Lucie Králová’s daring documentary uses a choir and an original libretto to recount the story of the renegade Czech musician
Retelling the complicated life of prolific Czech composer Jan Kapr, Lucie Králová’s category-defying documentary harmonises the artist’s never-before-seen archive with a new libretto from Jiří Adámek. Sung in the operatic sprechgesang style, the latter composition recounts Kapr’s triumphs and struggles in the public as well as the private spheres. Full of early ideals, he joined the communist party in 1945 and his popular propaganda songs were crucial to the party’s ideological machine, cemented by his winning of the coveted Stalin prize in 1951. After the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, however, a disillusioned Kapr began to distance himself from his comrades, to the point where he even attempted to return the prize.
These turbulences are recounted with rigour and playfulness. As Kapr also means “carp” in the Czech language, water imagery recurs in both the lyrics as well as the visuals. Dressed in all black against white-painted rehearsal spaces, the choir are filmed with a geometric minimalism that nicely contrasts with Kapr’s colourful home recordings. More than just an illustrative accompaniment to Adámek’s composition, these images from the past are imbued with a vitality that’s achieved through strikingly impressionistic editing.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/09/kapr-code-review-operatic-retelling-of-composer-jan-kaprs-turbulent-life
Author : Phuong Le
Publish date : 2024-12-09 07:00:16
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