Ekstase (Extase)

Description

Introduction by Daniel Wiegand, 15' Eva is a woman from a good family who – after some dissatisfaction on her wedding night – prefers to engage with the young engineer Adam rather than continue dealing with her wooden husband Emil. The decision has consequences... Machatý's emancipatory drama is considered a milestone in Czech film history. As a part-talkie – a typical product of the transition period from silent to sound film – it is equipped with dialogue and sound effects only in a few places; mostly, the visual expressiveness of the silent film is still relied upon, culminating in a 'socialist apotheosis' at the very end, reminiscent of Eisenstein's films. It also appears modern in the staging of a sexually frustrated woman seeking autonomy. It was probably this aspect that led to numerous censorship interventions into the 1950s, even more than the unusually revealing nude scenes of the later Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr (then still Hedwig Kiesler). The Prague production company Elektafilm shot the film simultaneously in three languages in Vienna (Czech, German, French). We present a new reconstruction of the German language version from the Filmarchiv Austria, which most closely aligns with the film's original intent. (dw) Cast and additional information: Director: Gustav Machatý Screenplay: Gustav Machatý, František Horký Author: Viteslav Nezval Cinematographer: Jan Stallich Music: Giuseppe Becce Editing: Antonín Zelenka Cast: Hedwig Kiesler (= Hedy Lamarr) (Eva), Zvonimir Rogoz (Emil), Aribert Mog (Adam), Leopold Kramer (the father), Karel Mácha-Kuča (the lawyer), Jan Svitak, Jiřina Steimarová