František Vláčil

Marketa Lazarová

Marketa Lazarová

In its native land, František Vláčil’s Marketa Lazarová has been hailed as the greatest Czech film ever made; for many U.S. viewers, it will be a revelation. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, this stirring and poetic depiction of a feud between two rival medieval clans is a fierce, epic, and meticulously designed evocation of the clashes between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence. Vláčil’s approach was to re-create the textures and mentalities of a long-ago way of life, rather than to make a conventional historical drama, and the result is dazzling. With its inventive widescreen cinematography, editing, and sound design, Marketa Lazarová is an experimental action film.

Film Info

  • Czechoslovakia
  • 1967
  • 165 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 2.35:1
  • Czech, German
  • Spine #661

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interviews with actors Magda Vášáryová, Ivan Palúch, and Vlastimil Harapes and costume designer Theodor Pištěk
  • New interviews with film historian Peter Hames and journalist and film critic Antonín Liehm
  • In the Web of Time, a short documentary from 1989 by cinematographer František Uldrich, in which director František Vláčil discusses his filmmaking process
  • Interview with Universal Production Partners technical director Ivo Marák about the film’s restoration
  • Gallery of storyboards by Vláčil
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: Essays by film scholar Tom Gunning and translator Alex Zucker and a 1969 interview with Vláčil

    New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New interviews with actors Magda Vášáryová, Ivan Palúch, and Vlastimil Harapes and costume designer Theodor Pištěk
  • New interviews with film historian Peter Hames and journalist and film critic Antonín Liehm
  • In the Web of Time, a short documentary from 1989 by cinematographer František Uldrich, in which director František Vláčil discusses his filmmaking process
  • Interview with Universal Production Partners technical director Ivo Marák about the film’s restoration
  • Gallery of storyboards by Vláčil
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: Essays by film scholar Tom Gunning and translator Alex Zucker and a 1969 interview with Vláčil

    New cover by Neil Kellerhouse
Marketa Lazarová
Cast
Josef Kemr
Old Kozlík
Naďa Hejná
Kateřina
František Velecký
Mikoláš
Ivan Palúch
Adam
Pavla Polášková
Alexandra
Michal Kožúch
Lazar
Magda Vášáryová
Marketa
Harry Studt
Old Count Christian
Vlastimil Harapes
Young Christian
Zdeněk Kryzánek
Captain Beer
Zdeněk Řehoř
Sovička
Vladimír Menšik
Bernard
Zdeněk Štěpánek
Narrator
Credits
Director
František Vláčil
Produced by
Josef Ouzký
Based on the novel by
Vladislav Vančura
Screenplay
František Pavlíček
Screenplay
František Vláčil
Cinematography
Bedřich Baťka
Film editing
Miroslav Hájek
Music
Zdeněk Liška
Art director
Oldřich Okáč
Artistic collaborator
Theodor Pištěk

Current

Marketa Lazarová Today
Marketa Lazarová Today
In a new supplement recorded in 2013 for the Criterion Collection, we catch up with Magda Vášáryová, who was a teenager when she played the title character in František Vlácil’s Czechoslovak New Wave landmark Marketa Lazarová. In this clip f…
Markéta Lazarová: Vladislav Vančura and His Novel
Markéta Lazarová: Vladislav Vančura and His Novel

On the life and work of the famous Czech author, and the pleasures and challenges of translating him.

By Alex Zucker

Cinema of the Wolf: The Mystery of Marketa Lazarová
Cinema of the Wolf: The Mystery of Marketa Lazarová

Disorienting, brutal, and bloody beautiful, František Vláčil’s epic is a dark medieval vision teeming with cinematic invention.

By Tom Gunning

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Top 10
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Top 10

The director of Aquarius and Bacurau shares his favorite Criterion releases, paying special attention to unorthodox studio productions and underappreciated masterpieces.

Ken Jennings’s Top 10
Ken Jennings’s Top 10

Ken Jennings is the all-time winningest champion in the history of the quiz show Jeopardy!, having won $2.5 million during his seventy-five-game streak in 2004.

Ben Wheatley’s Top 10
Ben Wheatley’s Top 10

Ben Wheatley is the director of Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England.