The Party and the Guests [O slavnosti a hostech] **** (1966, Ivan Vyskocil, Jan Klusák, Jiri Nemec) – Classic Movie Review 8982

All the guests at a garden picnic party during a day’s outing in the countryside keep telling one another that they are having fun, except one unhappy man who goes away chased by the others, in co-writer/ director Jan Nemec’s 1966 Czech New wave classic drama The Party and the Guests [O slavnosti a hostech].

Nemec’s sour and incisive political parable, written with his wife Ester Krumbachová (story and screenplay), was condemned by the Czech parliament and unscreened till the Prague Spring of 1968, the brief period of liberalisation in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubček. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 1968.

Some of the details are hard to grasp if you are not Czech or lack historical context knowledge, but the meaning is loud and resonant.

It stars Ivan Vyskocil, Jan Klusák, Jiri Nemec, Pavel Bosek, Karel Mares, Evald Schorm, Jana Pracharová, Milon Novotny, Helena Pejsková, Josef Skvorecký, Dana Nemcova, Antonin Prazak, Adolf Siroký Václav Vodák and Zdena Skvorecka.

All are non-professional actors: Ivan Vyskocil is a theatre director, Zdena Skvorecka and Josef Skvorecký are writers, Jan Klusák and Karel Mares are composers, Jiri Nemec was a philosopher and translator, his wife Dana Nemcova is a psychologist, Pavel Bosek is a theatre writer, Evald Schorm is a film director, and Milon Novotny is a photographer,

O slavnosti a hostech is called The Party and the Guests in the UK and A Report on the Party and Guests in the US.

The Party and the Guests [O slavnosti a hostech] is directed by Jan Nemec, runs 71 minutes, is made by Ceskos-Iovensky and Filmové Studio Barrandov, is released by Contemporary Films (1969) (UK), is written by Ester Krumbachová (story and screenplay) and Jan Nemec, is shot in black and white by Jaromir Sofr, is scored by Karel Mares and is designed by Oldrich Bosák

RIP Jan Nemec (1936–2016).

RIP Ester Krumbachová (1923–1996).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8982

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