Where to Begin?
I was aimlessly browsing the trailers on the Apple site, when I noticed that the trailer for Želary had been added recently. Even though the film was all the rage when I was last in the Czech Republic, I skipped it for the less-Hollywood-and-more-Czech seeming Nuda v Brně, or Boredom in Brno, (Czech site here). Before the film appeared, the book had been all the rage, mainly because of the human-interest angle. Květa Legátová appeared on the literary scene in 2001. She was born in 1919. As a Czech-studies person, I felt that it was my duty to read the book (there are worse ways to spend your free time) and watch the trailer, which, of course, bugged me for reasons other than the fact that I'll have to go see the film so that when (if?) I ever teach Czech film, I'll know the enemy.
1. WWII as The National Trauma de Jour In the second year of my doctoral studies I threatened my advisor with my future absence from all other Czech film nights that featured movies about 1968. Understand that I am neither heartless nor stupid. I am aware of the importance of 1968 to Czech culture, but I find the imposed silences of people like Pavel Jurášek and Evald Schorm or the personal writings of just about everyone (Has Jonathan Bolton published his book on this yet?) far more eloquent than the kitschification and ossification of a national tragedy in mind numbingly obvious and sentimental films like Pelíšky (Cosy Dens), which was, incidentally, produced by the director of Želary. Now that I'm entering the fifth year of my program, I feel that it might be time to impose a ban on movies about World War II, which is currently The Czech National Trauma. Želary is the latest entry attempt to get all nostalgic and have a good weep over how much it sucks to be Czech sometimes.
2. Impress Your Friends, Say the Frickin' Title Correctly Želary is not pronounced correctly by the movie-trailer voice. The first letter, "ž" is pronounced like the "s" in pleasure, or for those of you who know my name, like the first sound in it. Želary can be found on a map of the Czech Republic. It is a town in the middle of nowhere. Zelary could also probably be found in the middle of nowhere on a map, if the map happened to be of places that don't actually exist. I can handle people screwing up the vowels in Czech names because the vowels there look like English vowels, but "ž" doesn't look like "z." Perhaps if the man doing the voice-over had slipped in a pause that signalled the arrival of an obviously foreign word that he knew he was going to mispronounce but had decided to say anyway, I would have forgiven him. But he biffed it with confidence.
Geezus, Sony Pictures Classics, I have two requests for you. Please spend a bit more of your research budget on the pronunciation of foreign words and names and please stop importing shit. -Zh.
1. WWII as The National Trauma de Jour In the second year of my doctoral studies I threatened my advisor with my future absence from all other Czech film nights that featured movies about 1968. Understand that I am neither heartless nor stupid. I am aware of the importance of 1968 to Czech culture, but I find the imposed silences of people like Pavel Jurášek and Evald Schorm or the personal writings of just about everyone (Has Jonathan Bolton published his book on this yet?) far more eloquent than the kitschification and ossification of a national tragedy in mind numbingly obvious and sentimental films like Pelíšky (Cosy Dens), which was, incidentally, produced by the director of Želary. Now that I'm entering the fifth year of my program, I feel that it might be time to impose a ban on movies about World War II, which is currently The Czech National Trauma. Želary is the latest entry attempt to get all nostalgic and have a good weep over how much it sucks to be Czech sometimes.
2. Impress Your Friends, Say the Frickin' Title Correctly Želary is not pronounced correctly by the movie-trailer voice. The first letter, "ž" is pronounced like the "s" in pleasure, or for those of you who know my name, like the first sound in it. Želary can be found on a map of the Czech Republic. It is a town in the middle of nowhere. Zelary could also probably be found in the middle of nowhere on a map, if the map happened to be of places that don't actually exist. I can handle people screwing up the vowels in Czech names because the vowels there look like English vowels, but "ž" doesn't look like "z." Perhaps if the man doing the voice-over had slipped in a pause that signalled the arrival of an obviously foreign word that he knew he was going to mispronounce but had decided to say anyway, I would have forgiven him. But he biffed it with confidence.
Geezus, Sony Pictures Classics, I have two requests for you. Please spend a bit more of your research budget on the pronunciation of foreign words and names and please stop importing shit. -Zh.
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