Witches' Hammer

Otakar Vávra (born February 28, 1911) is a Czech film director, screenwriter and pedagogue. He was born in Hradec Králové, Austria-Hungary, now part of the Czech Republic.

Vávra attended universities in Brno and Prague, where he studied architecture. During 1929-30, while still a student, he participated in the making of a handful of documentaries and wrote movie scripts. In 1931, he produced the experimental film Světlo proniká tmou. The first movie he directed was 1937’s Filosofská historie.

His first feature film was 1938’s Cech panen Kutnohorských, starring Zorka Janů, sister of legendary Czech actress Lída Baarová. Janů also played in Vávra’s films Podvod s Rubensem and Pacientka Dr. Hegela, both from 1940. Baarová starred in Vávra’s films Panenství (1937), Maskovaná milenka (1939), Dívka v modrém (1939), and Turbína (1941).

After the Communists came to power in 1948, Vávra adapted quickly to the new political climate and produced films praising the current regime and supporting the new, official interpretation of the past. In later years, when the government became more liberal, Vávra entered into his most prolific period, producing films such as Zlatá reneta (1965), Romance pro křídlovku (1966), Kladivo na čarodějnice (1969), and Komediant (1984). When the Communists fell from power in 1989, state subsidies for the film industry were dropped and Vávra’s plans for an historical epic titled Evropa tančila valčík had to be scaled down.

In the 1950s, Otakar Vávra, together with a group of fellow Czech film directors, established the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová Akademia muzických umění or FAMU), where he taught for over five decades. Among his students were several directors of the 1960s “Czech New Wave” of art films, including future Oscar-winner Miloš Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus). —Wikipedia