LA FETE ET LES INVITES

By : Jan Nemec

With : Ivan Vyskocil, Jan Klusak, Jiri Nemec, Evald Schorm
Rep. tchèque, 1966, PAL, 70 mn
zone 2, N&B, mono
13.00 €


English title: THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS
Original title: O SLAVNOSTI A HOSTECH

Directed by : Jan Nemec

with : Ivan Vyskocil, Jan Klusak, Jiri Nemec, Evald Schorm
Czechoslovakia, 1966, PAL, 70 mn
zone 2, Black and White, mono

Original Czech version with French subtitles

Jan Nemec is a Czech filmmaker whose most important work dates from the 1960s. Film historian Peter Hames has described him as the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave." His best known work is THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS (1966).
Its plot revolves around a group of friends on a picnic who are invited to a bizarre banquet by a charismatic sadist, played by Ivan Vyskocil, who eventually bullies most of them into blind conformity and brutality while those who resist are hunted down. The film particularly received a bad reception from the authorities as Vyskocil in the film had a remarkable likeness to Lenin, though according to Peter Hames this was accidental. Moreover, the cast consisted of various dissident Czechoslovak intellectuals of the day, including Josef Josef Škvorecký. The film was viewed as being so subversive to the Communist state that Antonín Novotný, the President, was said to "climb the walls" on viewing it and Nemec's arrest for subversion was considered.

Bonus : chapitering - booklet 24 pages


Watch a video excerpt :
Extrait "La Fete et les Invites"