Evald Schorm

The road show arrived to small village and after the play inhabitans are in some mysterious danger.

Gathering five seminal figures of the Czech New Wave at the dawn of their careers for the first celluloid transliteration of Bohumil Hrabal, Pearls of the Deep has cultural and historical cachet to burn, but as with most omnibus films the on-screen results are mixed. (prague.tv)

"Everyday Courage" or "Courage for Every Day" is a beautifully made fllm of great poetic restraint about a young man living in Prague before the collapse of communism. It is best described as belonging to the school of realism which marked the Czech films of the sixties, and its director, Evald Schorm, was noted for his refusal to compromise the subject matter or style of his films with the regime which controlled the film studios. (www.surrealmoviez.info)

Schorm's third film of contemporary social criticism, Saddled with Five Girls, forms a kind of trilogy with Everyday Courage and The Return of the Prodigal Son. Less pessimistic than his earlier work, Saddled with Five Girls is a film of youthful love and alienation which juxtaposes its narrative with scenes from Weber's Die Freischütz. (History of Narrative Film by David A. Cook)

A verger, who likes to dress as a priest, is invited, by one of the villagers, to be the pastor at a vacant church. The atheist teacher resents the pastor, and tries to embarrass him in various ways, including being caught with the local girl, Majka. (imdb)

Early rare short document about famous one-armed photographer Josef Sudek by the "philosopher of Czech new wave" Evald Schorm. (karagarga)

The mind of a man whose life is apparently running smoothly but who attempts suicide is delved into in this sincere movie. The story catches up with him during his treatment at a mental health clinic which grants him short passes away, but to which he must return. (karagarga)

Evald Schorm provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.

In the vein of horror anthologies like Mario Bava’s BLACK SABBATH, the long-unseen PRAGUE NIGHTS is a gorgeous and supernatural vision of ancient and modern Prague, caught between Mod Sixties fashions and nightmarish Medieval catacombs, and filled with Qabbalistic magic, occult rituals, giant Golems, clockwork automatons and satanic visitors. (vinegarsyndrome.com)