Zlatá šedesátá

Pavel Juráček, a director, screenwriter, signatory to Charta 77 was a key figure of Czech film in the sixties. The diary notes capture the rise and fall of a talented artist in the conflict with the social and culture circumstances as well as with his own bohemian personality. The diary offers not only an extraordinary insight into Juráček’s character, into his perception of the world and people surrounding him, but also the atmosphere of the ‘golden age of our cinema’ that is viewed from the inside by one of the figures of the New Wave. In his diaries Pavel Juráček left a work of great literature with hypnotic impressiveness, a free document about the heights and demons of artistic creation. The book won in the survey The Book of the Year 2004 of Lidove noviny and it also received a Magnesia Litera 2004 Award for the publishing act.

August 16, 1964… Friday

A Man doesn’t belong in the World, he is a nature’s mistake and his acting is senseless. It seems to me that happiness is a state of stupidity, smart men can’t be happy - these two things exclude each other. Intellect is against us, intellect is an enemy, intellect is a brain tumor, unnatural growth of thoughts and doubts rising from some mistake in nature. With whom shall I talk about it? I don’t have anyone. Th older I am, the more lonely I am and the only thing sure is the fact that I will die one day. And till then I will stagger onwards away from birth, closer to death and I will do things that are ridiculous with respect to the certainty of death death. Because the one single thing a man knows about his life for sure, is that it will end.