Dušan Hanák (April 27, 1938 in
Bratislava) is a
Slovak film director.
Hanák graduated from the
FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
in 1965. He began with a series of shorts at the
Koliba film studios in
Bratislava. Several of them received awards, and so did his first
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
''322'' (the code for cancer in medical records of diseases, 1969).
Career
Hanák followed it with the still admired feature-length documentary ''Pictures of the Old World'' (''Obrazy starého sveta,'' 1972), partly a meditation on what lies hidden beneath the concept of "an authentic life", a theme already addressed in ''322''. Although Hanák was treated with suspicion by the more repressive communist authorities that took over after the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...
invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
, he found an early refuge in a topic sufficiently removed from big politics to survive on the margins of official production and yet, executed with a finesse that gave it a wide international appeal. In the most extraordinary section, an old man talks with great fascination and lucidity about space travel, recalling how two astronauts walked on the moon and collected rocks while a third circled in their spaceship. Tacked to the wall of his crumbling shack is a small photograph of men walking on the moon. It is a beautiful, elegiac work whose images could apply to
Appalachia or any other poor region.
Good reviews or not, ''Pictures of the Old World'' was ordered shelved after the briefest of theatrical runs. Nevertheless, despite the authorities' surly take on Hanák's films, his next venture, ''Rosy Dreams,'' turned out to be another original work.
His film ''
I Love, You Love I Love, You Love may refer to:
* I Love, You Love (1961 film), a documentary film
* I Love, You Love (1989 film), a Czechoslovak film
{{dab ...
'' won the
Silver Bear for Best Director
The Silver Bear for Best Director (german: Silberner Bär/Bester Regie) is an award presented annually at the Berlin International Film Festival since 1956. It is given for the best achievement in directing and is chosen by the International Jury ...
at the
39th Berlin International Film Festival
The 39th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 10 to 21 February 1989. The Golden Bear was awarded to American film ''Rain Man'' directed by Barry Levinson. The retrospective was dedicated to German film producer Erich Pommer a ...
.
Filmography
* ''
322'' (1969)
* ''
Pictures of the Old World
''Pictures of the Old World'' ( sk, Obrazy starého sveta) is a 1972 Slovak documentary film by Dušan Hanák
Dušan Hanák (April 27, 1938 in Bratislava) is a Slovak people, Slovak film director.
Hanák graduated from the Film and TV School of ...
'' (1972)
* ''
Rosy Dreams
''Rosy Dreams'' (''Ružové sny'') is a 1977 Czechoslovak film. Despite its whimsical poetic style, it was the first Central European feature film that put the Romani (Gypsy) community at the center stage in a realistically reflected manner. It w ...
'' (1977)
* ''
Silent Joy
Silent may mean any of the following:
People with the name
* Silent George, George Stone (outfielder) (1876–1945), American Major League Baseball outfielder and batting champion
* Brandon Silent (born 1973), South African former footballer
* ...
'' (1985)
* ''
I Love, You Love I Love, You Love may refer to:
* I Love, You Love (1961 film), a documentary film
* I Love, You Love (1989 film), a Czechoslovak film
{{dab ...
'' (1989)
* ''
Private Lives
''Private Lives'' is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetu ...
'' (1990)
* ''
Paper Heads
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
'' (1995)
References
External links
Slovak Movie Database*
* Dušan Hanák (director
, 1969. (Clip.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanak, Dusan
1938 births
Living people
Slovak film directors
Silver Bear for Best Director recipients