Jiří Weiss

Jiří Weiss (29 March 1913 – 9 April 2004) was a Czech film director, screenwriter, writer, playwright and pedagogue.

Life Early life Jiří Weiss was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Prague. His father was a Czech patriot and named his son after Czech king Jiří of Poděbrady. His parents were Emil Weiss (1880–1942) and Martha Weissová (née Fuchsová; 1882–1944). Emil Weiss owned a liqueur factory in Libeň district. Since his youth, Jiří was a staunch communist, which was at the heart of disputes with his capitalist parents. As a young boy he was friends with Franz Kafka's niece Marianne Pollaková and thanks to her he was able to read the books of then-unknown writer Kafka in the 1920s. His father, who disagreed with his life choices and could still make decisions about his underage son, had him institutionalized in a mental hospital. Weiss never spoke to his father ever again. Later that year, he directed a short documentary about aviation Give us the Wings . He then apprenticed with directors Martin Frič and Hugo Haas and continued to make short documentaries. His frequent collaborators were cameraman Václav Hanuš and composer Jiří Srnka. Weiss was in the middle of editing of the feature-length documentary for the 20 year anniversary of Czechoslovakia called Twenty Years of Freedom. After the Munich Agreement the film was canceled.

In 1939, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he fled to England with the film material and used the footage to make a documentary The Rape of Czechoslovakia with the help of Basil Wright, Paul Rotha and Louis MacNeice. Czech diplomat Jan Masaryk acquired the funding from his English friends. He made a documentary about them called Night and Day. At the end of the war, he joined 21st Army Group as a front cameraman to film the liberation of France, Belgium and Netherlands. Weiss was present at the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp. He made his first full-length feature film The Stolen Frontier in 1947. Weiss, still a devoted communist at this time, turned away from politics during the communist persecutions in the early 1950s. He made his most celebrated movies in the late 1950s and 1960s, including Wolf Trap (1957), Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1959) and Czechoslovak-British co-production Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965).

After the Warsaw Pact invasion, Weiss left Czechoslovakia and lived in West Berlin, where he taught at a film school. Later he moved to the United States. The film entered in competition at 47th Venice International Film Festival. In 1985, he met Alexander Payne, then a young film student, and became his lifelong friend and mentor. In 1995, Weiss wrote a book of memoirs Bílý Mercedes.

Personal life Weiss was married three times. He had two children with his first wife – a daughter Jiřina and a son Jiří. He died in Santa Monica in 2004 and is buried at New Jewish Cemetery in Prague.

Selected filmography Feature films The Stolen Frontier (1947) Dravci (1948) The Last Shot (1950) New Warriors Will Arise (1950) My Friend the Gipsy (1953) Doggy and the Four (1954) Life Is at Stake (1956) Wolf Trap (1957) Appassionata (1959) Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1959) The Coward (1961) Golden Fern (1963) Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965) Murder Czech Style (1967) Martha and I (1991)

Documentaries People in the Sun (1935) Sun Is Shining over Lužnice (1936) Give us the Wings (1936) Sea of Air (1937) A Song About Carpathian Ruthenia (1937) The Illusion Factory (1938) Journey from the Shadows (1938) The Rape of Czechoslovakia (1939) – Lyrical documentary about pre-WWII Czechoslovakia and Nazi invasion. Narrated by Cecil Day-Lewis. Secret Allies (1939) Eternal Prague (1940) Home Front (1941) 100 Million Women (1942) The Other RAF (1942) Fighter Pilot (1943) Before the Raid (1943) – Docudrama about Norwegian fishermen resistance members. Written by Laurie Lee. Night and Day (1945) – Documentary about No. 311 Squadron RAF We Will Remain Faithful (1945) Song about Slet (1948) – Two-part documentary about the 9th Sokol slet festival

Awards and nominations Venice Film Festival

Wolf Trap (1957) - 19th Venice International Film Festival Won: FIPRESCI Award Won: New Cinema Award Nominated: Golden Lion

Golden Fern (1963) - 24th Venice International Film Festival Nominated: Golden Lion

Martha and I (1991) - 47th Venice International Film Festival Nominated: Golden Lion

Berlin International Film Festival

Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965) - 15th Berlin International Film Festival Won: UNICRIT Award

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1959) Won: Golden Shell

Murder Czech Style (1967) Won: Silver Shell

Golden Globe Awards

Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1965) - 23rd Golden Globe Awards Nominated: Best English-Language Foreign Film