20. století
Jiří Menzel
A renowned Czech director, actor and writer
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Jiří Menzel completed his studies of stage direction in 1962 at the FAMU (Film Academy of Musical Arts) in Prague. In the sixties, he was one of the leading film director making what became known as the new Czech motion picture wave. The first full-length film he directed was called "Ostře Sledované Vlaky" (Closely Watched Trains), which was based on a Bohumil Hrabal´s novel. This movie received the Oscar Award in 1966 for best foreign film. The movie called Skřivánci na Niti" was forbidden during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia and it received the Golden Bear Award at the International Film Festival in Berlin in 1990. Another successful movie of Jiří
Menzel was called Vesničko Má Středisková (1985), which depicts an ordinary Czech village atmosphere with a typical Menzel's exaggeration. This movie was nominated for a Oscar Award in 1985.
Jiří Menzel taught at FAMU, Prague Film School, he is a member of the American Film Academy, and he is a bearer of the important French artistic title called Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, which means Knight of Art and Literature.
Selections from Menzel's Filmography:
2006 – Obsluhoval Jsem Anglického Krále (I Served the King of England)
1980 – Postřižiny
1976 – Na Samotě u Lesa
1969 (1990) – Skřivánci na Niti
1966 – Ostře Sledované Vlaky (Closely Watched Trains)
