Semafor, Suchý & Šlitr: The Big Bang of Czechoslovak Pop Culture [talk]

Pavel Klusák presents an audiovisual program inspired by his acclaimed book Suchý & Šlitr: Semafor 1959–1969. The Semafor Theater marked the first euphoric explosion of pop culture in Czechoslovakia—ending the gray atmosphere of the 1950s and throwing open the door to the vibrant spirit of the sixties in socialist Central Europe. That is why it was so successful—and why people never forgot it.

This is the story of the Czech struggle for jazz and rock ’n’ roll, nostalgia for American musicals, and the birth of independent culture under censorship. It explores collaborations with future Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Jiří Menzel, Barrandov’s most expensive film project of the decade, and the development of the country’s best-selling single. Themes of politics and apoliticality, feminism, secret police surveillance, and the Prague Spring all intersect here. It is also partly a New York story—through Jiří Šlitr’s visits to Jiří Voskovec and Broadway producers.

Presented by music journalist and Magnesia Litera laureate Pavel Klusák, whose book Gott. Československý příběh (Gott: A Czechoslovak Story) sparked a national debate on culture, politics, and values.

Pavel Klusák (b. 1969) is one of Czechia’s most prominent music journalists. He explores the history of pop culture in Czechoslovakia, having written critical portraits of major cultural figures such as Karel Gott and the duo Jiří Suchý & Jiří Šlitr. A longtime collaborator of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Klusák is also the author of the documentary Hudba Zdeňka Lišky (The Music of Zdeněk Liška), released in the U.S. by The Criterion Collection.

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