"I weighed only three pounds when I was born, so everything I accomplished afterwards is to my credit."-Jirùí MenzelJirùí Menzel claims that his famous humor is simply Czech humor; Czechs, he once said, "see the other side of everything and are quick to spot a paradox. We can always see Mr. Brezhnev in his underwear." But as a filmmaker, an actor, and a stage director, Menzel is a humorist and humanist whose self-deprecating wit underplays the influence of his delicate tragicomedies of the little man. As Yvette Biro has written, "Menzel's philosophical comedies owe much to the modern Czech literary tradition. But his films reveal a unique and independent personality, a universe all his own." Menzel specialized in getting under the fingernails of the authorities, but unlike his fellow graduates of the Czech film school FAMU (Jan Neùmec, Milosù Forman, Ivan Passer et al), he renounced cynicism. "We all know that life is cruel and sad," he said. "What's the point of demonstrating this in films? Let us show we're brave by laughing at life." But the "reconciliation" he finds in laughter is not simplistic, nor does it come cheap. One of his most satisfyingly funny films, Capricious Summer, is an adaptation of a novel by Vladislav Vancùura, who was executed by the Nazis. Menzel and frequent literary collaborator Bohumil Hrabal made Larks on a String in 1969 to welcome the Prague Spring with eccentric humor at the expense of the heavy fifties, only to find that, in the surreal world of Czechs and balances, the fifties had returned with a vengeance. In the ensuing six years in which he was not allowed to make films, Menzel made theater, and made do. He returned to filmmaking in 1975, his characteristic gentle wit undaunted.Our tribute to Jirùí Menzel is made possible through the cooperation of the National Film Archive in Prague and Portobello Pictures in London, as well as through the Czech Center New York. Saturday December 4, 1999
