
Jiří Menzel
Jiří Menzel (Czech: [ˈjɪr̝iː ˈmɛntsl̩] was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura.
Menzel, a member of the Czech New Wave, became internationally famous in 1967, when his first feature film, Closely Watched Trains, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His controversial film Larks on a String was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the Czechoslovakian government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.
Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy My Sweet Little Village. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989 he was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1995 he was a member of the jury at the 19th Moscow International Film Festival. He would be conferred with IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2013.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 0.004 |
Birthday | 1938-02-23 |
Place of Birth | Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic] |
Also Known As | Jirí Menzel, Jiri Menzel, 이리 멘젤, 이리 멘첼, |

1966

Closely Watched Trains
7.275/231
At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to...
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Closely Watched Trains

1990

Larks on a String
6.9/43
In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a...
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Larks on a String

2009

Operation Dunaj
5/12
Operation Danube was the cover name for the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The fleet of Polish tanks which arrive to...
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Operation Dunaj

1972

Sechse kommen durch die Welt
5/5
The King of Malabunt has won another war, after decorating himself and his three wooden marshals, he dismisses his army with a low wages. One of his s...
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Sechse kommen durch die Welt

2005

Pocta V+W
0/0
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Pocta V+W

1968

Capricious Summer
6.6/28
Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It...
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Capricious Summer

1982

Ferat Vampire
5.5/28
A doctor is shocked when his beloved colleague Mima signs a contract with foreign car manufacturer Ferat, in order to work for them as a rally-driver....
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Ferat Vampire

1980

Hra na telo
0/0
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Hra na telo

1969

The Cremator
7.769/229
In 1930s Prague, a Czech cremator who firmly believes cremation relieves one from earthly suffering is drawn inexorably to Nazism.
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The Cremator

1978

The Apple Game
5.9/6
Sarcastic comedy about the Czechoslovakia of the seventies. A young gynaecologist can't figure out whether to get serious with a young nurse or to sta...
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The Apple Game

1979

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks
6/12
Returning home to Prague, the magician Pasparte, an owner of a circus caravan, meets his dying colleague who entrusts his beautiful daughter Aloisie t...
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Those Wonderful Movie Cranks

1962

Ceiling
5.1/7
The young Marta has made a break in her medical education to fully invest in her career as a model. We follow her for a day in her life, almost comple...
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Ceiling

1967

The Return of the Prodigal Son
5.8/15
Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussio...
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The Return of the Prodigal Son

1964

Hory hory
0/0
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Hory hory

1964

A Place in the Crowd
0/0
A film in five episodes, all based on an attempt to show the life of young people today, their feelings and relationships, their behaviour in public a...
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A Place in the Crowd

1979

Minden szerdán
0/0
Stephen, living in a troubled family, breaks into a grocery store and wreaks vandalism. He is sent to a reform school. Later he works in a cleaning br...
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Minden szerdán

1964

Dobrá rada je nad zlato
0/0
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Dobrá rada je nad zlato

1966

Searching
5.1/8
Michal's father and his friends are stigmatized by their war experience and the post-war social deformations in which they took part either directly,...
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Searching

1966

Pearls of the Deep
6/29
A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement’s direct...
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Pearls of the Deep

1965

Pension pro svobodné pány
6/1
A young man living in a strictly run boarding house secretly brings a girl of loose morals into his room at night, who is nevertheless well-groomed an...
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Pension pro svobodné pány

1966

Volejte Martina
6/1
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Volejte Martina

1965

If a Thousand Clarinets
7.3/12
A military base. An awkward soldier. A statue of Bach. And suddenly all guns in the area change into music instruments. Great mystery is immediately f...
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If a Thousand Clarinets

1966

Martin Speaking
0/0
The second installment of children's stories investigator Dr. Martin. The film has two stories:
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Martin Speaking

1966

Flám
0/0
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Flám

1967

Private Torment
0/0
A worker steals bits and pieces of building materials from work to construct a new home for himself and his girlfriend. When he discovers that she’s h...
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Private Torment

1990

The Gentle Barbarian
5.3/3
A commemorative and essayistic meditative piece on the Prague quarter Libeň during the 1950s.
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The Gentle Barbarian

1995

Too Loud A Solitude
7.5/2
An elderly paper-crusher branded a fool in Prague secretly stashes condemned books, preserving their contents and extrapolating from them eccentric sc...
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Too Loud A Solitude

1985

Albert
7/3
Story of an extraordinary musician, violinist, who was famous, but his alcoholism led him to poverty. Now he is playing time from time to rich people....
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Albert

1983

Hearty Greetings from the Globe
6.9/8
Two aliens stir up trouble on Earth in order to study humans. Misunderstandings ensue.
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Hearty Greetings from the Globe

1970

Nevěsta
0/0
The female employees of the poultry-processing factory find relief from their monotonous work in chatting about weddings and marriages. The very young...
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Nevěsta

1972

Straw Hat
6.1/6
Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a weal...
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Straw Hat

1995

Joint Venture
2/1
Prague 1994, hotbed of international profiteers. Here you can still find buyers for discarded everyday objects, here you can still buy cheap houses -...
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Joint Venture

2014

Bohumil Hrabal „Takže se stalo, že...“
0/0
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Bohumil Hrabal „Takže se stalo, že...“

2004

Daddy
6.3/3
This film is a documentary-style look at the life of the beloved Czech actor, Zdeněk Svěrák.
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Daddy

1983

Fandy ó Fandy
4.3/3
Little kids, little worries, big kids, big worries, sighs many a parent often. This is no different for the mother of eighteen-year-old Frantisek, who...
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Fandy ó Fandy


The Presence of Arnošt Lustig
0/0
"A man is immortal as long as he lives in the memory of others,” said well-known Czech writer Arnošt Lustig with a wry smile. In December 2006 when he...
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The Presence of Arnošt Lustig

2012

Signál
4.4/5
Two young technicians, Filos and Kája, come to a small village that is a bit cut off from the rest of the world in order to find the best place to ins...
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Signál

1983

Passing Fancy
0/0
The main character of the story which takes place in the twenties in Budapest is the poet Dr. Rácz György, who returns after ten years of absence. In...
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Passing Fancy

2014

Milan Čorba
0/0
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Milan Čorba

1995

Má je pomsta
2/1
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Má je pomsta

1979

Koportos
0/0
Balog Mihály, the Gypsy man from Szabolcs works in Budapest. That is where he is notified that his young wife died. Again he behaves differently from...
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Koportos

1990

Martha and I
7/1
Emil (Vaclav Chalupa as a teen, Ondrej Vetchy as an adult) has been naughty, and his family is at a loss about what to do with him. He's been dallying...
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Martha and I

1990

Martha and I
7/1
Emil (Vaclav Chalupa as a teen, Ondrej Vetchy as an adult) has been naughty, and his family is at a loss about what to do with him. He's been dallying...
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Martha and I

1981

Heart Tremors
5.3/3
The general practitioner Balla and his wife abandoning her higher education begin their common life in the small mountain village in the hope of quick...
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Heart Tremors

1993

Dr. Hrabal
0/0
A film impression about Bohumil Hrabal - an encounter with the man and his literary work. The film was shot in places well known and close to the writ...
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Dr. Hrabal

2018

More Than Words
8/1
TV miniseries "More than words explores the possibilities and ways of behavior in non-verbal communication, primarily movements, gestures and ways of...
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More Than Words

1968

Dita Saxová
6.2/8
A beautiful, underachieving, 18-year-old orphan considers various suitors, ponders philosophy, and takes a young girl under her wing.
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Dita Saxová

1966

An Occasion to Speak
0/0
Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965.
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An Occasion to Speak

2016

The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street
3.3/3
The film tells the life story of its director, Jan Nemec, one of the most known and important filmmakers of Czech New Wave.
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The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street

1993

Everything I Like
6.3/6
A film about the uncertainties faced by a man in post-Communist Slovakia, his relationship with a teenage son and English teacher girlfriend who's soo...
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Everything I Like

1966

Nobody Will Laugh
7/3
A successful art historian who has trouble telling people difficult truths, finds himself in an inescapable situation when a small lie quickly gets ou...
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Nobody Will Laugh

1999

All My Loved Ones
7.2/11
Told from the perspective of man reflecting on his childhood in Prague in the early years of World War II and the eventual destruction of his family a...
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All My Loved Ones

1965

Courage for Every Day
5.9/12
A passionate communist worker is discouraged by the changing political climate and the failure of his peers to live up to his ideals.
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Courage for Every Day

2007

Teddy Bear
5.9/8
Jirka, Roman, and Ivan have been friends since school. Today they are about 35 and, although they went into different fields, their friendship has las...
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Teddy Bear

2016

To Make a Comedy Is No Fun
6/3
Documentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others.
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To Make a Comedy Is No Fun

1967

Hotel for Strangers
5.8/7
A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat c...
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Hotel for Strangers

1993

The Little Apocalypse
5.4/7
An unknown Polish writer can't publish his novels, so his ex-wife decides to help him and get some of the profit for herself. She finally finds a publ...
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The Little Apocalypse

2002

The Sunken Cemetery
0/0
Ivan, in his early forties, returns, after many years of absence to his native town - a typical Middle - European small town in Northern of Croatia. H...
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The Sunken Cemetery

1995

How to Deserve a Princess
5.9/4
A fairy tale of three brothers who try to save a princess kidnapped by an evil wizard.
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How to Deserve a Princess

2018

The Interpreter
6/17
80-year-old Ali Ungar comes across a book by a former SS officer describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. He realises his parents were executed...
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The Interpreter

1968

Crime in the Night Club
5.9/8
A black comedy set in a Prague cabaret.
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Crime in the Night Club

1999

Zimní víla
0/0
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Zimní víla

1977

30 Maidens and Pythagoras
4.3/6
A musical starring Jiří Menzel (whose part is sung by Achilles Michailidis) as a math and physics teacher employing innovative teaching methods.
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30 Maidens and Pythagoras

1983

Švédská zápalka
4.5/2
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Švédská zápalka

1966

Daisies
7.3/380
Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.
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Daisies

2011

Jiří Menzel: 7 Questions
0/0
An idiosyncratic reflection on the film Larks on a String and its history, shot by it's director Jiri Menzel.
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Jiří Menzel: 7 Questions

1980

Blue Planet
2/1
A young engineer, Štěpán Pavlík, dreams of becoming a cosmonaut.
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Blue Planet

1981

Bulldogs and Cherries
4.4/5
The dreaded Italian mafioso, Marian Labuda, will also be convinced. Mafioso Carmello was guilty of the principles of his organization when he tried to...
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Bulldogs and Cherries

1964

Defendant
6.6/5
Managers at the construction of a big hydro plant are accused of having embezzled money.
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Defendant

2018

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
6.5/2
An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaim...
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CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel

1982

Babička se zbláznila
0/0
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Babička se zbláznila

1987

Dámská jízda
0/0
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Dámská jízda

1981

Povídka Malostranská
8/3
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Povídka Malostranská

2009

Setkání v Praze, s vraždou
0/0
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Setkání v Praze, s vraždou

1991

The Elementary School
7.349/53
The time is 1945-46. 10 year old Eda and his friend Tonda live in a small village outside Prague. In school, their class is so wild and indisciplined...
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The Elementary School

2002

Útek do Budína
0/0
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Útek do Budína

1996

Franciska vasárnapjai
0/0
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Franciska vasárnapjai

2006

A bárány utolsó megkísértése
0/0
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