Legendary Czech film director Vavra dies aged 100

Vavra was recovering in a Prague hospital from a surgery he underwent after a femoral neck fracture six weeks ago.

Born on February 28, 1911, Vavra was presented with the Zlin, south Moravia, international festival´s Grand Prix for his life contribution to world cinematography in June.

In 2004, President Vaclav Klaus decorated Vavra with the top Czech state award, Medal of Merit.

Vavra´s life partner, film director Jitka Nemcova, 61, told CTK two weeks ago that her husband´s surgery was successful. However, "demanding operations in so high an age are always risky," she said.

Earlier this year Vavra published a book of his memoirs that do not only map the respected film-maker's more than 70-year-long career, but they also depict life in former Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic from the 1930s to date.

Vavra directed his first feature film in 1937. A year later, his historical comedy The Virgins' Club (Cech panen Kutnohorských) won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. Vavra continued his career of a successful film director during WWII as well as afterwards when communists seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948.

In the 1960s he shot ones of his best films, which were highly acclaimed by critics, The Golden Apple (Zlata reneta, 1965), Romance for Cornet (Romance pro kridlovku, 1966) and Witches' Hammer/Malleus Maleficarum (Kladivo na carodejnice, 1969).

Vavra´s last film work is a video clip for a song on a pop music DVD in 2006.

In the 1950s, Vavra, together with a group of other Czech directors, helped establish the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) where he was teaching for over five decades.

Among his students were Oscar-winning film-makers Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel and other famous directors of the New Czech Film Wave of the 1960s, including Vera Chytilova, Evald Schorm, as well as foreign directors, including Serbian Emir Kusturica and Croatian Lordan Zafranovic.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz