We Want to Die

Martin Ježek, Jaroslav Tarnovski / 2022 / World Premiere / 35 min.

synopsis

A poetic story of a proletarian couple’s relationship during the years of economic crisis and unemployment – of all the films directed by E. F. Burian, the film Chceme žít (We Want to Live, 1949) is probably his worst. The intention to create a powerful work of cinema that would combine modern means of expression with the ideological canons of socialist realism failed completely. Ježek and Tarnovski discovered these „shambles“ and tried to rebuild a structure out of the hopelessness and futility of life. Ježek has photochemically “transcribed” selected passages with the greatest possible degree of humility towards the work of the great avant-gardist, Tarnovski similarly makes the soundtrack visible. The improvised encounter of sound and image in dialogic mode can lead to various misunderstandings resulting in ambiguous compromise.

“…when I read the book of the same name, written by Karel Nový in the 1930s, I couldn't imagine (…) aside from all the coitus and abortions, nothing happens there (…) the capitalists are terrible (…) slight hints of some psychology when the heroes decided whether or not to steal, whether or not to fuck around, whether or not to beg. (…) they wonder only for a moment whether they are worthy of their place among their comrades, but of course only for a moment…”