Czechoslovak Noir

This year’s programme section on local noir will focus largely on the 1960s and introduce a range of colorful characters from various walks of life. From this decade, the screens of Křivoklát will host for example the timeless narrative of pharmaceutic/medical crime in Where an Alibi Is Not Everything (Kde alibi nestačí, 1961) by Vladimír Čech, or one of the most influential film of Czechoslovak cinema, Juraj Herz’s The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol, 1968). The unsettling figure of Mr. Kopfrkingl, employee of the crematorium, and the investigator team of Tůma and Líbal are vehicles for various ways of utilizing recognizable noir elements in often hybrid examples from Czechoslovak cinema. The section will however not remain in the 60s exclusively; it will also introduce a cosmopolitan element into this genre puzzle, in the form of The Doll (Panenka, 1980), a TV film adaptation of the novel by American writer Ed McBain, maintaining both the anglophone proper names and environment of the original story. The link to English-speaking environments will continue with the TV film The Brothers Rico (Bratři Ricové, 1969), an adaptation of Georges Simeon‘ novel. The American adaptation from 1957 was screened at last year’s edition of NFF as part of the Phil Karlson Retrospective.