Czechoslovakia, 1958 / 1968
Length / Desire: 95 minutes
Length / All My Good Countrymen:
121 minutes
Length / Special features: 118 minutes
2.0 / 1.0 Mono LPCM (48k/24-bit)
Desire: Black and white
All My Good Countrymen:
Colour
Original aspect ratios:
1:37:1
Language: Czech
Subtitles: English
Blu-Ray: BD50 x 2 / 1080p
Region ABC (Region Free)
Blu-Ray RRP: £29.99
Release Date: 8 August 2022
Second Run BD055
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These two films by Vojtěch Jasný, one of Czechoslovak cinema's most renowned and influential film artists, tell deceptively simple tales of rural life.
Desire (Touha), a lyrical film poem beautifully shot across four seasons, represents the eternal cycle of human life from birth to death.
All My Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci) made a decade later, weaves together the stories of a group of friends whose lives reflect the seismic political changes in post-war Czechoslovakia. One of the wonders of the Czech New Wave, this autobiographical masterpiece, made with deep affection for corruptible, flawed humanity, is a potent reminder of the lives, friendships and idealism lost under totalitarian rule.
All My Good Countrymen is presented from a new 4K restoration, Desire is presented from a new HD transfer - both films make their world premieres on Blu-ray. Our edition also features archival interviews with director Vojtěch Jasný and actor Drahomíra Hofmanová, additional films by Jasný: It’s Not Always Cloudy (1949) and the acclaimed short Bohemian Rhapsody (1969), a booklet with a new essay by Peter Hames... and more!
• Two-disc Blu-ray Special Edition.
• All My Good Countrymen presented from an HD transfer of the new 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Desire presented from a new HD transfer by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Vojtěch Jasný introduces All My Good Countrymen (2015).
• It's Not Always Cloudy (Není stále zamračeno, 1949): Jasný’s rediscovered feature-length semi-documentary graduation film, co-directed by Karel Kachyňa.
• Bohemian Rhapsody (Česká rapsodie, 1969): Jasný’s acclaimed short film.
• Interview with Vojtěch Jasný (1988): an archival interview with the celebrated filmmaker made for the Channel 4 television
series The Other Europe.
• An interview with actor Drahomíra Hofmanová (2015).
• Peter Hames on Vojtěch Jasný (2015).
• A Projection Booth audio commentary on All My Good Countrymen with Mike White, Spencer Parsons and Chris Stachiw.
• 20-page booklet featuring an expansive new essay on Jasný and the films by author Peter Hames.
• New and improved English subtitle translations.
• Reversible sleeve.
• World premieres on Blu-ray.
• Region Free (A/B/C) Blu-rays.
DESIRE
Directed by Vojtěch Jasný
Story and screenplay by Vojtěch Jasný and Vladimír Valenta
Cinematography - Jaroslav Kučera
Music - Svatopluk Havelka
Main Cast
Jan Jakeš - Joska
Jana Brejchová - Lenka
Věra Tichánková - Anděla
Anna Melíšková - Mother/Mrs Hynková
All MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN
Directed and written by Vojtěch Jasný
Cinematography - Jaroslav Kučera
Music - Svatopluk Havelka
Costumes - Ester Krumbachová
Main Cast
Vlastimil Brodský - Očenáš
Radoslav Brzobohatý - František
Vladimír Menšík - Jořka Pyřk
Waldemar Matuška - Zášinek
Drahomíra Hofmanová - the 'Merry Widow'
Pavel Pavlovský - Bertin
Václav Babka - Franta Lampa
Many other gems of Czechoslovak cinema
are also availble on Second Run
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“Jasný is the spiritual father of the Czech New Wave”
Miloš Forman
DESIRE
1959 Cannes Film Festival
Winner: Special prize, Prix de la meilleure sélection
“Jasný deliberately destroyed the canons of Stalinist aesthetics with his film Desire, and he was the first to seek a specifically Czech film language... Desire stood out as a landmark that could not be ignored”
Antonín Liehm, Closely Observed Films
“After long years of deliberate stifling of form, Desire resurrected in Czech cinema the film poetry once upon a time introduced to it by Rovenský, Frič, Vančura, and Vávra”
Jan Žalman, Films and Filmmakers
All MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN
1969 Cannes Film Festival / Winner: Best Director
1969 Cannes Film Festival / Winner: Jury Prize
1969 Plzen Film Festival / Winner: Best Film
Voted by critics in the 'Top 3 Czechoslovak films of all time'
“All My Good Countrymen is a historic film for both its extraordinary poetic and social qualities and its position as the masterpiece of Vojtech Jasny - father of that brilliant flowering of Czechoslovak cinema
”
Richard Grenier, New York Times
“The film and the milieu it so precisely evokes are not so much nostalgic as they are powerfully remembered and irrevocably lost... All My Good Countrymen reflects the curdled fury of a former true believer”
Jim Hoberman, Village Voice
“A bitter-sweet, affectionate and pointed picture of a life many Czechs would have recognised. A key film from the Prague Spring”
Time Out
“Jasný’s lyrical masterpiece” Radio Praha
“It’s rare to see such sincere empathy in cinema... revealing itself as one of Second Run’s finest and most user-friendly releases” David Jenkins, Little White Lies
