Famous Vávra's students remember their professor with admiration

Věra Chytilová: "Vávra accepted me as the only woman for film directing due to my knowledge of literature and previous studies in architecture."

Prague - The director and professor of Prague's FAMU Otakar Vávra, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 100 in a hospital in Homolka, is fondly remembered by his famous students. In the late 50s and early 60s, for example, Jan Schmidt, Jiří Menzel, Věra Chytilová, and the late Evald Schorm studied in a class chosen by Vávra. This class later became the most famous in FAMU's history and one of the main pillars of the so-called Czech New Wave.
    "He was my teacher, and I think it was a great fortune for me. Not just for me, but for Czech film as well. When we look at the history of Czech film, from the point of view of artistic ambition, it was really only after Panenství or Filozofská historie that films had the artistic ambition that Otakar Vávra brought to Czech cinema," Menzel told ČTK today.
        The Oscar-winning director of Closely Watched Trains once wrote about his professor that he mastered the technique of how to get along with every authority. If there were to be any Czech film memorial someday, it should state that Otakar Vávra contributed to Czech film. "Respect for the craft, objectivity, and an awareness of connections - these were Vávra's virtues," Menzel wrote this year in the foreword to the book Otakar Vávra - 100 Years.
        Chytilová, who is sometimes referred to as the first lady of Czech cinematography, originally studied architecture but committed to film before finishing school, starting as a clapper loader, script supervisor, and directing assistant. She then went on to study at FAMU, where Vávra was her teacher.
       "Vávra accepted me as the only woman for film directing due to my knowledge of literature and previous studies in architecture. As my main professor, he was very strict but also open to other opinions. He allowed us the most intense debates in his seminars. Not only did we learn from him, but he also absorbed much from his students. He was not orthodox," Chytilová said today to ČTK regarding Vávra's passing.
      Five years ago, during a discussion with audiences at the Plzeň Film Festival, Vávra stated that Chytilová, Menzel, and Schmidt, who directed the notable film Vracenky in 1990, are the best Czech students he ever taught.
    "I am proud of them; each of them is a great and strong personality," Vávra declared during the discussion, through whom dozens of Czech and foreign students passed.
      One of them is the famous Bosnian director Emir Kusturica, who met with his teacher after many years this year at the Summer Film School in Uherské Hradiště. "Professor Vávra means everything to me; he was there at the start of my film career. If I learned anything about film forms, it's from him," Kusturica said at that time, having graduated from FAMU in 1978.