• Hrebejk’s genial sex farce 4Some screened as part of the 2013 European Union Film Festival.

Read part one of this interview.

As for sex being part of everyday life. . . [chuckles] sure. The way the characters talk about sex has more to do with the screenwriters than the actors, because we rarely improvise those scenes. When Michal Viewegh [a popular novelist who wrote Shameless and 4Some] talks and writes about sex, it’s always with a slight humor and a sense of romance. Mr. [Petr] Jarchovsky [who’s written or cowritten most of Hrebejk’s other films] doesn’t like bon mots. Often his characters talk about sex when they’re having an argument—you know, how people will say inappropriate things when they’re arguing. Or they’ll talk about sex with someone who isn’t present in the scene or they’ll comment on the sex life of a different character who’s offscreen.

  • Shameless

I’d say Milos Forman and Jan Svankmajer are the most influential Czech filmmakers. Everyone making movies in the Czech Republic today is very familiar with their work. I admire them, and I also feel very close to the films of Jiri Menzel and Vera Chytilova [the Czech New Wave directors best known for Closely Watched Trains and Daises, respectively]. I went to [Chytilova’s] funeral recently, and when I was there I realized she was the most significant [New Wave director]. Not only because of her movies, but because of her pedagogical work and social engagement. But if you were to ask Chytilova—or Forman or Menzel—who was the greatest New Wave director, they’d probably say Nemec.

There’s a growing audience for documentaries too, and it’s a serious audience. They know they’re not going to the cinema to be entertained. Some of these movies are making a real political impact. In one [recent Czech] documentary, a young journalist installed hidden cameras in the offices of advertising companies and recorded these meetings about selling stuff to seniors. She documented them designing these obviously fraudulent, even brutal methods. It’s not a great movie, technically speaking, but it went to our Parliament. Based on that film, they changed the laws.