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Nest in the bedroom

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Nest in the bedroom

18. 3. 2021 / AUTHOR: Peter Hames
Peter Hames, well-known British film historian and author of the book The Czechoslovak New Wave sent his remembrance to Karel Vachek to our magazine.

When I first saw Karel Vachek’s New Hyperion or Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood (Nový Hyperion anebo Volnost, rovnost, bratrství; 1992), about ‘the free election comedy of 1990’, along with two American colleagues, we suggested that it would be good to identify the politicians.  He argued that it was completely unnecessary as they would soon be forgotten. At that time, his form of multilevel collage-debate was something entirely new. And, of course, he was right about the politicians.

A few years later, at the Karlovy Vary film festival, he noted that a bird had made a nest in his bedroom. It had made the whole journey worthwhile.

And Bohemia docta (2000) led me to The Labyrinth of the World (if not the Lust-house of the Heart).