DEEP DIVE: Czechoslovak New Wave: Part 1

This is a watch at home, discuss in person event.

For Part 1 of our Czechoslovak New Wave Deep Dive, we'll explore how, in the 1960s, a new generation of Czechoslovak filmmakers challenged convention with dark humor, absurdity, surrealism, and biting social satire.

Closely Watched Trains follows a young railway apprentice whose sexual awakening unfolds against the backdrop of Nazi occupation. Daisies follows two young women on a gleefully anarchic rebellion against social conventions. The Firemen's Ball transforms a small-town celebration into a disastrous comedy of incompetence, vanity, and corruption. Together, these films capture the wit, irreverence, and creative experimentation of the Czechoslovak New Wave, before the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 ushered in an era of increasing censorship and political repression.

We will meet to discuss our thoughts on Wednesday, November 18, at Schoolyard Beer Garden. Please watch the comments for our exact location. Also, please try to watch all three before attending.

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Here is the list of films with instructions on how to find them.

CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (1966, Jiří Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
At a small railway station in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, young Miloš Hrma is less concerned with the war than with his own sexual inexperience. Surrounded by eccentric coworkers, petty dramas, and everyday routines, he struggles to navigate the awkward transition into adulthood as history unfolds around him. Adapted from Bohumil Hrabal's novel, Jiří Menzel's film finds humor and humanity in ordinary lives while gradually revealing the darker realities of occupation and resistance. With its understated comedy, gentle observations, and unexpected emotional weight, Closely Watched Trains offers an unconventional perspective on coming of age during wartime.

• Watch on Criterion Channel

DAISIES (1966, Věra Chytilová, Czechoslovakia)
Two young women, both named Marie, decide that since everything in the world is spoiled, they might as well be spoiled too. What follows is a gleefully anarchic series of pranks, extravagant meals, flirtations, and increasingly outrageous acts of destruction. Director Věra Chytilová matches their rebellion with a wildly experimental visual style, combining shifting colors, fragmented editing, surreal imagery, and playful disregard for narrative convention. Beneath its chaotic surface, Daisies raises provocative questions about gender, consumerism, conformity, and the meaning of rebellion. Funny, abrasive, and unlike almost anything else of its era, the film challenges not only the rules of society but those of cinema itself.

• Watch on HBO Max
• Watch for free on YouTube

THE FIREMEN'S BALL (1967, Miloš Forman, Czechoslovakia)
What should be an ordinary small-town celebration descends into chaos when a volunteer fire brigade organizes a raffle, a beauty contest, and a tribute to its aging former chairman. Prizes disappear, contestants rebel, and the organizers reveal themselves to be spectacularly inept. Working largely with nonprofessional actors, Miloš Forman transforms this seemingly trivial occasion into a devastatingly funny portrait of vanity, corruption, bureaucracy, and collective incompetence. His satire is all the more effective because the characters remain recognizably human, even at their most ridiculous. The Firemen's Ball exposes the absurdities of authority and the uncomfortable gap between good intentions and actual behavior.

• Watch on Criterion Channel
• Watch for free on YouTube