagful of Fleas (1963) — Director
8. Traps (1998) — Director
9. A Hoof Here, a Hoof There (1989) — Director
10. Panelstory or Birth of a Community (1981) — Director
11. Calamity (1982) — Director
12. The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun (1984) — Director
13. Ceiling (1962) — Director
14. Expulsion from Paradise (2001) — Director
15. The Apple Game (1978) — Director
16. Pleasant Moments (2006) — Director
17. Prague – The Restless Heart of Europe (1985) — Director
18. The Jester and the Queen (1988) — Director
19. Green Street (1962) — Director
20. My Pragues Understand Me (1991) — Director
21. Searching for Ester (2005) — Director
22. TGM the Liberator (1990) — Director
23. Comrades (1971) — Director
24. Caterwauling (1960) — Director
25. Chytilová Versus Forman (1981) — Director
26. Time is inexorable (1978) — Director
27. Flights and Falls (2000) — Director
28. Troublemakers (2007) — Director
29. Kam panenky... (1993) — Director
30. Trója v proměnách času (2003) — Director
31. GENUS (1995) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Emperor and the Golem (1951) — First Handmaiden
2. Pravda (1970) — Self (uncredited)
3. The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun (1984)
4. Ceiling (1962) — Model (voice)
5. Green Street (1962) — Commentary (voice)
6. To Make a Comedy Is No Fun (2016) — Self
7. Konec jasnovidce (1957)
8. Searching for Ester (2005) — Herself
9. CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel (2018) — Self
10. Journey: Portrait of Věra Chytilová (2004) — Herself
11. Caterwauling (1960) — Cat (voice)
12. Chytilová Versus Forman (1981) — Self
13. Naughty Young People: Chytilová, Kučera, Krumbachová (2012)
14. An Occasion to Speak (1966) — Self
15. Golden Sixties (2009) — Self