Born in Prague in 1938 and dying there in 2020, Jiří Menzel studied at FAMU and was a leading figure of the Czechoslovak New Wave. His debut Closely Watched Trains (1966), based on a novel by Bohumil Hrabal about a young railway apprentice in occupied Czechoslovakia, won the Oscar for foreign language film. After the Soviet invasion his next film was shelved for years. He returned with Hrabal adaptations such as Cutting It Short (1980) and My Sweet Little Village (1986). His Larks on a String (1969), banned for twenty years, won the Golden Bear in Berlin when it was finally released in 1990. I Served the King of England (2006) was his last major film.
Filmography
- Closely Watched Trains (1966)
- Capricious Summer (1968)
- Larks on a String (1969)
- Cutting It Short (1980)
- My Sweet Little Village (1986)
- The Don Juans (1991)
- I Served the King of England (2006)