FACETS CINÉMATHÈQUE
September 2007
The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. For more information on films playing in the Cinémathèque, please call 773-281-4114. To order advance tickets online, visit the TicketWeb website by clicking here.
CZECH DREAM
(CESKÝ SEN)
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WINNER
Best Documentary San Francisco Intl Film Fest |
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"Like
Jackass directed by Lars Von Trier"
-BBC

"Eat your heart out, Michael Moore"
-New York Post
"Czech Dream gains in fascination with each chronological step, revealing both the rigorous process of marketing...as well as a newly capitalized citizenry on the cusp of its first disillusionment."
-Time Out
-Chicago Tribune
Tip of the Week! " A nearly unclassifiable documentary-comedy, which is truly, truly funny...This is the best kind of comedy: often uproarious and always unsettling"
-NewCity Chicago
Recommended! "Slyly subversive"
-Chicago Reader
Daring, provocative, and even highly objectionable to some,
Czech Dream follows two film students - the directors Filip Remunda and V¡t Klusák - who use a government grant to promote the opening of a big-box supermarket offering impossibly low prices. Their marketing machine goes into overdrive: catchy jingles are commissioned, glossy flyers are handed out, billboards get posted. The only problem is that the store is entirely fictitious, and nothing much existed at its advertised location: a storefront banner erected in an empty field outside of Prague. The social fallout is fascinating, especially as it coincides with the Czech government's own enormous ad campaign to promote the dream of joining the European Union. The resulting scandal is alternately hilarious and discomfiting as
Czech Dream offers a penetrating look at how marketers and politicians vie for our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks. Careful not to mock the thwarted shoppers,
Czech Dream instead entertainingly questions the nature of advertising and global consumerism as well as present a funny and provocative analysis of the world of contemporary media manipulation.
Directed by Filip Remunda and V¡t Klusák, Czech Republic, 2004, 35mm, 87 mins. In Czech with English subtitles.
Official site
Director interview
BBC
Village Voice
Time Out
New York Post
Chicago Tribune
NewCity Chicago
Chicago Reader
Showtimes:
Fri., Sept. 21 at 7 & 9 pm
Sat.-Sun., Sept. 22-23 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm
Mon.-Thurs., Sept. 24-27 at 7 & 9 pm
Tickets: