Prague: The Restless Heart of Europe

With sparse narration and an intense collage of arresting images, Věra Chytilová’s homage to Prague captures the spirit of the Czech capital in exquisitely intimate detail. Jerkily juxtaposing panoramic vistas with meticulous close-ups in a way that’s both fascinating and disquieting, Chytilová vividly evokes the turbulent ebbs and flows of the city’s history with oblique visual meditations on its art and architecture. She intersperses these with footage of 20th-century Prague, an edgy place that’s constantly being driven onward by the ghosts of a tumultuous past. As you would expect from a director who was among the most avant-garde of the Czech New Wave, there are plenty of experimental flourishes that catch the eye. One particularly memorable sequence, for example, brilliantly captures the gaudy spectacle of a choreographed communist sports gala. The film’s ambitious visual elements are deftly complemented by Michal Kocáb’s impressive score, which effortlessly chronicles the city’s evolution through a variety of musical styles, ranging from baroque classical to prog-rock. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)