This film is currently unavailable

Marketa Lazarová
Voted the best Czech film ever made, František Vláčil’s groundbreaking 13th-century epic is a story of a fierce inter-clan rivalry and doomed love.
Director: Frantisek Vlácil
Overview
Voted the best Czech film ever made, Vláčil’s groundbreaking 13th century epic is a story of a fierce inter-clan rivalry and the doomed love affair between Mikoláš Kozlík and Markéta Lazarová which evokes comparison with directors as diverse as Bergman and Kurosawa. In adapting Vladimír Vančura’s experimental novel, Vláčil aimed to create the psychology of a past age, even drawing on anthropological studies, forcing viewers to experience the atmosphere of a distant past with uncommon intensity. Using black and white widescreen cinematography, an unorthodox structure, a variety of different narrative techniques underscored by Zdeněk Liška´s music, Vláčil focuses on the evocation of the struggle between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence, creating a multi-layered poetic parable about the tragedy and sublimity of human destiny. A powerful and passionate film, its battery of poetics and associational effects create a visual style unique in the history of Czech cinema.
The 4K digital restoration is by the Národní filmový archív, Prague. Part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival, 7 November – 10 December 2021, organised by the Czech Centre London.
Related

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Period drama 2023 178 mins Director: Tinto Brass
Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren star in one of the most controversial films in cinema history, presented here in an entirely new cut compiled from the original rushes.

L'innocente L'innocente
Period drama 1976 130 mins Director: Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti's final film is a brilliant and disturbing drama set against the opulent backdrop of decadent, late 19th-century aristocracy.

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
Horror 1962 87 mins Director: Riccardo Freda
A widowed doctor has gruesome plans for his new wife in this lush, Hitchcockian Italian gothic horror.

Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth
Period drama 2017 89 mins Director: William Oldroyd
Florence Pugh shines in this exceptional British debut of a young wife's need for freedom, whatever the cost.

The Draughtsman's Contract The Draughtsman's Contract
Period drama 1982 107 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery.

The Seventh Seal The Seventh Seal
Fantasy 1957 96 mins Director: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman’s best-known film is a brilliant allegorical drama starring Max von Sydow as a knight trying to elude his own death.

Following Following
Drama 1999 67 mins Director: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan’s gritty neo-noir first feature about a young London writer who gets drawn into a criminal underworld.

Student Services Student Services
Drama 2010 103 mins Director: Emmanuelle Bercot
A cash-strapped student becomes an escort exposing the stark realities of economic exploitation in this uncompromising gritty French drama.

Insomnia Insomnia
Thriller 2002 118 mins Director: Christopher Nolan
Al Pacino shines in Christopher Nolan’s smart psychological thriller about a weary detective chasing a murder suspect in remote Alaska.

The Long Walk The Long Walk
Horror 2019 116 mins Director: Mattie Do
An old Laotian farmer, haunted by past trauma, encounters a ghost who transports him back in time, in Mattie Do’s evocative genre-bending film.

Treading Water Treading Water
Drama 2024 122 mins Director: Gino Evans
A brutal, fascinating portrait of the realities of addiction and mental health issues, set against the backdrop of the iconic Manchester skyline.

I Am Curious - Yellow I Am Curious - Yellow
Drama 1967 117 mins Director: Vilgot Sjöman
Vilgot Sjoman's controversial classic following one woman's exploration of national identity and her own sexuality in 1960s Sweden.