Juraj Jakubisko
Encyclopedia
He is currently based in Prague.
Career
Before entering the film industry, Jakubisko taught still photography at a BratislavaBratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
secondary school for applied arts and worked for a television in Košice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
. In 1960 he moved to 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...
where he attended the FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts - http://web.amu.cz/?r_id=610), studying direction under Václav Wasserman
Václav Wasserman
Václav Wasserman was a Czechoslovak screenwriter, film actor and director. He wrote for 91 films between 1920 and 1958.-Selected filmography:* From the Czech Mills * The Organist at St...
's tuition. He graduated in 1965.
After his studies Jakubisko worked with Alfréd Radok
Alfréd Radok
Alfréd Radok was a distinguished Czech stage director.He worked as the stage director of the National Theatre in Prague in the years 1948 to 1949 and 1966 to 1968. Radok's work belongs to the top of the Czech stage direction of the 20th century...
at the Laterna magika http://www.laterna.cz/welcome.php?lang=en theater in 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...
and began winning international acclaim with his experimental short films before making his first feature Crucial Years or Christ's Years (Kristove roky, 1967).
The promising career of the young director was heavily crippled by the communist regime. He managed to complete only 3 films before he was sidetracked in the difficult period following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
invasion which crushed the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
reform period in Czechoslovakia
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...
. During that period, he made a few documentaries. Fortunately the situation got gradually better so that he could film Three Sacks of Cement and a Live Rooster (Tri vrecia cementu a živý kohút, 1976) although it was not released until 1978.
He returned to feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
-making with Build a House, Plant a Tree (Postav dom, zasaď strom, 1980). Jakubisko earned international acclaim with the epic A Thousand-Year Old Bee (sometimes mistranslated as "millennial"; Tisícročná včela
Tisícrocná vcela
Tisícročná včela , is a 1983 film made and produced in Czechoslovakia, West Germany and Austria. The film is based on a novel written by Peter Jaroš and was directed by Juraj Jakubisko.-External links:* at Slovak Film Database...
, 1983). This movie was a real event for the country. People of all ages went to see it in mass and the tickets were sold out for many weeks after its release. Since then he won further international awards and earned great respect worldwide. Another popular film still played in TV is Perinbaba
Perinbaba
The Feather Fairy is a 1985 adaptation of a Brothers Grimm's Mother Hulda short story directed by Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko. A fairy tale about a grandam who cares for snow and a boy who isn't afraid of death....
.
Jakubisko is often also credited as a screenplay writer as he usually co-writes or writes the scripts of his movies.
Báthory (2008 film)
Recently a lot of gossip and curiosity has been generated regarding his current project Báthory. The film stars Anna FrielAnna Friel
Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She rose to fame in the UK as Beth Jordache on the Channel 4 soap Brookside.-Early life:...
as Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...
, a 16th-17th century Hungarian countess, who some argue was one of history's most prolific mass murderers
Most prolific murderers by number of victims
*For serial killers see: List of serial killers by number of victims*For mass murderers and spree killers see: List of rampage killers...
. She was reputed for example to have bathed in the blood of young Slovak women. Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
was originally cast in the title role.
In addition to being Jakubisko's first English-language film,
Báthory is reported be the most expensive motion picture production in the history of Czech
Cinema of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic was a seedbed for many acclaimed film directors.Three Czech/Czechoslovak movies that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film were The Shop on Main Street by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos in 1965, Closely Watched Trains by Jiří Menzel in 1967 and...
or Slovak cinema
Cinema of Slovakia
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival...
, involving investments of numerous companies around Europe.
Báthory is scheduled for release in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Slovakia on July 4, 2008 at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, and on September 11, 2008 in Hungary.
In 2007 it was reported that two former production staff members, Jan Milic and Karel Lupomesky, stole a copy of Báthory from studios in Prague and were threatening to release it on the Internet if they weren't given GB £12,000. They were soon apprehended and the film was recovered, apparently without being prematurely leaked online. After their trial, the pair were given eight and ten month suspended sentences for trying to blackmail producer Deana Jakubisková-Horváthová.
Filmography
for full filmography check imdb- Bathory (2008)
- Post Coitum (2004)
- Nejasná správa o konci sveta (1997) (An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World)
- Lepšie byť bohatý a zdravý ako chudobný a chorý (1993) (It's Better to Be Wealthy and Healthy Than Poor and Ill)
- Dovidenia v pekle, priatelia (1970, released 1990) (See You in Hell, Friends)
- Sedím na konári a je mi dobre (1989) (I'm Sitting on a Branch and I'm Fine)
- Frankensteinova teta (1987) TV miniseries (Frankenstein's AuntFrankenstein's AuntFrankenstein's Aunt is the protagonist of three novels - two by Allan Rune Pettersson and a seven-episode TV miniseries based on the first one...
) - PerinbabaPerinbabaThe Feather Fairy is a 1985 adaptation of a Brothers Grimm's Mother Hulda short story directed by Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko. A fairy tale about a grandam who cares for snow and a boy who isn't afraid of death....
(1985) - Tisícročná včelaTisícrocná vcelaTisícročná včela , is a 1983 film made and produced in Czechoslovakia, West Germany and Austria. The film is based on a novel written by Peter Jaroš and was directed by Juraj Jakubisko.-External links:* at Slovak Film Database...
(1983) (A Thousand-Year Old Bee) - Nevera po slovensky (1981) (Infidelity, Slovak Style; 2-part TV miniseries)
- Postav dom, zasaď strom (1980) (Build a House, Plant a Tree)
- Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni (1969) (Birds, Orphans and Fools)
- Zbehovia a pútnici (1968) (The Deserters and the Nomads, aka Deserters and Pilgrims)
- Kristove roky (1967) (Crucial Years aka Christ's Years)