#969: NÊMEC, Jan: Diamonds Of The Night (1964)

NÊMEC, Jan (Czechoslovokia)
Diamonds Of The Night [1964]
Spine #969
Blu-ray

With this simultaneously harrowing and lyrical debut feature, Jan Nĕmec established himself as the most uncompromising visionary among the radical filmmakers who made up the Czechoslovak New Wave. Adapted from a novel by Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night closely tracks two boys who escape from a concentration-camp transport and flee into the surrounding woods, hostile terrain where the brute realities of survival coexist with dreams, memories, and fragments of visual poetry. Along with visceral camera work by Jaroslav Kuĉera and Miroslav Ondřiĉek — two of Czechoslovak cinema's most influential cinematographers — Nĕmec makes inventive use of fractured editing, elliptical storytelling, and flights of surrealism as he strips context away from this bare-bones tale, evoking the panicked delirium of consciousness lost in night and fog.

67 minutes

Black & White
Monaural
in Czech
1:37:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2019

Director/Writers

Based on the novel Darkness Casts No Shadow by Arnošt Lustig.

Screenplay by Jan Nêmec and Lustig.

Nêmec was 28 when he directed Diamonds of the Night.

Other Nêmec films in the Collection:

Eclipse Series 32: A Report On The Party And Guests (1966)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

From 2009 with director Nêmec.

A Loaf of Bread

Nêmec’s 1960 student thesis film, based on a short story by Lustig.

Arnošt Lustig Through the Eyes of Jan Nêmec

A short documentary from 1993.

Interview 2

With film programmer Irene Kovarova.

Video essay

On the film’s stylistic influences by scholar James Quandt.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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