Moravian Hellas
1964 · 33 MIN · IMDB 7.4 · 35 VOTES · DIR. Karel Vachek
Overview
Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.
Dialogue Timeline — 406 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:07 Moravian Hellas
00:02:59 These silk threads have to be there using this wee pendulum
00:04:10 The school's intention is to retain tradition of decorative sewing
00:05:28 As part of the Strážnice Festival our school organizes an exhibition.
00:06:26 Not even from high up do they order these things to be thrown out.
00:07:30 My name is Zdenek Galuška and l perform Slovak-Moravian humour.
00:08:50 Listen, when l see you from a distance, you look a bit dumb to me.
00:09:57 out of which our ornament is created.
00:11:08 There are some aprons, ribbons that l wear
00:12:29 When you won't sit and paint patiently, you'll achieve nought.
00:13:33 The interview is finished. lt's not easy, Miss.
00:14:48 and when we die, everything will perish with it.
00:16:21 Aya Hey, my sweet soul...
00:17:33 Not only because there's the painted picture over here...
00:19:00 my ancestors founded the place.
00:20:09 ln this row there's sixty street numbers approximately
00:21:14 but the work is fascinating lovely un fact
00:22:27 based on melodies of old established ones
00:23:26 And when l begun to compose songs
00:24:42 lt had a sad ending, many failed. Citizens!
00:26:16 Popular Scientific Movie.
00:29:15 it was awful, just terrible.
00:30:20 he's the head of the Museum in Uherský Brod.
00:31:34 and with the last drop of its blood feeds us all