
Ivan Král
Directing
Biography
Ivan Král is a Czech-born American composer, filmmaker, record producer, bass guitar player, and singer-songwriter. He works across genres including punk, rock, jazz, soul, country and film scores.
Known For

Set in 1959, Diner shows how five young men resist their adulthood and seek refuge in their beloved Diner. The mundane, childish, and titillating details of their lives are shared. But the golden moments pass, and the men shoulder their responsibilities, leaving the Diner behind.
Diner

Two families, Sebkovi and Krausovi, are celebrating Christmas, but not everyone is in a good mood. The teenage kids think that their fathers are totally stupid, and the fathers are sure that their children are nothing more than rebels, hating anything they say.
Cosy Dens

Vladimír Michálek chose an unconventional adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel for his feature debut. Artistically reminiscent of the classic films of Karel Zeman, the director reinterpreted this dark story of a man vainly seeking a place in a rigidly ordered society by changing the desperate conclusion into a happy end. The film provided Czech comedian Jirí Lábus with a new kind of role: that of the despotic uncle of a main hero Karel Rossman (Martin Dejdar).
Amerika

This is Poe and Král's first effort, shot on small-gauge stock, before their more well-known endeavor The Blank Generation (1976) came to be. A "DIY" portrait of the New York music scene, the film is a patchwork of footage of numerous rock acts performing live, at venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the dive bars of Greenwich Village and, of course, CBGB.
Night Lunch

A crazy pseudo-documentary about Mnaga&Zdorp, a real (and much loved) Czech pop-rock group. It depicts their fictitious history of being created artificially, on demand of the musical market.
Mňága – Happy End

Ester Krumbachová - a costume designer, screenwriter, director; one of the boldest personalities of the Czech New Wave. She worked in theatre, she was a writer and an illustrator. She co-created films such as O slavnosti a hostech (1966), Sedmikrásky (1966), Vsichni dobrí rodáci (1969), Pension pro svobodné pány (1968), Valerie a týden divu (1970), Slamený klobouk (1972) and many others. In the 1960s, she was a 'pivot' of the art scene in Prague, attracting artists who were on the threshold of their career, just setting out to find their own form of self-realization. Those who underwent her tutelage remember her forever. Director Vera Chytilová talks to those who knew Ester Krumbachová, who worked with her, befriended her, loved her. She sets off on a search that is to end by answering the question: Who was Ester?
Searching for Ester

A psychotic saxophone player lures victims to deserted spots with his music and then guns them down.
Subway Riders

Sketched loosely, the narrative of Poe's first feature is as scrappy and paper-thin as its protagonist Rico, a self-styled loner in New York City circa 1976 who longs to inhabit the "New Wave" scene of mid-60s Paris. In Rico's day-to-day life as an unsuccessful photographer, he wearily searches for authentic connection-- even as he spouts the most inauthentic prose imaginable.
Unmade Beds

The cream of the New York new wave/punk crop, filmed live at CBGB when the scene was just beginning. Includes performances by Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Heartbreakers, the Shirts, Wayne County, the Marbles, the Dolls, Miamis, Harry Toledo, and the Tuff Darts (w/Robert Gordon).
The Blank Generation

A French special op suffers an existential crisis as he wanders New York City in search of a mission and the requisite connections.
The Foreigner
In this 1995 made-for television biopic, see legendary musician and filmmaker Ivan Kral as he made music history. With guitar and camera in the 70s, playing with Iggy Pop, Blondie and Patti Smith Group, he triumphed, rising from refugee to rock icon.
Dancing Barefoot
Young regional director Petr Dresler accepts an offer to direct the play "The Last Train to Sussex Has Already Left" at a large brick theater in Prague. However, he has no idea that all Prague directors have already turned down this job before him.
Bardi

The Patti Smith Group's Rockpalast performance in 1979 was a live concert broadcast as part of the German Rockpalast series. The band at that time included Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Ivan Kral, Jay Dee Daugherty, and Richard Sohl. This performance is notable as it captured the band during a period of their career following the release of their album "Easter" in 1978.
Patti Smith Group: Rockpalast 1979
Poetic movie about 3 generations of women.
Modré z neba

A tribute to the bustling beauty of Manhattan, inspired by Andy Warhol's 1964 film "Empire".
Empire II

Concert film and interview from Patti Smith Group's 1976 visit to Stockholm shot for Swedish television.
Patti Smith Live in Stockholm 1976
Tobiáš is a drummer for Ivan Král. He is also a professional garbage collector. He lives among garbage cans and a landfill. There he literally finds Pavla—a fragile, golden-haired creature with slashed wrists, unconscious. The love between Tobiáš and Pavla is strong, elemental—chaos. Pavla collapses in a nightclub. During a song, she is carried out on a stretcher. The head doctor at the hospital tells Tobiáš about Pavla's incurable illness and her impending death. Tobiáš raises money to save her life through charity concerts. After futile efforts, an opportunity for fraud arises. Even that doesn't help them. Yet in this situation, they find something much more important...