Czech film from 1956 to 1989

The situation in Czechoslovakia began to change somewhat after 1956, when Stalinism and his cult of personality were criticised. New themes appeared in film, reality was depicted more realistically, using less schematic depictions, often inspired by Italian neorealism. A new generation of artists began working. They were graduates of film directing at the film department of the Academy of Performing Arts (later Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague). They included Vojtěch Jasný, Karel Kachyňa, Zdeněk Podskalský, Vladimír Sís, etc. The new era of Czech cinematography, known as the New Wave, developed in the 1960s and represented the heyday of Czech film, which established itself in the world as well. It brought such figures as Miloš Forman, Jiří Menzel, Ivan Passer, Jan Němec, Věra Chytilová, Evald Schorm, Jaroslav Papoušek, etc. Two Czechoslovak New Wave films won American Film Academy Awards: The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze, 1965) by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos and Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, 1966) by Jiříh Menzel.

The liberal atmosphere, however, ended with the suppression of Prague Spring in 1968, which consolidated the communist regime and introduced the so-called Normalisation of Czechoslovak culture, which continued through the 1970s and 1980s. One of its measures included the introduction of uncompromising censorship of the entire film production. New Wave films were retroactively declared harmful and many of them were stored in a vault (i.e. banned) and were not released in cinemas until the fall of communism in 1989. Many important artists emigrated, e.g. Miloš Forman, Vojtěch Jasný, Jan Němec and Ivan Passer. Domestic film production focused primarily on simple and consumer mass entertainment with an ideological subtext supporting the communist regime. Television production also became important and it was primarily politically engaged Normalisation series, psychological films and propaganda films for children and youth and detective films that were supported. Few filmmakers dared challenge the normalisation trends and shot non-conformist, peculiar films. Such filmmakers included especially Věra Chytilová – e.g. Story from a Housing Estate (Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliště, 1979). Many other filmmakers chose fantastic themes over political ones; comedy SF films, fairy-tale films and fairy-tale television series flourished at the time. Their most distinguished creators include directors Václav Vorlíček and Oldřich Lipský and screenwriter Miloš Macourek.