Theodor Pištěk

* 1932

Svědci lokálních událostí spojených s druhou světovou válkou, Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu, Výtvarníci
Pražské povstání, Konec druhé světové války, Komunistický převrat v ČSR
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    Drinking parties at the Academy of Fine Arts

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    délka: 01:54
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    "Understandably, there was a lot of drinking at the Academy. Classes officially ended at four o'clock, and someone would come with a hat and collect five or ten crown coins and go to the chemist's. We used to buy wines from the chemist's, this horrible cheap wine made of rosehip or whatever. They brought that in and, of course, everybody was well-oiled within an hour. But I didn't drink at all because I've been known to have something wrong in my head. Something doesn't work as it should and I react terribly to alcohol. When I drink, it just kills me, headaches and stuff, I just can't drink for health reasons. Of course, in the company of drunks, you're simply unacceptable as a sober person. So I learned to pretend I was drunk too because otherwise I couldn't exist in that studio. Well, they figured out after a few semesters. And I'll remember that for the rest of my life: I was lying on the ground, Koblasa was on top of me, Dlouhý and Nepraš held my arms, and Ressel was pouring this horrible slop down my throat from a bottle... forcibly. That was a test, really."

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    Ugly memories of the Revolutionary Guards

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    délka: 01:22
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    "Those memories are awful, you know? Because I saw... there was a crowd of Germans being dragged by these self-appointed guardsmen. I saw these women - shaved heads, swastikas painted on their backs, and being beaten with sticks and dragged down Fošova Street. It was terrible, and of course, the most disgusting types who had been holed up somewhere throughout the war now turned revolutionaries, you know? They would loot empty flats left by the Germans who hadn't had the time even to take their trousers - they were glad to get away. You'd see a bunch of them on the street every day, with blankets on their backs, going somewhere. In short, May of 1945 was a mixture of both wonderful and disgusting experiences."

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    Tragicomic scenes from 5 May 1945

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    délka: 01:21
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    "The fifth of May when the revolution burst out was extremely dramatic for me. My mother and I watched it from the window. Trams would go down to the radio building, packed with people who were absolutely unarmed. I remember my mother shouting, 'Hey, he's got a gun!' Among those hundreds of people there was one guy who had a revolver! It was horrible... Then I ran out and I saw two Czechs and a soldier fighting over a rifle by the Flora Hotel. Those scenes were so unlike Schwarzenegger's; they were just utterly tragicomic scenes. Two guys lying in the middle of the road with a machine gun and people walking around. It was just depressing to see this unfortunate soldier fighting for a rifle with two guys... It was no adventure movie."

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    Praha, 19.04.2017

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    délka: 01:35:50
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Theodor Pištěk in 2017
Theodor Pištěk in 2017
zdroj: During the filming
zdroj: During the filming
Stáhnout obrázek

Theodor Pištěk was born in Prague on 25 October 1932 into an artistically oriented family. Both of his parents, Theodor Pištěk Sr. and Marie Pištěková, were well-known actors. His grandfather Jan Pištěk built and ran the ‚Pištěkárna‘, the Pištěk Folk Theatre in Královské Vinohrady. His maternal grandfather Julius Ženíšek was an importer of Ford cars to Austria-Hungary and the son of the painter František Ženíšek. Theodor Pištěk Jr. grew up during the war and has dramatic memories of May 1945 when he witnessed the anti-Nazi uprising of the Czech people and the Revolutionary Guards in Prague‘s Vinohrady. The Pištěks accommodated Major Patrick Dolan, the commander of the American mission that brought penicillin to Prague, in their apartment. In 1948, the witnessed transferred from a multi-year grammar school to the Higher School of Art Industry, thus escaping the subsequent State Security raid on a group of his former classmates who would meet for optional religious classes. From 1952, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vratislav Nechleba‘s studio and, while a student, he was suspended for a year over writing a letter to a Dutch art school with a classmate inquiring about scholarship options. After graduating in 1958, he focused on painting and cinema. He became a reputed film costume and set designer, winning an Oscar in 1984 for his costumes for Miloš Forman‘s Amadeus. In the 1960s, he was also a car racer and competed in the European Cup.

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