Toyen

  • 63'
  • Czech Republic
  • 2005
A most undefinable and hallucinatory work by Němec, in which he dives into the visionary world of the Czech painter and leading light of both Czech and French surrealism Marie Čermínová (1902-1980). An avant-garde personality, she also challenged the traditional gender roles, taking the enigmatic gender-free name Toyen and becoming one of the few female faces of the surrealist movement. 
Following her aesthetic principles, Němec radically breaks with the conventions of biopic and with the retro genre as well. Fully aware that any artist biopic would always be a poor illustration of a character's life, as any true artist is unapproachable, he instead makes a kaleidoscope of different images, related and unrelated to reality at once. Archival fragments, re-enactments, Čermínová's paintings and her poetic works, as well as other materials and textures converge and diffuse in this ghostly film which, in the words of Toyen, could have been called 'Splinters of Dreams' or even 'Silence and Darkness'. 
  • 63'
  • Czech Republic
  • 2005
Director
Jan Němec
Country of production
Czech Republic
Year
2005
Festival Edition
IFFR 2017
Length
63'
Medium
35mm
Language
Czech
Producers
Jan Němec, Iva Ruszeláková
Production Company
Jan Němec - Film
Sales
Jan Němec - Film
Screenplay
Tereza Brdečková, Jan Němec
Cinematography
Jiří Maxa
Editor
Michal Lánský
Production Design
Tereza Kučerová
Sound Design
Ivo Špalj
Cast
Zuzana Stivínová, Jan Budař, Tobiáš Jirous, Marek Bouda
Website
http://www.facebook.com/jan.nemec.film
Director
Jan Němec
Country of production
Czech Republic
Year
2005
Festival Edition
IFFR 2017
Length
63'
Medium
35mm
Language
Czech
Producers
Jan Němec, Iva Ruszeláková
Production Company
Jan Němec - Film
Sales
Jan Němec - Film
Screenplay
Tereza Brdečková, Jan Němec
Cinematography
Jiří Maxa
Editor
Michal Lánský
Production Design
Tereza Kučerová
Sound Design
Ivo Špalj
Cast
Zuzana Stivínová, Jan Budař, Tobiáš Jirous, Marek Bouda
Website
http://www.facebook.com/jan.nemec.film