Figure 1.-- This scrne comes from "See You in Denver". The bpys are on a rooftop where their parents apparently hid American movies during the War. After the War they had o hide them from the Communists.

Each of the eight episodes follows the private events of one extended family through the years, and in doing so, chronicles the country history in personal terms during a large swatch of the 20th century. The film offers a rare chance to experience history through the stresses, tragedies, and comic elements of individual families and the varied but intimate lives of individuals. The result is moving and compelling. The very flexible chronology of the eight distinct episodes moves generally from the interim between the two World Wars through the Nazi and Communist take-overs afterwards.

Small Russian Clouds of Smoke

One of the eight episodes, entitled 'Small Russian Clouds of Smoke' follows the fortunes of the Popov family, who were Czarist Russian emigres to Czechoslovakia, having fled from the Bolshivek revolution. They never fully assimilated into Czech culture, failed to learn the language, and tried to maintain their Russian culture in a strange land. The family and their friends spent much of their time in a Bohemian summer resort, Kologeje, where some of of the most interesting footage was shot. One image shows a carousel where children in that town are having fun. Notice the boy in the foreground, about 12 years old, who is wearing a short-trousers suit with a Schiller collar and white long stockings. This episode dates from the early 1920s. A later shot, taken in the early 1940s, shows a 5-year-old boy of the Popov family with a girl passenger riding his tricycle and wearing H-bar shorts with tan long stockings.

One Stroke of Butterfly Wings

Another episdode, 'One Stroke of Butterfly Wings', shows a family participating in the Sokol, an annual festival that promoted physical (athletic), moral and intellectual training in Czechoslovakia before the Nazis took over. It was a tradition that contributed importantly (but unofficially) to the sense of Czech nationalism. The Sokol festival involved parades, and in this shot we see a young teenager and his sister wearing special festival costumes worn over their normal school clothes. Note the short trousers and brown long stockings of the period, just before the Nazi takeover in 1938, after which the Sokol was forbidden. Their mother is wearing a traditional Bydzov costume, reflecting the native folk culture. The main content of the episode concerns the career of the composer, Vaclev Felix, who naively trusted the communist regime and became deeply disillusioned by his membership in the party. Figure 4 shows little Vaclev Felix at about age 4 or 5 (c. 1929) in the rural village of Skokov where the family lived for about half the year to escape the stress and city confusion of Prague. He is with his sister. Note the pattern short trousers and while long stockings.

See You in Denver

With Love and Kisses

One of the eight episodes of the film is entitled "With Love and Kisses". This tells the story of a Bohemian couple who owned a private photographic studio that the communists nationalized when they came to power. Most their valuable archive of photos which the couple owned were seized by the communists and destroyed. The man was sent to prison, and the title of the episode comes from a long series of love letters that the couple exchanged, many while he was in prison.

Created: 6:31 AM 10/1/2009
Last updated: 6:32 AM 10/1/2009