# Karel Kachyňa

Karel Kachyňa (1 May 1924 – 12 March 2004) was a Czech film director and screenwriter. His career spanned over five decades.

## Early life

He was born on May 1, 1924, in Vyškov, Czechoslovakia. His father was a government officer. His mother was an art teacher. After spending first 4 years of his life in Vyškov, he moved with his family to Dačice and then Kroměříž. Kachyňa studied at Baťa School of Art in Zlín. During the WWII he was forced to work in a German factory Walter Georgi in Bernsbach. After the war he was able to finish high school and work on commercials at the Baťa film studios in Zlín. Kachyňa was then accepted at newly founded Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) to study cinematography and directing. His fellow students were Vojtěch Jasný, Zdeněk Podskalský and Antonín Kachlík.

## Career

After the graduation he directed socialist realist propaganda documentaries with Jasný. Throughout the 1950s they both worked for the Czechoslovak Army Film. In the 1952 they traveled to China with Art Ensemble of the Czechoslovak People's Army and made three documentaries about the country.
Kachyňa made his most celebrated movies with a screenwriter Jan Procházka in relatively free period in the 1960s.
After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and in subsequent Normalization period, his politically critical movies Long Live the Republic!, Coach to Vienna, The Nun's Night and The Ear were banned. Kachyňa was fired from his teaching job at FAMU, after the film Uninvited Guest by his student Vlastimil Venclík was interpreted as being a criticism of the Soviet Invasion. From the 1970s he directed mostly historical movies focused on the lives of regular people, and children movies. After the Velvet Revolution he was re-hired at FAMU and continued to teach there until his retirement.

## Personal life

Kachyňa was married twice. He had one daughter, Eliška, with his first wife Eliška Kuchařová. He met his second wife Alena Mihulová during the filming of Sestřičky in 1983. Their daughter, Karolína, was born in 1994. He lived in the 16th century house in Nový svět neighbourhood near Czernin Palace at Hradčany, Prague.

## Filmography
### Feature films

| Year | Name | Notes |
| 1954 | Everything Ends Tonight | |
| 1955 | The Lost Track | |
| 1958 | At That Time, at Christmas... | |
| 1959 | Smugglers of Death | |
| 1960 | The Slinger | |
| 1961 | Fetters | Entered in 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. |
| 1961 | Trials and Tribulations | Special Jury Prize at 1962 Mar del Plata Film Festival |
| 1962 | Vertigo | |
| 1963 | Hope | Best director at 1964 Mar del Plata Film Festival |
| 1964 | The High Wall | Silver Sail at 1964 Locarno Film Festival |
| 1965 | Long Live the Republic! | Best film at 1966 Mar del Plata Film Festival FIPRESCI prize at 1966 San Sebastián Film Festival |
| 1966 | Coach to Vienna | 3rd prize at 1966 Karlovy Vary Film Festival |
| 1967 | The Nun's Night | Official selection of 28th Venice International Film Festival |
| 1968 | Christmas with Elizabeth | |
| 1968 | Our Crazy Family | Kachyňa finished the film after its director Jan Valášek died |
| 1969 | A Ridiculous Gentleman | |
| 1970 | Jumping over Puddles Again | Silver Shell at 1971 San Sebastián International Film Festival |
| 1970 | The Ear | Released in 1990. Official selection of 1990 Cannes Film Festival |
| 1971 | The Secret of the Great Story-Teller | |
| 1972 | The Train to the Heaven Station | |
| 1973 | Love | |
| 1973 | Hot Winter | |
| 1974 | Pauline | |
| 1974 | The Girl Robinson | |
| 1975 | The Ugly Village | |
| 1976 | The Little Mermaid | |
| 1976 | Death of a Fly | |
| 1978 | Waiting for the Rain | |
| 1978 | Meeting in July | |
| 1980 | Love Between the Raindrops | |
| 1980 | The Little Sugar House | |
| 1981 | Watch Out, the Doctor Is on His Round! | |
| 1983 | Fandy, oh Fandy! | |
| 1983 | The Nurses | |
| 1985 | A Good Light | |
| 1986 | Forbidden Dreams | Entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. |
| 1987 | ...And What Now, Gentlemen? | |
| 1988 | To the Knowledge of Your Beloved | |
| 1989 | Young Girls, Crazy Guys | |
| 1990 | The Last Butterfly | Vienna Film Award at 1990 Vienna International Film Festival |
| 1992 | The Cow | |
| 1995 | Fany | |
| 1999 | Hanele | |

### Television

* Cesta byla suchá, místy mokrá (2003)
* Kožené slunce (2002)
* Otec neznámý aneb cesta do hlubin duše výstrojního náčelníka (2001)
* Three Kings (1998) TV series
* Prima sezóna (1994) TV series
* Městem chodí Mikuláš (1992)
* Vlak dětství a naděje (1989) TV series
* Duhová kulička (1985)
* Velký případ malého detektiva a policejního psa Kykyna (1982)
* Počítání oveček (1981)
* Zlatí úhoři (1979)

### Documentaries

* Bratři (1975)
* Legenda (1973)
* Four Times About Bulgaria (1958)
* The City Has Its Own Face (1958)
* World Championship of Air Models (1957)
* Crooked Mirror (1956)
* Stará čínská opera (1953)
* Z čínského zápisníku (1953)
* Lidé jednoho srdce (1953)
* Neobyčejná léta (1952)
* They Know What to Do (1950)
* Za život radostný (1950)
* Není stále zamračeno (1949)