Entertainment
Jiri’s treat for the eyes
In the films of award-winning Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel, visual frames speak more than dialogues. Acclaimed director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is making a documentary on him
Nonika Singh

In times when most directors keenly and avidly eye film festivals, acclaimed Czech director Jiri Menzel has no hesitation in stating that he makes films for his neighbours. In short, his first and foremost audiences are his own countrymen. He smiles, "It’s only when films don’t run in cinema halls, they take it to festivals." That his films have gone on to win international acclaim, however, is a different matter. He won an Oscar at a rather young age of 28 for his film Closely Watched Trains. When given the prestigious lifetime achievement award at the recent International Film Festival of India, Goa, he sums up his journey that began with silent films in one word, "surprise."

Menzel, anyway, is not a man of many words. Not just because he thinks his fairly good English is not up to the mark. Even in his films, visual frames speak more than the dialogues. Indeed, he agrees, "Cinema is the art of visuals for it’s a medium meant to be seen not heard." Yet most directors, including that of Hollywood, he feels, pay more attention to dialogues. But in his home country, he reveals that when a screenplay is written, equal attention is paid to the visual language. Sense of humour, too, he asserts, is a national property of his country and an integral part of artistic works since the 16th century. No wonder, it impregnates his bittersweet cinema laden with sarcasm and irony. His feel-good films, however, are not purposeless. As he says, "I don’t want to sound pretentious or intellectual. But I don’t make films for idiots either."

Czech director Jiri Menzel was given the prestigious lifetime achievement award at the IFFI, Goa, held recently

Interestingly, dark, depressive melancholia, too, isn’t his cup of tea. His films like the opening film of the IFFI Don Juans revolving around Mozart’s Don Giovanni end on a note of optimism and hope. He quips, "Life is not so stupid, but not a big trouble either." A sense of humour, he asserts, is not only good for cinema but our general health too. His, of course, is not acquired but one that he lives with and shows ample flashes of. As he wears many hats — those of an actor, writer, director — he says he is most comfortable when he is home. Anyway, making films for homegrown audiences is what he thrives on.

Not that he holds viewers in great esteem. On censorship, his views are rather radical as he asserts, "Freedom is for adults." Sadly, he believes, most viewers have the mental makeup of 12 year olds, are not grown up enough to value liberty and freedom, and hence, films have to be monitored. Though sex is an integral part of his films, he is totally against vulgarity, often used as a ruse for freedom of expression. The Czech New Wave Cinema to which he belongs is not just a label for him but an entire thought process of making films differently from his predecessors and, of course, Hollywood. And it’s this original perception of life that pulsates in his cinema that makes his movies universal and compelling the world to acknowledge him. Closer home, in India, his subtle yet forceful cinema impels Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, maker of the much-acclaimed Celluloid Man to make a documentary on him.

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