Student Films Based on the Short Stories of Arnošt Lustig at the Beginning of the 1960s

Abstract

The study deals with films made at the beginning of the 1960s by Jan Němec and Dušan Klein, then students at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), based on short stories by Arnošt Lustig from the books Démanty noci (Diamonds of the Night) and Ulice ztracených bratří (Street of Lost Brothers) — namely Sousto, Králíček and Ďábelská jízda na koloběžce (Mouthful, Little Guinea Pig and Devilish Ride on a Scooter). These student films represent not only the beginnings of the artistic careers of both directors and a search for the form of their future creative path, but are also a document of the gradual emancipation of artists from the power relations and the search for possibilities of an individual existence within the framework of the totalitarian regime. They attempted to create timeless images of humanity within history, images which have a negative form of fear, anxiety, solitude, pain and loss, but also at the same time the endurance of humanity, which — in accordance with the conception of the writer Arnošt Lustig — is expressed through a specific action and the preservation of hope.

Keywords

• czech 20th century literature
• czech 20th century cinematography
• shoah
• art and the totalitarian régime
• arnošt lustig