Vladimír Michálek

* 1956

  • “When I failed the exam – I don’t recall if it was pathology or what – I was walking the streets of Prague in sadness, thinking about spending my entire summer holidays in the Klementinum library. So, I went to a winehouse where people I knew used to go; they were filmmakers – Máša, Křižan, and Juráček who came back from West Germany; he was in a sorry state then. When they saw me, they said: ‘Hey, what’s up, doc? You look kind of sad.’ I told them, and one of them said: ‘Well, then leave and go to FAMU; you’ll be fine there.”

  • “It continued like that until I was about 14, which is when my family presented me with their vision for my life – the way they saw it. They said they had a couple of friends at a factory where I could get my electrician training. Then, I could get a chance to, say, repair elevators in a factory in the Most area. And if I joined the communist party and the militia, I would stand a fair chance of receiving an apartment in a prefab block somewhere in Hostomice, or whatever the place was called. I realised that while I didn’t know what I wanted in my life, I knew for sure I didn’t want that. So, I packed up and fled for Prague at age 15.”

  • “When we went to school, first class, it was 1962. It was so pompous – everybody was a ‘pioneer’, and we all had to be. We actually wanted to be ‘pioneers’ very much. When I told my parents that I was looking forward to being a ‘pioneer’, they didn’t say anything; they were kind of patient about it, but they didn’t have the guts to tell me: ‘No, you’re not going to be one.’ They wanted to stay kind of ‘invisible’, which I only started understanding later when I realised there were conflicts involved. To us, though, it was fun more than anything. Our class teacher owned a Moskvich [car] and called it Little Ivan. Her husband was the primary school’s headmaster, and he was sadistic; he would beat us hard. It seemed natural to us. We didn’t really perceive the politics too keenly.”

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    Praha, 16.11.2022

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    délka: 01:30:15
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th Century TV
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Dreaming is what I like best about film

Vladimír Michálek in 2022
Vladimír Michálek in 2022
zdroj: Post Bellum

Vladimír Michálek was born in Mladá Boleslav on 2 November 1956. He lived in Bystřice pod Cínovcem from the age of three. He witnessed the invasion of Warsaw Pact armies while staying at Lake Mácha. Aged 15, he left for Prague and studied at a grammar school. He was expelled from the school over tearing down a Soviet flag during a school outing. He obtained an electrician training at ČKD and eventually completed his grammar studies as well. He served his two-year mandatory military stint near Lysá nad Labem. He studied paediatrics at a medical school for three years. He joined FAMU’s Department of Documentary Film in 1986. While still a student, he worked in the Barrandov film studios as a second assistant director and, later on, as a first assistant director and casting director. He left the country for the US in August 1989. When he heard the news about the outburst of the Velvet Revolution, he returned to Czechoslovakia on 21 or 22 November and took part in the protests. In 1990, he started work on his debut film, Amerika, which premiered in 1994. He was working as a teacher and psychotherapist in 2022.