Jiří Menzel (ˈjɪr̝iː ˈmɛntsl̩) (born February 23, 1938, Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

) is a Czech film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

. His films often combine a humanistic

Humanism

Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

 view of the world with sarcasm

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...

 and provocative cinematography

Cinematography

Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal

Bohumil Hrabal

Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...

 and Vladislav Vančura

Vladislav Vancura

Vladislav Vančura was one of the most important Bohemian writers of the 20th century...

.

He became famous in 1967, when his first feature film, Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains

Closely Watched Trains is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. It was released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The film is based on a story by...

, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

. His controversial film Larks on a String

Larks on a String

Larks on a String is a 1990 Czech film directed by Jiří Menzel. It tells the stories of various characters considered 'bourgeois' by the Czech government in the 1950s, and have been forced to work in a junkyard for the purposes of 're-education'. The movie was filmed in 1969, but was banned by...

was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the Czech

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear

Golden Bear

According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival

40th Berlin International Film Festival

The 40th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 9 to 20, 1990.-Jury:* Michael Ballhaus * Margaret Ménégoz * Vadim Abdrashitov* Suzana Amaral* Steven Bach* Roberto Benigni* Lívia Gyarmathy...

.

Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy My Sweet Little Village

My Sweet Little Village

My Sweet Little Village is a 1985 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. In 1987 it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. At the 1986 Montreal World Film Festival, it won the Special Jury Award and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. At the Paris Film Festival in 1987...

. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival

37th Berlin International Film Festival

The 37th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 20 February to 3 March 1987.-Jury:* Klaus Maria Brandauer * Juliet Berto* Kathleen Carroll* Callisto Cosulich* Victor Dyomin* Reinhard Hauff* Edmund Luft* Jiří Menzel...

.

Filmography as director

Year	English title	Original title	Notes
1960	Prefabricated Houses	Domy z panelů	School film
1963	Our Mr. Foerster Died	Umřel nám pan Foerster	School film
1965	Concert '65	Koncert 65	Short documentary
1965	Crime at the Girls School	Zločin v dívčí škole	Segment "Crime at the Girls School"
1966	Pearls of the Deep	Perličky na dně	Segment "Smrt pana Baltazara"
1966	Closely Watched Trains Closely Watched Trains Closely Watched Trains is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. It was released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains. It is a coming-of-age story about a boy working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The film is based on a story by...	Ostře sledované vlaky
1968	Crime in a Music Hall	Zločin v šantánu
1968	Capricious Summer Capricious Summer Capricious Summer is a 1968 Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel. It is based on the novel Rozmarné léto by the Czech writer Vladislav Vančura...	Rozmarné léto
1969	Larks on a String Larks on a String Larks on a String is a 1990 Czech film directed by Jiří Menzel. It tells the stories of various characters considered 'bourgeois' by the Czech government in the 1950s, and have been forced to work in a junkyard for the purposes of 're-education'. The movie was filmed in 1969, but was banned by...	Skřivánci na niti	Banned and not released until 1990
1974	Altered Landscapes	Proměny krajiny	Short documentary
1974	Who Looks for Gold?	Kdo hledá zlaté dno
1976	Seclusion Near a Forest	Na samotě u lesa
1978	Those Wonderful Movie Cranks Those Wonderful Movie Cranks Those Wonderful Movie Cranks is a Czech comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel. It was released in 1978.-Cast:* Rudolf Hrusínský - Pasparte* Vladimír Mensík - Slapeta* Jirí Menzel - Kolenatý* Vlasta Fabianová - Emílie Kolárová-Mladá...	Báječní muži s klikou
1980	Cutting It Short Cutting It Short Cutting It Short is a 1980 Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel. It is based on the novel Postřižiny by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. The story is set in a brewery in a Czech small town.Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the film.-Cast:...	Postřižiny
1981	Tři v tom		TV theatre
1982	Krasosmutnění		TV film
	Dr. Johann Faust, Praha II., Karlovo nám. 40		TV theatre
1984	The Snowdrop Festival	Slavnosti sněženek
1985	My Sweet Little Village My Sweet Little Village My Sweet Little Village is a 1985 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. In 1987 it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. At the 1986 Montreal World Film Festival, it won the Special Jury Award and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. At the Paris Film Festival in 1987...	Vesničko má středisková
1986	Chocolate Cop	Die Schokoladenschnüffler
1989	End of Old Times	Konec starých časů
1981	Audience		TV film
1991	Beggar's Opera	Žebrácká opera
1993	Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin	Život a neobyčejná dobrodružství vojáka Ivana Čonkina
1998	Jacobowski a plukovník		TV film
2002	Ten Minutes Older Ten Minutes Older Ten Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films titled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. Fifteen celebrated film-makers were invited to...		Segment "One Moment"
2006	I Served the King of England I Served the King of England (film) I Served the King of England is a 2006 Czech film, directed by Jiří Menzel and based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal. This film is Menzel's sixth adaptation of the works of Hrabal for film...	Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále

TV series

• Hospoda (The Pub) (1996). A sitcom where Menzel played a psychiatrist, who came everyday to one Prague pub. He made lots of fun with his friends.

External links

• Laughter is the best way to get to know the world - interview with Jiří Menzel - official portal of the Czech Republic
• CFN