Juraj Herz (4 September 1934 – 8 April 2018) was a Slovak film director, actor, and scene designer, associated with the Czechoslovak New Wave movement of the 1960s.[2][3] He is best known for his 1969 horror/black comedy The Cremator, often cited as one of the best Czechoslovak films of all time,[2][4] though many of his other films achieved cult status.[5] He directed for both film and television, and in the latter capacity he directed episodes of a French-Czech television series based on George Simenon's Maigret novels.
Quick Facts Born, Died ...
Juraj Herz |
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| Born | (1934-09-04)4 September 1934
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| Died | 8 April 2018(2018-04-08) (aged 83)
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| Occupation(s) | Film director
Screenwriter
Actor |
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| Years active | 1961–2018 |
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Herz was self-taught as a film director.[3] His first experience working on films was as second-unit director under Zbyněk Brynych (Transport from Paradise; 1962) and Ján Kadár (The Shop on Main Street; 1965).[3] Because he had attended DAMU rather than its sister film school, FAMU, Herz was initially not part of the core group of directors who would form the Czechoslovak New Wave.[3] His 1965 short film The Junk Shop was excluded from the group's manifesto anthology Pearls of the Deep (1966) due to its running time.[3]
Herz made his breakthrough with his 1969 film, The Cremator,[5] based on a novel by Ladislav Fuks, starring Czech actor Rudolf Hrušínský as a demented crematorium manager who collaborates with the Nazis during World War II.[2] The film was selected as the Czechoslovak entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[8] In 1972, it won the Festival de Cine de Sitges Best Film award, as well as awards for Hrušínský and cinematographer Stanislav Milota. Immediately banned by Communist censors after its premiere,[3] The Cremator was not seen again in Czechoslovakia until after the Velvet Revolution in 1989,[2] but achieved wide international acclaim and cult status.[3][2][9] It was re-released in 2017.[5] The film combined horror and black comedy,[7] and is often cited as one of the best movies ever made in Czechoslovakia.[4][2]
The following year saw Sweet Games of Last Summer, an expressionist adaptation of Guy de Maupassant.[3]
Herz was best known for his work in the horror genre; he was one of the few Czechoslovak film directors working horror films during the Communist period.[3] His other horror works included 1972 murder drama Morgiana and a gothic re-interpretation of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (Czech: Panna a Netvor) in 1978.[2] Herz's 1971 drama Oil Lamps (Czech: Petrolejové Lampy) was in competition for the Palme D'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5][10] Herz's 1976 film Day for My Love, a drama about the death of a child,[3] was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.[4]
Herz intended to make an adaptation of Alfred Jarry's absurd erotic novel Supermale but was forced to shelve it by the government.[11]
His 1982 movie Ferat Vampire (Czech: Upír z Feratu), a horror movie about a murderous Ferat sports car fuelled on human blood, starred Jiří Menzel and future first lady Dagmar Havlová.[2] In 1986 Herz released The Night Overtakes Me, a tragic drama about his experiences in the concentration camp.[3]
Herz emigrated to Germany in 1987.[5] His last major films were paranormal thriller Darkness (Czech: T.M.A.; 2009),[2] and Habermann (2010),[5] a war drama about the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II.[2]
