The movies of the 1930s redefined society, including gender roles. From Global Voices.
Czechoslovakia was a major film-producing nation in the ‘30s – a symbol of how it evolved from a colonized territory to a new nation redefining its multiple identities. A part of its best cinema is now available for free on a new YouTube channel.
When Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 after the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it had to define new codes to shape a freshly assembled identity of different ethnic groups and languages. It also wanted to show it was a modern and independent state. This is where cinema became a mirror of the rapid changes transforming society, from gender roles to ways of entertainment, and urban lifestyle to music, particularly after the introduction of sound in movies in the early 1930s.
During the period of 1918 to 1940, which is when the Nazi occupation of the country began, Czechoslovak studios produced hundreds of movies in which actors reached cult status and showcased the achievements of one of the most prosperous capitalist societies of Central Europe.
Nazi Germany maintained film production, including in the famous Barrandov studios, established by the grandfather of late Czech President Vaclav Havel, but, in 1948, the communists staged a coup and imposed their ideology, producing socialist realist movies, and banning public viewing of the movies of the 1930s – deemed “bourgeois and reactionary” – from cinemas and television for 41 years.
The movies from the ‘30s reappeared in the early ‘90s after the 1989 Velvet Revolution ended the communist era, and were shown on national television on a weekly basis for a while.
Today, vintage film fans can enjoy a growing collection of the classics of that period thanks to a YouTube channel created by the Czech National Film Archive (Narodní filmovy archiv). The films are free to access, and both Czech and English subtitles are provided as well, with a selection of classics not just from the 1930s, but also from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and even the ‘90s.
One of the movies featured is a production from 1937 by Hugo Haas, “Devcata, nedejte se!” (“Girls, don’t give up!”), and is a typical example of a comedy of misunderstandings, featuring the mega star Adina Mandlova and Hugo Haas himself, since he was also an actor and would usually star in the main roles of his films.
The interiors, the fashion, and the music are all emblematic of a period known in Czech as the “Prvni Republika” (the First Republic from 1918 to 1940), as opposed to the later Socialist Republic from 1948 to 1989, and are part of a vintage revival cultural movement today in different fields of design and music.
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Filip Noubel is the managing editor of Global Voices, where this article originally appeared. Republished by permission.
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