My hobby is theatre and profession is movie: Jiří Menzel

“My hobby is theatre and profession is movie. Basically it’s like just me projecting my vision of the world on a wide canvas” said the renowned Czechoslovakian director Jiří Menzel as he interacted with the press with a wide smile on his face and quick wit in his words ,during the open forum conducted on 11th December at 10:30 am. 

When questioned about his anti communist views and the reason behind it he replied “In my personal opinion, since I was born before the war and had to face many a hardship under the regime that I feel that communism is bad for the economy and also overall to the soul of an individual striving under it. Communism is not free and it has not achieved anything worth mentioning.”   

“I don’t wish to make unnecessary films. Making a film just for the sake of film is nonsense to me. Making a film is not only about talent but it’s also about form. Most new wave directors including myself never actually knew we were part of a wave or change happening to film, we just portrayed the life and vision and ideas we saw, lived and breathed. I never thought of what I had to do I just did based on my life experiences and I tried to do my best without ideology. New wave directors were deeply influenced by the French new wave cinema that was happening at the time and we absorbed those new film making techniques the French new wave brought with it and just implemented it with our own unique style. This is more or less how it all began although I must say that the political instabilities and censorship more or less had an overall dramatic negative effect on the films made at the time and this is a saddening but unavoidable reality of that time “said Menzel in response to when he was questioned about how it all began and his early film making days and also on being a part of the new wave film movement back in Czechoslovakia.