Zet Molas

Zet Molas (born Zdena Holubová, married name Zdenka Smolová; 18 March 1896 – 1956) was a Czech avant-garde film director, actress, critic and screenwriter. She was the third ever female Czech director.

Career Molas was born in the area of Pražské Předměstí of Hradec Králové in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, in 1896 to a middle-class railway clerk, and spent part of her childhood in Vienna. She attended the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, under the sculptor Otakar Španiel. There, she studied poetry as well as theater. After her time at the AAAD, she studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Molas began her career in film after returning to Prague, where she funded her first film, Závěť podivínova, thanks to her husband Bohumil Smol, who was a businessman. After the film was completed, she began work in France on an adaptation of the Théophile Gautier novel Mademoiselle De Maupin, on which she was to star as well as write and direct. However, the production ran into problems and Molas returned to Prague. and Milostná mámení (Love Seductions), an adaptation of a play by .

In 1928, she finally made a comeback to the film industry with Mlynář a jeho dítě (the Miller and His Child), an adaptation of a play by Ernst Raupach. The film, which contains supernatural elements, is considered to be the first Czech foray into surrealism in film.

In 1925, she had an affair with poet Vítězslav Nezval, who published a number of works in the magazine she edited, Český filmový svět.

Work

Filmography 1923 - Testament of the Stranger (original story, screenplay, direction) 1928 - The miller and his child (screenplay, direction, casting, role of the miller's daughter Maria) 1929 - Armored Car (theme, screenplay, role of Hamilton's daughter Bessa) 1936 – Lojzička (screenplay) 1937 – Karel Hynek Mácha (screenplay, director, editor) Panna (The Virgin) (screenplay) Milostná mámení (Amorous Delusions) (screenplay) Princezna Pampeliška (Princess Dandelion) (screenplay)