Vojtěch Jasný

Biography

Vojtěch Jasný (born 30 November 1925 – 15 November 2019) was a Czech director who came to prominence in the sixties. He won a Cannes Special Jury Prize for Až přijde kocour/The Cassandra Cat (1963). He was born in Kelč in Moravia. An active filmmaker in Czechoslovakia throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he was among many artists and intellectuals who left the country after the USSR-led invasion following the Prague Spring of 1968. Jasný worked in other European countries for several years including Austria, West Germany and Yugoslavia until relocating to Brooklyn, New York in the early 1980s. Jasný taught film directing classes at Columbia University for several years (where his compatriot Miloš Forman was also a professor and former Film Division Co-Chair) and continues to teach at The School of Visual Arts (SVA) and The New York Film Academy (NYFA). Až přijde kocour/The Cassandra Cat is an allegorical fable about a magical cat that comes to a small Czech town and causes the underlying nature of the townspeople to be revealed. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Also among Jasný's works is Všichni dobří rodáci /All My Good Countrymen (1968), a story centering on the lives a…

Directed

1. When the Cat Comes (1963) — Director
2. All My Good Countrymen (1969) — Director
3. We (1982) — Director
4. The Clown (1976) — Director
5. Desire (1958) — Director
6. Der Kulterer (1974) — Director
7. Return to Paradise Lost (1999) — Director
8. September Nights (1957) — Director
9. Czech Rhapsody (1970) — Director
10. The Great Land of Small (1987) — Director
11. The Pipes (1966) — Director
12. Hell on Earth (2001) — Director
13. Broken Silence (2002) — Director
14. I Survived Certain Death (1960) — Director
15. Es gibt noch Haselnußsträucher (1983) — Director
16. Everything Ends Tonight (1955) — Director
17. Magnetické vlny léčí (1965) — Director
18. The Pilgrimage to the Holy Virgin (1961) — Director
19. Za život radostný (1951) — Director
20. Lidé jednoho srdce (1953) — Director
21. Stará čínská opera (1954) — Director
22. Opportunity (1956) — Director
23. Věděli si rady (1949) — Director
24. Neobyčejná léta (1952) — Director
25. Z čínského zápisníku (1954) — Director
26. Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (1970) — Director
27. Der Leuchtturm (1972) — Director
28. Attempted Flight (1976) — Director
29. Das Leben des schizophrenen Dichters Alexander März (1975) — Director
30. The Woman from Sarajevo (1980) — Director
31. Bis später - ich muss mich erschiessen (1984) — Director
32. It’s Not Always Cloudy (1950) — Director
33. Gladys (1999) — Director
34. Der blinde Richter (1984) — Director
35. Impressions of Herbert von Karajan (1978) — Director
36. Why Havel? (1991) — Director
37. Die Rückkehr des alten Herrn (1978) — Director
38. Die Stühle des Herrn Szmil (1979) — Director
39. Nasrin oder Die Kunst zu träumen (1972) — Director
40. Am Strand (1982) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Searching for Ester (2005) — Himself
2. CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel (2018) — Self
3. It’s Not Always Cloudy (1950) — Man with a Gramophone (uncredited)
4. Life and Film: The Labyrinthine Biographies of Vojtech Jasny (2009) — Self
5. Golden Sixties (2009) — Self