Christopher Media

Special Guests: Jiri Menzel, Peter Hames Guest Co-Hosts: Jonathan Owen, Samm Deighan We kick off the first annual “Czechtember” with a look at the most-easily accessible films of the Czech New Wave, the charmingly disarming 1966 film Closely Watched Trains (AKA Ostre Sledované Vlaky or Closely Observed Trains). Co-written and directed by Jirí Menzel and based upon Bohumil Hrabal’s novella, the film stars Václav Neckár as Milos Hrma, a young man from a family of eccentrics. Not wanting to work too hard, he gets a job at the local railway station where he’s mentored by the earthly Hubicka (Josef Somr) and Nazi-sympathizer Zednicek (Vlastimil Brodský). Samm Deighan and Jonathan Owen (author of Avant-garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties) join Mike to discuss Menzel’s subversive film and the way it plays with “sex comedy” themes against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Links: Buy Closely Watched Trains on DVD Buy Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal Buy Closely Observed Trains (the script)

Special Guests: Justin Bozung, Kate Buford, Preston Neal Jones Guest Co-Hosts: Rob St. Mary, Elric Kane The 1968 film by Frank and Eleanor Perry, The Swimmer (based on the John Cheever short story of the same name), stars Burt Lancaster as Ned Merrill, a Connecticut executive who decides to head back home by swimming through the pools of his neighbors, a “river” which he names “Lucinda” after his wife. Along the way, Ned is met with drinks, laughs, reminders of his affairs that went sour, and maybe even reminders that what he pretends to be may be no more. Elric Kane and co-host emeritus Rob St. Mary join Mike to discuss the trouble production and ground-breaking ideas of The Swimmer. Links: Buy The Swimmer on Blu-Ray Read The Swimmer: A prophetic modernist fable set in a fading Eden by Michael Atkinson Read An Analysis of “The Swimmer” by John Cheever by Rebekah Nydam Watch Man Fed Up with Commute Swims to Work Read The Swimmer by John Cheever