Zahrada [The Garden] (Jan Švankmajer, 1968)
Oct
25
Jiří Hálek and Luděk Kopřiva as Josef and Frank. DP: Svatopluk Malý.
Smrt si říká Engelchen [Death Is Called Engelchen] (Ján Kadár + Elmar Klos, 1963)
Sep
19
ER – 1994
Pavel (Jan Kačer) recovering face-down in his hospital bed. DP: RudolfMilič.
An emergency room: ER debuts on this date in 1994.
A paralysed Czechoslovak partisan recovering from a shot in the back in an emergency ward, feverishly remembers the events that brought him to that moment. He particularly remembers Engelchen, the SS Sturmbannführer who killed his best friend and massacred the local villagers.
“Tell me the truth!”
Ovoce stromů rajských jíme [We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise] (Věra Chytilová, 1970)
Aug
6
orange
Eva (Jitka Novákova) devouring oranges under a black umbrella (via). DP: Jaroslav Kučera.
Orange, food or fashion*
– choir
An allegorical, psychedelic retelling of Genesis 3 and the Fall of Man
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
Ikarie XB 1 [Icarus XB 1] (Jindřich Polák, 1963)
Jun
26
An astronaut passing a perfectly symmetrical walkway, similar to the ones seen in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DP: Jan Kališ.
Touha zvaná Anada [Desire Called Anad / Adrift] (Elmar Klos + Ján Kadár, 1968/1971)
May
20
Zuzka (Milena Dravić) holds a mirror to Anada's (Paula Pritchett) face. Zuzka's husband Jánoš (Rade Marković) looks on. DP: Vladimír Novotný.
Maratón [The Marathon] (Ivo Novák, 1968)
May
5
1945
Karla (Jana Brejchová) and Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík). DP: Václav Hanuš.
“I cast my hat out into the universe, let it greet those who are on their way from Earth. From this day forward, the Moon is no longer a dream.”
Baron Prášil [The Fabulous Baron Munchausen] (Karel Zeman, 1962)
Mar
14
Under the Skin – 2013
The Baron (Miloš Kopecký) on the Moon clinks glasses with Cyrano de Bergerac (Karel Höger) and several characters from Jules Verne's De la terre à la lune (1865). A baffled 20th century astronaut looks on. DP: Jiří Tarantík.
A weird of quirky sci-fi film on the date Under the Skin (2013) was released in the UK.
– Cyrano de Bergerac
Touha zvaná Anada [Desire Called Anad / Adrift] (Elmar Klos + Ján Kadár, 1968/1971)
Jan
21
salt
Semi-off screen, an older man with a moustache at a dinner table – many plates, glasses, and foods – reaches for a bowl of salt. DP: Vladimír Novotný.
Holubice [The White Dove] (František Vláčil, 1960)
Dec
9
Official Lost And Found Day
Michal (Karel Smyczek) finds the white dove perched on a sculpture. The artwork depicts a faceless boy. DP: Jan Čuřík.
Something is lost and found on Official Lost and Found Day (USA)
Ikarie XB 1 [Icarus XB 1] (Jindřich Polák, 1963)
Jul
20
Space Exploration Day
Two astronauts weightlessly pushing themselves through a round airlock. Their suits are eerily similar to the ones seen in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DP: Jan Kališ.
Both anticapitalist and pre-Stanley space odyssey. Based on Stanislaw Lem's Obłok Magellana [The Magellanic Cloud] (1955).