The best Jana Brejchová’s drama movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Jana Brejchová’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Jana Brejchová.
Beauty and the Beast
7.5/10
Julie, the youngest daughter of a bankrupt merchant, sacrifices her life in order to save her father. She goes to an enchanted castle in the woods and meets Netvor, a bird-like monster. As Netvor begins to fall in love with Julie, he must suppress his beastly urge to kill her.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
6.5/10
Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.
Desire
6.8/10
A poignant overview of how short life can be, this interesting drama from Czech director Vojetch Jasny is divided into four separate segments. In the first skit, a young child's impressions are observed as his newborn baby sister becomes a part of the family. In the second, a young woman falls in love for the first time one summer, and in the third, a tough, older peasant woman battles against the farming cooperatives. Finally, in the last segment, everything comes full circle as a woman who is about to become a grandmother dies while her daughter-in-law has not yet given birth.
Quiet Happiness
6.9/10
This film is a psychological study of a woman who chooses solitude as an escape from the duplicity and emotional barrenness of the men around her.
Jehla
A Suburban Romance
7/10
The title of this Czech domestic drama translates loosely as A Suburban Romance. The heroine is a young, unmarried woman who finds herself a "little bit pregnant." She tries to hide this fact from her mother, but it isn't long before the truth is obvious. This is the main story; the rest of the film consists of brief character vignettes, illustrating the diversity of the neighborhood in which the girl lives. Refreshingly, Zizkowska Romance is free of political propaganda, which was the exception rather than the rule back in 1958. The film was one of Czechoslovakia's entries in that year's Cannes Film Festival.
Return to Paradise Lost
4.6/10
Higher Principle
8.3/10
During the Nazi occupation of a Czech city civilians are being rounded up on the slightest of pretexts and shot. One day three high school boys who crack jokes about a recently deceased "hero of the Reich" are pulled out of school by the Gestapo.
May Stars
6.7/10
May 1945. On the outskirts of Prague, ordinary people meet Soviet soldiers-liberators with tears of joy in their eyes. In the early days of the lull, someone sadly recalls a pre-war life; someone unexpectedly meets his love; someone is returning from enemy dungeons looking hopefully into the future; and someone, having moved from a tank into a Czech tram, warmly recalls his craft as a car driver... These days, all those who survived the Great War fire swear an oath to keep peace on Earth forever, honoring the memory of those who gave their lives for simple human happiness.
Beauty in Trouble
6.8/10
Marcela can't bear Jarda any longer, so she threatens divorce and takes the kids to her mom's, whose husband is a creep. While Marcela is there, Jarda is jailed, because he is part of a gang steeling cars and they get caught in the act. Benes, the urbane man whose car got stolen by Jarda and his gang, befriends Marcela. Soon she feels drawn to Benes and all of a sudden she must make up her mind: Jarda is still sexually attractive to her, but Benes offers security, and her own body and mind may not pull at the same strand.
Das Haus in der Karpfengasse
7.6/10
Labyrint srdce
5.4/10
The Nun's Night
7.3/10
A dark fable set in an early 1950s Czech village, a time of Soviet-style socialism which saw the implementation of collectivized agriculture and the mass closure of monasteries and convents.
Devilish Honeymoon
7.3/10
Black comedy about a genius inventor and two young, smart and beautiful women. Both of them putting all their effort into getting the one man. This will inevitable lead to all sorts of mischief, crime and even a murder. This murder-comedy, shot at the dawn of normalization has intentionally broke off from any connection to the reality of its time. The director Zdeněk Podskalský has focused on creating intriguing story lines, revolving around the two endeavouring female characters who are fighting for the same man. Two competing parties are not only ready to kill the other, but also (if necessary) the potential groom. This film has enabled the members of the cast, composed mainly of the brightest stars of the Czech acting scene of that time, to show an incredible acting range, from the lightest comedy to the darkest cynical morbidity.
Probuzení
7.6/10
Wolf Trap
6.9/10
The title of this highly-regarded Czech drama translates as Wolf Trap. Set in the 1920s, the story revolves around an ambitious young provincial politician (Miroslav Dolozai) who enters into a marriage of convenience with a smotheringly possessive -- and much older -- woman (Jirina Sejbavola). Hoping to temporarily escape his overbearing wife's clutches, the husband strikes up a friendship with her young ward (Jana Brejchova). The relationship blossoms into a deep abiding love, but the jellyfish husband can't bring himself to declare his ardor to the girl. Even after the death of the wife, the husband hasn't the intestinal fortitude to admit his passion, and the results are bleak indeed for the unfortunate ward. Director Jiri Weiss does a masterful job staging his story of frustration and denial against a backdrop of post-WWI bourgeois banality.
Maratón
6.8/10
It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.
End of the Lonely Farm Berhof
7.2/10
Drama set on an isolated farm on the Czech-Polish border immediately after the end of WWII.
Scalpel, Please
7.9/10
Old doctor, a great neurochirurg, stands before difficult and almost impossible surgery. Little boy Vitek Uzel carries in his brain a tumor that according to most doctors cannot be removed without killing the pacient. By looking into doctor's memories and past we can watch his struggle while he is telling himself that theoretical chance is not enough.... Will he decide to proceed with the surgery saving the boy as he is sentenced to death anyway? This movie directed by Jiri Svoboda is very exceptional.
The Night Overtake Me
7/10
A communist journalist from Prague is sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp.
