Czechoslovak Noir

This year we selected four diverse titles from the late 1950s and early 1960s for the program section presenting Czechoslovak films in which noir aspects can be found to varying degrees. The crime film with a well-matched pair of investigators searching for the murderer of a lottery ticket winner, 105% Alibi, played an important role in determining the direction of Czechoslovak socialist detective film genre. A dark tale of injustice and revenge, The Avenger, set in pre-World War I Prague, takes us on a construction site among bricklayers and into nightclubs. The contrast of the sumptuous villa and the muddy roads leading to the stables and cowsheds is shown in Fetters, where the protagonist finds himself at a crossroads of his life. We are drawn into the world of the youth by the most visually striking film in the section, On the Tightrope, in which a cheeky and agile young man of a poor background goes through both boisterous parties and the reality of adult life while working hard in the steel mills.

Veronika Zýková