Out of the Past 2017 / Don Gio / Czechoslovakia 1992
The characters in this unconventional musical horror flick by the Caban brothers find themselves reflecting upon what truly defines art. Their personal stories, however, also spill over into the narrative of Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni. This unclassifiable cinematic form, influenced by a video-clip aesthetic, was one of the most remarkable audiovisual projects to come out of the nineties.
What really defines art? In this unconventional musical horror flick from the Caban brothers, an idealistic young stage director comes up against the theatre’s pragmatic manager. Their run-in is to do with a new, daring production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The two men’s wrangle is trumped by the star and also producer of the show, who is fascinated by the Classical genius and intends to emulate him to the best of his ability. Except that he is continually let down and tempted by his own desire for money and the chance of an easier option. The filmmakers of this ambitious, postmodern picture allow the stories of the characters to overlap considerably with the characters and narrative of Mozart’s opera. The result is an unclassifiable cinematic form inspired by a video-clip aesthetic and staged in a single “theatre” space. This tale about people who celebrate the death of Mozart and perform his music in a manner that would make him turn in his grave, was premiered twenty-five years ago. Karel Roden appeared in the lead role, alongside him Jaroslav Dušek, Chantal Poullain and Daniel Dvořák.
Jan Škoda
90 min / Color, DCP
Director Michal Caban, Šimon Caban
/ Screenplay Šimon Caban
/ Dir. of Photography Martin Duba
/ Music W. A. Mozart, Martin Němec
/ Editor Michal Cuc
/ Art Director Šimon Caban
/ Producer Jan Rubeš, Jan Šuster
/ Production Česká televize
/ Coproduction Filmové studio Barrandov, Česká pojišťovna a.s.
/ Cast Karel Roden, Jaroslav Dušek, Chantal Poullain, Ondřej Cutych, Daniel Dvořák
/ Contact Michal Caban
Michal Caban (b. 1961, Prague) and Šimon Caban (b. 1963, Prague) are veteran KVIFF collaborators and have been designing the festival’s Opening and Closing Ceremonies since 1995. Their work covers a wide variety of fields in theatre, film and television. They established the dance and theatre troupe Křeč in 1980, one of the ensembles from the celebrated Prague Five group. They worked on a series of films, such as Miloš Forman’s Amadeus (1984), Tomáš Vorel’s The Prague Five (1988) and The Smoke (1990), and they provided the choreography for the American films Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003). The Caban brothers have been involved in stage productions since 1990 (National Theatre, Prague State Opera), including designs for musicals and TV shows. In recent years they have been approached to design unusual events, and also gala evenings. They designed the Czech Lion awards, EXPO 2010 in Shanghai and 2015 in Milan, and the multimedia project Mass by Leonard Bernstein.
Michal Caban
Jindřišská 14, P.O.Box 186, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
E-mail: [email protected]
Michal Caban
Festival Organizer
Šimon Caban
Festival Organizer
Karel Roden
Actor
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