1 - Barrandov and Its Founder, Miloš Havel

Summary

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the early development of Barrandov Studios, as well as on the distinct personality of its founder, Miloš Havel. Havel, a member of a well-known Prague family of developers, built the expansive and modern film studio complex during a highly disadvantageous time of the Great Depression. During the occupation, the studio was integrated into the Nazi film apparatus. In the summer of 1945, Barrandov was taken over by the Czechoslovak state, and shortly thereafter Havel was accused of collaboration with the Nazis. The fate of Miloš Havel and his studio can be read as a metaphor of the shifts in the Czech film industry during the first half of the twentieth century.

Keywords: Czechoslovak cinema industry; Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; Nazi cultural policy; film production studies; screen industries.

This study will look into the motivations that led to large-scale investment in Barrandov Studios: How was it possible that the film studios were built at the time of the Great Depression? What were the visions of its founders – especially the film magnate Miloš Havel? And how would those visions turn out in comparison to the actual results achieved in the first years of the studios’ existence? It will also focus in detail on the increasing influence of the Nazis on Barrandov and how Havel himself dealt with their pressure during the period of German occupation. For this study, Miloš Havel and his family are the key to understanding Barrandov's position during its early years.

Czech Cinema without Large Studios

The Czech part of Czechoslovakia, a state which emerged in 1918 as one of the successors to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, was one of the most industrialized parts of the former empire, with about 70 percent of the former empire's entire industrial output being centralized there. Although the film industry had been developing from the period of early film in connection with Vienna and Berlin, this process was significantly slower and for a much longer period of time, less stable. Like in many other branches of culture, the rise of an independent state brought a strong (and positively viewed by Czechs) impulse to advancement of the film industry. Following World War I, a wave of Czech cinemas were founded, which offered spectators a range of attractive films of largely foreign provenance, thanks to the growth of the international film industry.