Skill of Gold

Skill of Gold 1943

8.50

A village shop owner is convinced by his children to move to Prague, where they say he'll be able to enjoy a fine retirement in a modern furnished apartment. Bored by life in Prague with nothing to do, the old man takes to helping a young widow in her stationery shop.

1943

Tichá bolest

Tichá bolest 1991

7.10

A young man has led his whole life with his grandfather. When he was in school, he was the only one who was refused to join the Youth Brigade, since his father was sentenced to death for spying. When it is time for him to do the compulsory military service, he has to do it in a platoon for "unreliable" persons.

1991

Grandmother

Grandmother 1940

6.10

"Grandmother" is a highly romanticized autobiographical novel by a Czech 19th century writer, Bozena Nemcova. It's a classical, compulsory reading in Czech schools, about a wise, working-class woman, happier in her simplicity and good heart than the nobles whom she serves.

1940

A Step into the Darkness

A Step into the Darkness 1938

5.50

A dashing but mysterious man saves a gambler from suicide, crashes the posh party of a prominent industrialist, falls in love with his daughter, and finds himself in a web of intrigue revolving around her blackmailing fiance and a gang of counterfeiters.

1938

Eva Fools Around

Eva Fools Around 1939

6.70

Eva's aunt is jealous of her neighbor's excellent roses and wants to know the secret. To help auntie out Eva applies for secretarial work at the neighbor's house in order to find out the formula. Things get complicated when it turns out that Eva's brother is in love with the daughter of the house and also wants to get in there under false pretenses.

1939

Happy Journey

Happy Journey 1943

5.00

Filmed during the Nazi occupation, this panoramic drama set in a Prague department store follows the divergent destinies of four female coworkers, each of whom seeks happiness in a different way.

1943

Fiery Summer

Fiery Summer 1939

5.00

This romantic story turns on a stirring infatuation that takes hold of three young people under the influence of Simon, a Prague student. After the study year, 18 year-old Julio returns to his parental home, a little chateau on the Otava river. There he converges with his childhood friend Petr and the young boatman's daughter Klárka. Sharing her beguilement with Simon, who has quickly turned a tranquil summer atmosphere into a relationship drama, is Julio's cousin Rosa.

1939

Virginity

Virginity 1937

5.30

The doomed love of a city girl caught in the vise of poverty is detailed in Vavra’s fluid, romantic work, one of the most elegant creations of the Czech Modernist era... The film lingers over its characters’ habitats and haunts, finding psychological truths in what each owns or desires, and countering every Hollywood-ready scene of gleaming restaurants and dazzling penthouses with realist moments of employment lines and crammed flats. Vavra’s classical camerawork and aura of romantic defeatism give Virginity a force comparable to the master of this genre, Hollywood’s Frank Borzage. (BAM/PFA)

1937

The Girl in Blue

The Girl in Blue 1940

6.30

A painting of a girl from another time comes to life for it's buyer in this costume comedy.

1940

The House of the Five Squirrels

The House of the Five Squirrels 1944

6.30

Josef Houbička, the owner of the U pěti veverek apartment building in Malostran, is a kind and forgiving good man who allows himself to be ruthlessly oppressed by his proud wife, Filoména, and secretly fixes her problems with the tenants. He lends rent money to two poor painters and bribes offended maids just to keep the house quiet. He would like to restore the old soap factory in the house, but Filoména promotes more profitable garages. And since neither of them wants to back down, Houbička eventually leaves the house after one of the arguments. He makes friends with the innkeeper Pulec, who runs the not-so-prosperous inn At the Leaky Jug...

1944

The Guild of the Kutná Hora Virgins

The Guild of the Kutná Hora Virgins 1938

6.50

A morally questionable lord comes to the aid of a working class man who is to be executed for speaking out about thieving rich scoundrels sticking it to the poor.

1938