Jiří Menzel facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jiří Menzel
Jiří Menzel in 2016
Born	(1938-02-23)23 February 1938 Prague, Czechoslovakia
Died	5 September 2020(2020-09-05) (aged 82) Prague, Czech Republic
Occupation	Film director
Spouse(s)	Olga Menzelová

Jiří Menzel (born February 23, 1938 – died September 5, 2020) was a famous film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter from the Czech Republic. His movies often showed a kind and understanding view of the world. They also used sarcasm (a way of saying the opposite of what you mean) and interesting cinematography (the art of making movies). Many of his films were based on books by Czech writers like Bohumil Hrabal.

Early Life

Jiří Menzel was born in Prague in 1938. His father, Josef Menzel, was a journalist and wrote books for children. Jiří studied how to direct movies at a special school in Prague called the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). One of his teachers was the well-known Czech director Otakar Vávra.

A Career in Film

Jiří Menzel was part of a group of filmmakers in the 1960s called the Czech New Wave. This group made movies in a new and exciting way. His very first full-length movie, Closely Watched Trains, was a big success. It won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967. This film was a drama set during World War II. It was based on a book by Bohumil Hrabal.

Another one of his films, Larks on a String, was made in 1969. However, the government at the time did not allow it to be shown. This was because the film talked about life in a special camp in Czechoslovakia under communist rule in the 1950s. The government censors (people who check and control what can be shown) banned it. The movie was finally released in 1990, after the communist government ended. It then won the Golden Bear award at a big film festival in Berlin.

Menzel was nominated for another Academy Award in 1986. This was for his comedy film My Sweet Little Village. He also served as a judge at several international film festivals. These included the Berlin International Film Festival and the Moscow International Film Festival. In 2013, he received an IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also honored with the French title of Knight of Arts and Letters. He also won the Czech Lion for his amazing work in art over his lifetime.

In the 1980s, a German TV studio wanted him to make a TV series. It was going to be based on the book The Good Soldier Švejk. But the government in Czechoslovakia did not give him permission to make it.

His last role in a movie was in 2018. It was a Slovak film called The Interpreter. In this movie, he played a man who met an old SS soldier. This soldier had killed his parents. The film was chosen to represent Slovakia at the Oscars.

Later Life and Death

Jiří Menzel passed away on September 5, 2020, at the age of 82. He had been ill for a long time. He had brain surgery in 2017. He is survived by his wife, Olga Menzelová, and their two daughters, Anna Karolina and Eva Maria. His wife later shared that he died from COVID-19 pneumonia.

Filmography

Sources:

As a Director

As an Actor

Jiří Menzel also acted in many films and TV shows. Some of his acting roles include:

• Strop (Short film) (1962)
• Courage for Every Day (1964)
• If a Thousand Clarinets (1965)
• Pearls of the Deep (1965)
• Closely Watched Trains (1966)
• Capricious Summer (1968)
• The Cremator (1969)
• Larks on a String (1969)
• The Apple Game (1976)
• Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979)
• Ferat Vampire (1982)
• Srdečný pozdrav ze zeměkoule (1983)
• The Elementary School (1991)
• All My Loved Ones (1999)
• Teddy Bear (2007)
• The Interpreter (2018)

See also

In Spanish: Jiří Menzel para niños

• CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
• List of Czech Academy Award winners and nominees