Pro peníze

I would liken this oldest surviving peasant drama to the golden era of this genre in the second half of the 1930s, although at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire everything was still very different. Antonín Pech's films, along with the works of ASUM and Kříženecký, are among the most significant examples of how filmmaking was actually done in the Czech lands. This particular generation may not have developed their film careers significantly after the war, but there is no question that they all deserve our almost sacred respect. Without them, the Czechs would have nothing to build on, and in the years to come, other pioneers would not succumb to the magic of celluloid. (2009.02.21)