PRAGUE POST | The Voice of Prague

Czech New Wave director was known for 'Diamonds in the Night' 

Czech New Wave director Jan Němec has died after an illness at the age of 79. The news was announced by his widow, Iva Ruszeláková.

She said that the funeral would be private, with just her and their daughter, according to Němec wishes.

“He did not want a ceremony or speeches. … Anyone who wants to remember him can light a candle,” Ruszeláková said.

Němec was sometimes called the enfant terrible of Czech cinema.

He was most well-known for his 1964 debut feature film Diamonds of the Night (Démanty noci), based on a story by Arnošt Lustig. The film is about two boys trying to flee from a train that was taking them to a concentration camp.

He also had some international success with his 1966 film A Report on the Party and the Guests (O slavnosti a hostech), a surreal film about a picnic organized by a bully.

He documented the 1968 Soviet-led invasion in Oratorio for Prague. The film received standing ovations in New York in the fall of 1968, but was banned by Czechoslovak authorities. Scenes from the film are often used in documentaries on the invasion. It was also used in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and Němec served as an adviser on that film.

He was unable to work in cinema after 1968 in Czechoslovakia but did do some television work and also made music clips for Karel Gott and Marta Kubišová.

He managed to leave the county in 1974, traveling to Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, and the United States. During that time he pioneered the use of video to record weddings and filmed a Swedish royal wedding. He also did some sporadic work in television.

He returned to Czechoslovakia after 1989 and made several films including Code Name Ruby (Jmeno kodu: Rubin) in 1997 and Late Night Talks with Mother (Nočni hovory s matkou) in 2000. The latter film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno film festival. The experimental film starred Karel Roden and involved the main character seeking absolution from his deceased mother.

At the time of his death he was working on a new film, The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street (Vlk z Královských Vinohrad).