Iluminace 2021, 33(2):59-75 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1702

Symbiosis of Fiction and Non-Fiction Methods in Karel Vachek's Unrealized Screenplays

Miloš Kameník

This study is focused on unrealized screenplays written by the director Karel Vachek. It deals with nine extant texts of the screenplays: Hero Bohemia, Who Will Watch the Watchman?, Flying Unidentifiable Czech Objects, Czech Regurgitation and Romany, written in the 1960s, Bohemia Docta, written in the second half of the 1970s, What to Do? and Via Lucis, written in exile in the early 1980s, and the Members of the Revival movement and the Revival Movers and Communisum, written after the year 2000. The scripts are briefly introduced and the gradual transformation of their function is described in the article. Since the 1970s, Vachek had not emphasized the utilitarian function of screenplays, i. e. a direct description of images to be filmed. Instead, he was creating, as he himself called it, rather "over-texts", often composed of excerpts that served him as a space for reflection and thinking about selected topics. The main part of the study is focused on the significant formal uniqueness of Vachek's scripts: the interweaving of elements typical for fiction and non-fiction cinema. The methods of this symbiosis are explored, which allows to broaden research of Vachek's authorial poetics.

Keywords: Karel Vachek, unrealized screenplay, fiction film, non-fiction film, documentary film

Published: June 1, 2021  Show citation