A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966)
Line up: Mourning Becomes a Muse

'Mourning Becomes a Muse' reconsiders Ester Krumbachová not as a figure lingering at the edges of the Czech New Wave, but as one of its most daring and essential architects. Blacklisted by the Communist regime and pushed to the margins of film history. A screenwriter, costume and set designer, and director, Krumbachová infused the movement with its surreal visual extravagance through collaborations with Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš and Jan Němec. 
 

A Report on the Party and the Guests

Jan Němec | 1966 | Czechoslovakia | 71’ | EN subtitles

A small group of bourgeois guests head for a birthday party of a prominent figure. As they go through the woods and have a picnic, they are suddenly surrounded by a bunch of suspicious strangers. When one guest suddenly leaves, a strange and disturbing manhunt unfolds through the woods, led by the host’s entourage, a hunting dog, and eventually many of the guests themselves.

Twice banned and now regarded as one of the most important and controversial films of the Czech New Wave, it was the second feature collaboration between married director Jan Němec and Ester  Krumbachová. Starring many prominent Czech intellectuals and cultural figures of the time, its unsettling allegory of totalitarianism and conformity proved far too provocative for state censors. A daring, dark satire adapted from a short story by Ester Krumbachová. 

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