Vojtěch Jasný

(Born in Telč in Moravia November 30, 1925) Czech director who came to prominence in the sixties. Won a Cannes Special Jury Prize for Až přijde kocour/The Cassandra Cat (1963). [John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 473-479. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.] An active and influential filmmaker in Czechoslovakia throughout the 1950's and 1960's, he was among many artists and intellectuals who left the country after the USSR-led invasion following the Prague Spring of 1968.

Jasný worked in other European countries for several years including Austria, West Germany and Yugoslavia until relocating to Brooklyn, New York in the early '80's. Jasný taught film directing classes at Columbia University for several years (where his compatriot Miloš Forman was also a professor and former Film Division Co-Chair) and continues to teach at The School of Visual Arts (SVA).

Až přijde kocour/The Cassandra Cat, one of Jasny's most popular films, is an allegorical fable about a magical cat that comes to a small Czech town and causes the underlying nature of the townspeople to be revealed in visually stunning, colorful and musical scenes. The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes.

Also among Jasný's notable works is Všichni dobří rodáci /All My Good Countrymen (1968), a story centering around the lives and fates of several rural Czechs as they struggle to adapt and survive under communist rule; a film later banned in Czechoslovakia after the invasion of 1968.

Filmography

2002 “Broken Silence” (TV – segment “Hell on Earth)

2001 Peklo na zemi

1999 Gladys, Return to Paradise Lost [Návrat ztraceného ráje]

1991 Why Havel?

1987 The Great Land of Small

1984 Bis spatter, ich muss mich erschiessen, “Der Blinde Richter” (TV)

1983 Es gibt noch Haselnuß-Sträucher (TV)

1981 Wir (TV)

1980 Gospodjica (TV), Die Einfälle der heiligen Klara (TV)

1978 Die Freiheiten der Langeweile (TV)

1977 Fairy (TV), Mein seliger Onkel, Die Rückkehr des alten Herrn

1976 Alexander März (TV), Attempted Flight [Fluchtversuch] , The Clown [Ansichten eines Clowns] , Bäume, Vögel und Menschen (TV), Ernst Fuchs

1975 Des Pudels Kern (TV)

1974 Der Kulterer, Frühlingsfluten

1972 Der Leuchtturm (TV), Nasrin oder Die Kunst zu träumen (TV)

1970 Nicht nur zur Weihnachtszeit (TV)

1969 Warum ich Dich liebe (TV), Czech Rhapsody [Ceská rapsodie]

1968 All My Good Countrymen [Všichni dobří rodáci]

1966 The Pipes [Dýmky]

1963 The Cassandra Cat [Až přijde kocour]

1961 Pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary [Procesí k panence]

1960 I Survived Certain Death [Přežil jsem svou smrt]

1958 Desire [Touha]

1957 Andela, September Nights [Zářijové noci]

1956 Opportunity [Příležitost]

1955 No Fear [Bez obav]

1954 Everything Ends Tonight [Dnes večer všechno skončí] , Old Chinese Opera [Stará čínská opera] , From a Chinese Notebook [Z čínského zápisníku]

1953 Lidé jednoho srdce

1952 Neobyčejná léta

1950 Není stále zamračeno, They Know What to Do [Vědeli si rady] , Za život radostný

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419237/ Vojtěch Jasný's Entry on IMDB]
* [http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/index.jsp?page_id=313&FID=74231 Jasný's Faculty Profile at SVA]
* [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/57219 Vojtech Jasny - a filmmaker in different eras]