Petr Vaclav

Petr Vaclav
Period: 2010-2011
Profession: Just after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Petr Vaclav, a student at FAMU, Prague’s film school, worked on subjects relating to his country’s past. In black and white, he talks about the old peasants who refused to join the kolkhozes; in color, he shows the life of Vietnamese workers in barracks just outside Czechoslovakia’s factories. In 1993, he shot Madame Le Murie, the portrait of an old baroness who has survived half a century of hostility on her devastated estate. By showing the ruin of a single house, this in camera portrait speaks of the bankruptcy of half of Europe
(
Best Documentary Film Award at the Munich Film School Festival). Then, in Canada, Petr Vaclav prepares a project on the Amerindians. The work was interrupted in favor of his first feature-length film, Marian , which tells the story of a Czech Roma child growing up in welfare and prison. Marian’s cinematography, which is very close to reality and shot with non-actors whose destiny is similar to that of the hero, is based on an approach that is both documentary and stylized. Completed in 1996, the film was hailed by the critics. It won the
Silver Leopard at Locarno and a number of other awards. His next film, Les mondes parallèles , was written with Marie Desplechin. This time, Petr Vaclav plunges into the hushed milieu of Prague’s young bohemian bourgeoisie. The screenplay, which tells the story of the end of a love affair between dream and reality, was a finalist for the
NHK Award screenplay prize at Sundance. In 2001, the film was selected in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival and won the
Prize for the best Czech film of the year. Based in Paris since 2003, Petr Vaclav has shot several digital portraits (for Arte) and a documentary in Siberia. He has written the screenplays for his next feature films:
Resurrections – an anticipation film about how the rich have found a way to become eternal, while the flooded Earth dies;
Une histoire d’été pour l’hiver – an intimate Franco-Italian road-movie where past and present, fantasy and the prosaic aspects of life intertwine. Vaclav’s latest writing project at Villa Medici is set in 18th-century Italian opera. It will tell the story of a composer of immense talent who has lost his way in the world of show business. Parallel worlds http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/x8l2a2_extrait-1-les-mondes- paralelles-de_shortfilms Marian http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/x8ag7n_extrait-numero-1-de- marian-de-petr_shortfilms http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/x8aj8o_2eme-extrait-marian-de- petr-vaclav_shortfilms http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/x8ajdo_3eme-extrait-marian-de- petr-vaclav_shortfilms