This year's second movie of the traditional Summer Rooftop Movie Series organized by the Czech Center New York on the roof terrace of the Bohemian National Hall, will be the musical Smoke.
Tickets here.
The Summer Rooftop Movie Series is organized in collaboration with Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).
The film screening starts at 8 PM.
The bar opens at 7 PM. Refreshments from the Bohemian Spirit Restaurant will be available for cash only.
There will be a workshop in Czech with Kateřina Šedá about her new project National Collection of Bad Habits before the film screening (7-8 pm). At 8 pm, Czech multimedia artist and producer Pavel Liška aka Lishown will show his short experimental program Inspired by New York City – Colors of New York presenting his current projects.
Smoke
Czechoslovakia, 1990. Musical. Directed by Tomáš Vorel. Duration: 90 min
In Czech with English subtitles.
Tomáš Vorel’s Kouř (Smoke) enjoys a unique position among the pictures produced by the generation of filmmakers that emerged at the turn of the 1990s. The comedy, subtitled “A musical of the totalitarian age”, has cult status with both contemporaries of its then 33-year-old non-conformist creator and viewers who were just coming of age in 1990. Lumír Tuček of the Onwards Recital Group, which appeared in his 1988 portmanteau film Pražská 5 (Prague Five), worked with Vorel on the screenplay of this sarcastic comedy inspired by omnipresent totalitarian “smoke”.
The narrative's protagonist is idealistic young engineer Miroslav Čáp (Jan Slovák), who starts his first job determined to fulfill his duties to the best of his abilities. However, his new colleagues don’t take their work at all seriously. Instead, denunciations, favoritism, scheming, fraud, alcoholism, and promiscuity are rampant. Miroslav refuses to play the game and unwittingly sparks an uprising against the incompetent management. However, both the character and makers of the film are skeptical of “revolutionary changes” for good...
More information about the film at the National Film Archive here.
More screenings in the series:
The Hop-Pickers August 10, 2023
The Rebels August 24, 2023
Invention for Destruction (as part of Films by Karel Zeman) August 31, 2023
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