Bedřich Baťka
Camera
Biography
Beda Batka (August 21, 1922 – June 6, 1994) was a Czech and American cinematographer and a teacher in the Tisch School of the Arts. Batka started his career as a camera operator on the movie On the Right Track (1948). In Czechoslovakia he frequently worked with director Jiří Weiss. Batka told Weiss a story that happened at his wife's workplace. Weiss decided to use this story as a basis for his film Ninety Degrees in the Shade. In 1967 Batka was a director of photography for František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová, which was later voted the best Czech movie of all time. After he emigrated to USA, he taught cinematography at the Tisch School of the Arts. Among his students were Barry Sonnenfeld, Bill Pope, and the late Ken Kelsch. The best known movie he worked on in America was Little Darlings.
Known For

Two 15-year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.
Little Darlings

Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.
Marketa Lazarová

In a remote Slovak village in the closing days of World War II, a schoolteacher and his young wife find a wounded Russian parachutist in their front yard just as the Germans are coming in to occupy their village. As his wife readily becomes involved with anti-Nazi partisans, the schoolteacher collaborates with the Germans in fear.
The Coward

In a Prague shop, an assistant has been carrying on an affair with the dishonest, married manager. An emotionally repressed auditor with domestic problems of his own uncovers serious stock discrepancies. A test of loyalties and a questioning of values concludes in tragedy.
90° in the Shade

Wandering through the forest, a woodcutter finds a golden fern whose seed turns into a beautiful woman - they fall in love. After getting drunk in a village feast, he gets to sign up to the army. The fairy gives him a shirt to wear and asks him to swear he will never abandon it. At the war front, he falls in love with the the colonel's daughter and will have to perform various feats to get her attention.
The Golden Fern

“A bored housewife, a husband who married her for show, and a stupid boy who is full of himself because he is dating a Swiss woman.” The words of Inspector Tůma sound like they’re from a European melodrama, but in fact they come from a Czechoslovak crime story. A pair of detectives, counterfeit medicine, the high-society setting of a Karlovy Vary hotel, and Oldřich Nový as the aging hotel manager Kraus.
Where an Alibi Is Not Everything

An adventure story for young people set in a summer camp for boaters in Juná. Eda, marked by a tragic experience of occupation, has difficulty getting along with the other boys. He only gains their trust and friendship when he helps to uncover German saboteurs.
Na dobré stopě

The story of a friendship for life and death captures a real event that took place in the snowy Krkonoše Mountains in 1913. The actors of the drama were Bohumil Hanč, one of our first ski racers, and his friend Václav Vrbata. The film's plot takes place between 1912 and 1913 and is framed by two international 50 km races. After winning in 1912, Bohumil Hanč wants to stop racing at the behest of his wife Slávka. In 1913, strong foreign competitors enter the race, so Bohumil succumbs to the pleas of his friends and decides to race for the last time. However, the weather changes during the race. Strong winds and snow begin to blow, severe frost sets in, and for the racers, it means a fight for their lives.
Sons of the Mountains

The discovery of an unexploded aerial bomb on a construction site brings a shock to the peaceful existence of a small town: the sudden threat makes at least some people rethink their previous attitudes.
Bomba

Five years old Johnny is going for his first journey with no parents.
Johnny's Journey
A physically disabled lady is alone in her apartment one evening and has just accidentally overheard a conversation about a planned murder...
Promiňte, omyl!

A car deliberately runs down a young man on a road by a small border town. The locals recognize the dead man as one of the students who were there on volunteer work some time before. The police detectives, Major Kalas (Rudolf Hrusínský) and Lieutenant Varga (Radoslav Brzobohatý) can then get on the trail of the people with whom the victim was involved, especially at the photographic studio headed by Bohuslav Pacer (Bohus Záhorský).
Fear

Lyrical short story film about children's fantasy based on Ludvík Aškenázy's short stories Little Christmas and Lovers from the Box.
Hry a sny

When Dr. Hahn is found murdered in the hospital’s inspection room, investigators question several suspects: his colleague and longtime lover Dr. Marie Nováková (whom he cheated on with nurse Jiřina), the nurse herself, Dr. Petera (whose career he stymied), a senile patient named Zima, and the inept clinic head. As police sift through truthful and deceptive testimonies, complex professional rivalries and personal entanglements among the hospital staff come to light.
Sign of the Cancer

In the beginning, the book of Bohumil Říha was about the aircraft of Kaneti. Both the book and the film that came out of it tell about children's parties spending their holidays near the sports airport. The newly scanned airplane first assigns to aliens, then suspects them of espionage, but in the end it will explain everything. Children will even find the courage to take part in an aviation trip. According to period reviews, the film was a bad thing to teachers, as they said it was inappropriate.
Prázdniny v oblacích

On an early Sunday evening, people of the small town are reading lottery results that are hung on a board. Young man Karel Antos is annoyed that his lottery-ticket missed the main prize, a car, by only one number. Karel is going to the pub to drink away his bad luck with his friend Jirka Broz. The old accountant auditor Zelinka drops a wallet. Karel picks it up and before he gives it back he notices the winning lottery-ticket in it. Both young men accompany the old drunk man. Karel steals the ticket and exchanges it with his own. Next day, Zelinka is found dead. Investigators, Captain Tuma and the Lieutenant Líbal, soon discover that this is a murder case covered up as an accident.
A 105 p.c. Alibi

This drama with a criminal plot is a study of the intricately intertwined relationships of four people whose lives have been interrupted by the violent death of a loved one. The story begins almost classically: when a visitor rings the doorbell of a prominent scientist's villa, there is an explosion. The owner is found poisoned by gas in the demolished room. Everything suggests that he committed suicide. But then a major twist comes and the seemingly obvious suicide becomes a well thought out and carefully prepared crime...
Čtyři v kruhu
No description available.
Zajatci tmy

The story of a poor, disintegrating family of a mother Fišerová and her three children. It is set in the 1890s - a time when the poor working classes did not yet have the right to vote or a permanent eight-hour working day.
Policejní hodina

A detective comedy about ex-cashiers who - except for one - have improved and lead a proper and peaceful life and mostly desperately resist the slightest reminder of their past. However, one of them, Josef Fiala, formerly known as Procházka, is one day asked to open a safe in the Sitex factory that has been slammed open with keys inside by careless employees. The operation goes well, but in time Fiala finds himself suspected of theft...