Jiri Weiss Movies
During the '50s, Jiri Weiss was one of Czechoslovakia's most highly regarded filmmakers. A native of Prague, he originally studied law and worked as journalist. He began making documentaries in 1936. His debut, Lidé na Slunci/People in the Sun, earned an award for amateur documentary at that year's Venice Film Festival. When the Nazis invaded in 1938, Weiss fled first to Paris and then to London where he began making documentaries such as The Rape of Czechoslovakia (1939) and Before the Raid (1943). Following the war, Weiss returned to Czechoslovakia to make such highly regarded films as Vlici Jama/The Wolf Trap (1957) and Romeo, Julie a Tma/Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1960). When the Soviets invaded his country, Weiss again fled. He did not return as a filmmaker until 1990 when he went to Czechoslovakia to film Martha und Ich/Martha and I. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi- 1989
Emil (Vaclav Chalupa as a teen, Ondrej Vetchy as an adult) has been naughty, and his family is at a loss about what to do with him. He's been dallying with the family maid. They decide to ship him off to spend time with his uncle Ernst Michel Piccoli), who married his family maid. The boy has a good relationship with his uncle, and a touching picture of Czech family life just at the advent of World War II emerges. Since Emil and Ernst are both Jewish, they are eventually carted away by the Nazis. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Marianne Sägebrecht, (more)
- 1966
This gentle parody of romantic melodramas centers on the romantic exploits of a portly middle-aged office clerk who marries a beautiful woman from another town. It took a lot of courage for the shy, awkward fellow to propose to her, and she accepted but insisted on remaining in Prague. She also tells him that a childhood trauma prevents her from having sex. Because the long-distance relationship is difficult for him, he asks his boss for a transfer, which the boss denies. Soon the clerk learns why: his boss and his wife are having a passionate affair! This news leads the poor fellow to contemplate his options: he could kill them, commit suicide, or he could blackmail his boss into a higher-paying job. He chooses the latter option. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rudolf Hrusínsky, Kveta Fialova, (more)
- 1965
The Anglo-Czech coproduction 90 Degrees in the Shade stars British actress Anne Heywood as a grocery clerk embroiled in an affair with manager James Booth. Though she knows that Booth is good for nothing, she remains with him because of the intensity of their physical relationship. Company auditors Rudolf Hrusinsky and Donald Wolfit make life miserable for Heywood, who cannot bring herself to reveal the fact that Booth has been stealing from the store. Her subsequent suicide humanizes the strictly-business auditors, but the unrepentant Booth merely shrugs and casts about for another willing young woman. The title is a succinct assessment of the film's sex scenes, which were as hot as it was possible to get in a mainstream movie of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anne Heywood, James Booth, (more)
- 1959
Set in Prague during the Nazi occupation, this is the story of a man who hides a Jewish girl who escaped when her family was captured. When he falls in love with the girl, complications set in when his mother becomes suspicious and when he becomes a suspect in the murder of a Nazi officer. Feeling she has become too much of a problem for him, the girl tries to run away, with tragic consequences. The film was directed by Jiri Weiss, a Czechoslovakian filmmaker who had been forced to leave Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ivan Mistrik, Dana Smutna, (more)
- 1957
The title of this highly-regarded Czech drama translates as Wolf Trap. Set in the 1920s, the story revolves around an ambitious young provincial politician (Miroslav Dolozai) who enters into a marriage of convenience with a smotheringly possessive -- and much older -- woman (Jirina Sejbavola). Hoping to temporarily escape his overbearing wife's clutches, the husband strikes up a friendship with her young ward (Jana Brejchova). The relationship blossoms into a deep abiding love, but the jellyfish husband can't bring himself to declare his ardor to the girl. Even after the death of the wife, the husband hasn't the intestinal fortitude to admit his passion, and the results are bleak indeed for the unfortunate ward. Director Jiri Weiss does a masterful job staging his story of frustration and denial against a backdrop of post-WWI bourgeois banality. Vlci Jama was one of the best-received entries at the 1958 Karlovy Vary Film Festival -- not to mention all the other film festivals that followed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jana Brejchova, Jirina Sejbalova, (more)
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