When Jan Bernard came to the Municipal Theatre yesterday to present his new book Jan Němec: Enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave, he shocked the audience with his first sentences: "The book isn't here. There will be no launch." He then added that it was mainly because Jan Němec's wife Iva Ruszeláková had opened the archives for him after the director's death earlier this year and he had access to so much new material that he delayed publishing the book, only finishing it and sending it to the printer's last week. It will come out at the end of September or beginning of October.
Bernard continued by thanking the cinema fund for providing two grants for the book, as well as KVIFF President Jiří Bartoška. "When I told Jan Němec about the idea for the book and about Jiří Bartoška agreeing to launching it at KVIFF, he responded, as if foreseeing something: And you think the three of us will still be here there?"
Since no book launch took place, Jan Bernard at least used his time on the stage to present the audience with a brief outline of its content and its protagonist: "Jan Němec did a lot for his projects not to be presented. He always got drunk at his screenings for the producers and insulted everyone. After he returned to the Czech Republic he then spent his time on other interesting projects, including shooting a three-part porno series Dream Girls," said the author, naming a few curiosities.
Jan Bernard also introduced the screening of Němec's movie The Party and the Guests: "The shooting in summer of '65 was unbelievably quick, in part thanks to a special tarp that made it possible to shoot in any weather. Nevertheless the film was three minutes shorter than it was supposed to be and Jan Němec received no remuneration for it." The movie became part of the power struggle at the time and was banned and permitted by turns under President Antonín Novotný. "Novotný got ahold of it early for a shooting at the Castle, became enraged and wanted to have Němec shot immediately. Before he managed to call the Interior Minister however, they talked him out of it and he only issued a ban on the work of Jan Němec. It only entered club cinemas in 1967, just before Novotný's regime fell," Bernard said in conclusion.
