Out of the Past

Thirty years have passed since viewers accepted David Lynch’s invitation to visit Lumberton and follow him on a dark excursion behind the spotless exteriors of the family houses of small-town America. Blue curtains, a severed human ear, Heineken, a voyeur’s view of violence and sex – these are among the elements of this cult postmodern crime drama.

A rundown apartment full of photographs and objects reminiscent of the actor’s onetime stardom. Helmut Berger’s histrionics, his obscenity and blather, his playing the prima donna in deserted St. Tropez. The filmmaker failed to get from him anything that he’d come for and yet he has created a shattering image of isolation and decline. This shocking portrait of actor Helmut Berger caused a stir at last year’s Venice festival.

Today a classic of the genre, this sci-fi offering follows the adventures of the crew aboard the Ikarie XB 1 spaceship on its way to Alpha Centauri. The film, a work which inspired Stanley Kubrick during his preparations for 2001: A Space Odyssey, will be screened in a digitally restored version for the first time in the half-century since it premiered.

Screened as a newly restored print, this feature debut by Ivan Passer, then 32, etched its name into the annals of cinema in the Czech environment and beyond. The essence of its timeless appeal was captured by a critic for The New York Times who wrote: “It is one of those very special movies that does not so much reveal new secrets each time you see it as confirm a justness and good humor that was never hidden.”

Countless parables exist on power and its devastating impact, but only rarely does the focus include the opposing side: not just the victims but also henchmen, opportunists, informers, cowards and, simply, people who lack their own opinions. Never had they been so precisely identified until Jan Němec made this film.

One of the essential Italian works of last century, this emotionally taut drama with elements of neorealism portrays the lives of the five Parondi brothers, who move with their mother from the poor south to industrial Milan. This recently restored picture, which had a fundamental influence on the early films of Scorsese and Coppola, brings stunning performances from Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Renato Salvatori.

The digitalized version of the writer-director picture by German helmer Carl Junghans – shot in Prague with the financial and artistic support of Czech filmmakers – depicts the tragic tale of an aging, worn-out laundress and her brutal, profligate husband. As a psychological drama with social motifs and a highly developed cinematic language, the work represents the pinnacle of silent era moviemaking.

Sixteen-year-old Hanka and a slightly older student named Pavel are experiencing first love. It’s not always exclusively a time of enchantment and joy: their burgeoning relationship is marked by their timidity and a string of mutual misunderstandings brought on by the merest trifles. And the atmosphere of late summer in the Eastern-Bohemian town of Hradec Králové, where the film unfolds, serves as more than just a backdrop. The screening is accompanied by a reminiscence panel in connection with Frank Daniel Day.