Biography

[on the origins of Divided We Fall (2000)] We were inspired in part by the story a friend told us, about a family who hid a Jewish man during the war, and to protect themselves from suspicion they started to collaborate. Their neighbors hated them for it, not knowing the truth. We were interested in the paradox of that situation. The second was the birth of the child, in these very strange surroundings - that actually happened to the son of a famous Czech poet. The third was the German officer, who we learned about from another friend of ours. The scriptwriter, Petr Jarchovský, collected all these ideas together and wrote the story.

[on Václav Havel's cameo in Up and Down (2004)] The Burmese dissident couple in our film was inspired by my wife's work for Amnesty International. At the time, she was working on an exhibition of photographs on Burma held under the auspices of then President Václav Havel. I knew that his participation in the film could contribute to the believability of this element of the narrative.

[on English title of Divided We Fall (2000)] Yes, the title is rather different, but I feel it's even slightly better than the Czech one. The Czech title, 'We Must Help Each Other', is quite an ironic title... Though Divided We Fall is in the American Constitution ( "United We Stand, Divided We Fall") - so perhaps the pathos and irony is actually even bigger in this one. Therefore I like this English title very much.

[on Karel Gott's cameo in Shameless (2008)] When there was a situation in the screenplay where Nora and a colleague are taking photos for a new album, then we were saying what caliber the other should be. And Karel Gott is the most famous personality of local show business.

[on Emília Vásáryová] Sometimes I'll work with an actor several times before I realize I'm doing something wrong. For instance, I've made four movies with Emília Vásáryová, who's an extremely talented, beautiful woman. In the first three, I cast her as a very sick mother, an alcoholic, and a religious fanatic. In all these roles, she was made to look much uglier than she really is - in real life, she's like Sophia Loren - so I wanted to give her a role where she'd be the beautiful one. In Shameless (2008), she played this glamorous singer with a younger lover. She thought it was ridiculous and told me she didn't feel comfortable in the role at all.