The Ferrari Dino Girl

Colour, DIGIBETA
Czech Republic, 2009, 68 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

After Late Night Talks with Mother and Landscape of My Heart, Jan Němec has come up with another auto-documentary hovering on the edge of experiment and feature essay. In it he describes the circumstances surrounding his filming of the Soviet invasion on the streets of Prague on 21 August 1968. The four reels of valuable footage, created on his own initiative, had no value in the occupied state: they had to be shown to the world. Together with two friends, the director travelled with the priceless material, containing sixteen minutes of unedited film, to Austria, across what were by then essentially closed borders. The situation was bizarre indeed, the most important players being the "Ferrari Dino girl”, namely a beautiful but unattainable girl called Jana, and the filmmaker’s beloved Fiat 850. Jan Němec again examines the reality of his life in relation to Czech history, where intimate chronicles are inseparably linked with major historical events. He incorporates new film roles (in which he is played by Karel Roden) into the original footage which flew round the world over forty years ago and boasted "bigger audiences than Steven Spielberg”.

About the director

Jan Němec (b. 1936, Prague) gave his debut with the psychological drama Diamonds of the Night (1964, Grand Prix, Mannheim), one of the most fascinating works of the Czech New Wave. He also filmed the segment "The Swindlers” for Pearls of the Deep (1965), Martyrs of Love (1966) and The Party and the Guests (1966, Gran Premio, Bergamo). His short Mother and Son earned him a Grand Prix in Oberhausen, and the documentary about the 1968 invasion, Oratorio for Prague, won the FIPRESCI Prize at Mannheim. Němec was blacklisted from 1970 and couldn’t work. He was forced into exile between 1974 and 1989. Abroad he made the Kafka adaptation Metamorphosis (1975). Upon his return he shot The Flames of Royal Love, Code Name: Ruby, Late Night Talks with Mother (Golden Leopard at Locarno), Landscape of My Heart, and Toyen. At the 2006 KVIFF he received the award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.