Curatorial program by Anja Kirschner, Francis McKee and Kerstin Stakemeier
22.5.2019, 3–11pm
Ponrepo Cinema, Prague

The third curated programme in the series of screenings and live interventions dedicated to Ester Krumbachová, brings together three uncategorisable cult fantasy movies: “Freak Orlando”(1981) by Ulrike Ottinger, loosely based on Vir- ginia “Woolf’s Orlando”; “The Company of Wolves” (Neil Jordon, 1984), a stylish and macabre retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” co-written by the novelist Angela Carter; and the surrealistic coming-of-age horror “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders” by Jaromil Jireš (1970), a screen adaptation of Vítězslav Nezval 1935 faux gothic horror novel of the same title, co-written and designed by Ester Krumbachová.

What links these works is their ability to actualise their literary sources for the present while connecting it to an imagi- nation exceeding the truth claims of modern society and its disciplinary regimes and normative aesthetics of sexuality. They share a believe in the political centrality of what could be called a politics of “pornophilia”: a politics that has its origins in the Prague avant-garde of the 1930s. Together with artists like Toyen and Jindřich Štýrský the writer and psychoanalyst Bohuslav Brouk called for a “pansexual” praxis. And stretching from his sexualizations of politics into the films of Krumbachová, Carter and Ottinger this programme hopes to lastly also imply our own present in such aesthetic politics of indecency.

Ester Krumbachová (1923-1996) was a key figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave whose legacy has until recently been somewhat overlooked. Her unique work made her one of the most influential women in the backdrop of European cinema in the 1960s and early 1970s. The series of screening programmes at Ponrepo cinema that is intended to reflect upon and rekindle dialogue around the significance of her legacy.

PROGRAM:

I. PART
15:00 | Opening and introduction
15:30 | The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984, co-written by Angela Carter), 95 min. 17:05 | PAUSE

II. PART
17:30 | Introduction
18:00 | Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jireš, 1970, co-written and designed by Ester Krumbachova), 77 min.
19:20 | Talk by literary historian Vladimír Papoušek on Bohuslav Brouk’s interpretation of sexuality
20:00 | PAUSE: Evening special: lemonade according to the original recipe of Ester Krumbachová

III. PART
21:00 | Live performance by BCAA system
21:30 | Freak Orlando (Ulrike Ottinger, 1981), 126 min.

The projections will be introduced by Anja Kirschner, Francis McKee and Kerstin Stakemeier in English. The films will be shown in their original language with English subtitles.

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Fantastic Sex: Krumbachová, Carter, Ottinger was organised by Are | are-events.org and the National Film Archive and is supported by Prague City Hall, the Ministry of Culture and the Czech Film Fund.

The program was part of a long-term project researching Ester Krumbachová’s estate in collaboration with the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague, the CCA Glasgow – Center for Contemporary Art Glasgow, Czech Society for Film Studies, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Arts and Theatre Institute, the Film Studies Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague, the National Film Archive and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Special thanks to The Emblem Prague Hotel.