Jaromil Jireš

Jaromil Jireš (b. 1935, Bratislava - 2001, Prague) is a key figure of the Czechoslovak New Wave. He studied film photography (1958) and direction (1960) at FAMU and his feature debut was the lyrical and poetic The Cry (1963). His next film, The Joke (1968), like Milan Kundera’s novel on which it was based, is one of the most consequential social works of the latter half of the 20th century. Jireš’s talent at using film as a means to express complex subject matter here reached its culmination. He went on to win numerous foreign awards for the visually focused adaptation of Nezval’s surreal take on the Gothic novel Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). During the Normalisation period he made several attempts at smaller scale films (The Rabbit Case, 1979; Escaping Home, 1980; Incomplete Eclipse, 1982), continuing in this vein after 1989. He also directed many TV films and documentaries.

47. MFF Karlovy Vary