Černý Petr
fiction / 1963 / Czechoslovakia / bw / 89 min.
Director: Miloš Forman
Screenplay: Jaroslav Papoušek, Miloš Forman
Photography: Jan Němeček
Editor: Miroslav Hájek
Music: Karel Valdauf, Jiří Šlitr
Cast: Ladislav Jakim, Pavla Martínková, Jan Vostrčil, Vladimír Pucholt, Pavel Sedláček, Zdeněk Kulhánek, František Kosina, Josef Koza, Božena Matušková
A piercing generational study with an abundance of comedic perspective and an understanding of fathers and sons of that time. Sixteen-year-old Peter is on a high school internship in a supermarket. Not only does he not see the point of his job, but he is also confronted with the incomprehensible values of the „adult“ world represented by his father. A focal work of the beginnings of the Czechoslovak new wave cinema brought something new to the audiences – a depiction of generational alienation and young people searching for their identity. With the help of non-actors and Jan Němeček’s cinematography, Miloš Forman was able to capture the authenticity of ordinary summer days in a Czech town in the early 1960s, as well as feelings of the young generation of the Eastern Bloc waking up to a rebellion a few years ahead of the onset of Prague Spring.