Between Prague and Hollywood: Jan Sveraks Films

Jan Sverak is the most known - as the 1997 Oscar winner for 'Kolya' - representative of the so-called young Czech cinema, the generation of thirty- and forty-year olds, mostly graduates of the Prague Film Academy (FAMU) to whom Czech cinematography owes its mid-1990 renaissance.The authoress essays to describe the director's style, his earlier works (Zdenek Sverak, the screenwriter and Jan's favourite actor, is of great importance), including his debut feature 'Elementary School' (1991), then 'Accumulator 1' (1994), 'The Ride' (1994), 'Kolya' and super production 'Dark Blue World' (2001). According to her, Sverak's films owe their success - in terms of home box office revenue and international awards - to creative references to the poetics of the Czech school of the 1960s, with its tragicomic vision of the world and man, coupled with the skillful use of known conventions and genre patterns.