Toyen

Czech author and poet of Czech cinema Jan Němec presents his unique vision inspired by life and art of surrealist painter.

Toyen
Czechia 2005
64 min.
Přístupný
  • This film is available until 31. 12. 2024 in these territories: Czechia.
About

The title of the film refers to one of the most important names in 20th century Czech modern art, the artist and painter who went by the mysterious pseudonym of Toyen. Director Jan Němec, however, does not reconstruct her life (1902–1980) as documentary facts; it would be far more accurate to characterise this work as an idiosyncratic vision on the theme of Toyen and her destiny. Němec is guided by the intuition and empathy of a poet, linking up fragments and details in such a way that, via association, he begins to reveal what fired her imagination. He takes a close look round her bizarre small flat in Žižkov where she hid poet Jindřich Heisler during the war, he finds traces of their uneasy coexistence and captures fragments of their conversations. His camera lens notices faded photographs, small particulars of everyday life, structures of different types of materials, views from the window, the play of light on the walls of the room at various periods of the day…

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Credits
Director: Jan Němec
Based on: Tereza Brdečková
Screenplay: Jan Němec, Tereza Brdečková
Cinematography: Jiří Maxa
Sound: Ivo Špalj
Editing: Michal Lánský
Production Design: Tereza Kučerová
Producer: Iva Ruszeláková
Costumes: Pavla Michálková
Cast: Zuzana Stivínová, Jan Budař, Tobiáš Jirous, Marek Bouda
Links
  • This film is available until 31. 12. 2024 in these territories: Czechia.