Prazske noci AKA Prague Nights (1969) [Czechoslovakia] Dir. Jirí Brdecka & Milos Makovec & Evald Schorm

 

This past weekend, the Salem Horror Festival hosted a series of Czech horror films as part of its first weekend program, including Juraj Herz's The Ninth Heart (1979) and Jiří Barta's The Pied Piper (1986). One of the highlights of this weekend was the horror anthology film Prague Nights, which has never been released on home media, and has only been available online as a custom subtitled TVRIP. Thanks to Deaf Crocodile and the Czech National Film Archive, the film has been restored in 4K, and a Blu-Ray release is planned for later this year. The 1960s and 70s were a boom period for horror anthologies like Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, Spirits of the Dead, and the television work of Dan Curtis like Trilogy of Terror (1975) and Dead of Night (1977). Prague Nights takes the approach of films like Spirits of the Dead, with three directors each directing a different segment, but bringing a unique Czech flavor to it. The first story deals with a Rabbi's attempt to stop an evil sorcerer from creating a Golem for the entertainment of the Emperor, lest God should punish him for not stopping it. This is the most Bavaesque of the three stories, with sweeping camerawork and angles, and operatic music. The second segment, directed by Czech New Wave stalwart Evald Schorm deals with a murderous countess who insists on wearing shoes of bread to a masked ball, only to find herself damned. Interspersed are scenes of tarot cards being laid out, and what starts as something of a farce soon turns horrific. Schorm makes use of kinetic camerawork, and sparse open rooms to highlight the feeling of unease and dread. The last segment finishes the frame story, and takes the form of an opera similar to Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). It is the most comic segment of the three, and the most innovative, and provides an unexpected conclusion to this anthology. The obvious reference points for the film are, as mentioned, Bava, and Powell and Pressburger, but it's suffused with that Czech New Wave fairy tale atmosphere that sets it apart from similar films of the time.