Movies that capture the atmosphere of the city.
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Loves of a Blonde (Lasky jedne plavovlasky) (1965)
Young women working in a communist-era shoe factory provide the backdrop for this tender tale of unrequited love. Milos Forman’s darkly comic film is arguably his best Czech work. No other film quite captures the innocence, simplicity, and quiet desperation of those times like this one.
Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledovane vlaky) (1967)
Classic from the 1960s New Wave won the Oscar for best foreign film. It’s a darkly comic look at the German occupation during World War II. “Time Out Prague” editor Will Tizard says, “There’s no getting around its power and simple charms, which have held up well.”
Amadeus (1984)
Forman’s tale of envy, genius, mediocrity, and murder won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Though the action takes place in Mozart’s Vienna, much of the filming was done in Prague. Forman even filmed at Prague’s Estates Theater, where Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered in 1787 with the composer himself in the conducting role.
Kolya (Kolja) (1996)
Director Jan Sverak’s Oscar-winning fable set in the last days of Communist Prague tells of a grouchy bachelor whose heart is melted by a five-year-old Russian boy. Variety film critic Eddie Cockrell says the filmmakers’ biggest challenge was transforming colorful Prague back to the hushed gray stasis of Soviet-era life: “It works. The city becomes the film’s most stately, elegant character.”
Up and Down (Horem Padem) (2004)
Arguably the best of the post-Velvet Revolution, ensemble-driven films examining the harder realities of everyday life. Cockrell says, “See it for an assemblage of the country’s best acting talent and the complex human emotions on display.”
Czech Dream (Cesky sen) (2004)
The best Czech documentary film in years is a “mockumentary” showing what happens when the filmmakers set out to create a fictitious hypermarket offering rock-bottom prices. A hilarious, thought-provoking send-up of consumer values.
