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Evald Schorm

Evald Schorm

Directing

Biography

At one time, Czech director Evald Schorm was known as "the conscience of the Czech New Wave" and was known for using film to promote notions of compassion, equality, and individualism in the face of social structure. Originally an opera singer, the Prague native studied filmmaking at the prestigious F.A.M.U. between 1957 and 1962. He went on to create documentaries with the Documentary Film Studio in Prague. Schorm also worked as a film actor. Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Communist government repressed his films. Still, Schorm remained in Czechoslovakia and directed opera, stage plays, and sometimes television shows. He returned to feature filmmaking in the late '80s, but died of heart failure in 1988.

Known For

Prague Nights
5.8

A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius, lonely and looking for a night's diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde. In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In "The Last Golem," a young rabbi struggles to fashion a massive, silent giant out of living clay — until he's distracted by a mute servant girl. In the second episode, "Bread Slippers," an 18th-century countess indulges her passion for sweet cakes, adulterous affairs, and secret kisses with pretty maids until a mysterious visitor whisks her away to an abandoned mansion, where Fate has a different kind of dance in store for her. And in the final story, "Poisoned Poisoner," a ravishing murderess in the Middle Ages dispatches lecherous merchants to the tune of upbeat '60s Czech pop songs.

Prague Nights

1969Movie
The Karamazov Brothers
7.0

Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.

The Karamazov Brothers

2008Movie