Frantià ¡ek ÃÂáp (7 December 1913 â 12 January 1972), also known as Franz Cap in Germany, was a Czech film director and screenwriter, who was also active in Germany and Yugoslavia. He directed 32 films between 1939 and 1970. Having created Slovene film classics such as Vesna, Ne ÃÂakaj na maj, and Naà ¡ avto, he was also one of the most popular directors of early Slovene cinema in the 1950s and 1960s.
ÃÂáp was born in ÃÂachovice (now in the central Czech Republic). As an already established professional, he moved to Ljubljana in 1952, following an invitation by Branimir Tuma, the director of Triglav Film. In 1957, he moved to Portoroà ¾, a coastal town in southwestern Slovenia, where he lived until his death.
Prior to his arrival in Yugoslavia, ÃÂáp was praised as the young star of Czech cinema. During World War II he directed a dozen light romantic dramas and melodramas, among them the internationally acclaimed Nocturnal Butterfly, which won a prize at the Venice film festival, and Men Without Wings, which won a prize for best director in Cannes. His last Czechoslovak film, The White Darkness, his personal favorite, put him in conflict with the communist authorities. After the criticism his film received by a workers' jury at the ZlÃÂn film festival, ÃÂáp called the jury "morons who don't understand [his] films". This did not go well in communist Czechoslovakia, and he was banned from directing movies. He fled to West Germany, where he directed three films, including All Clues Lead to Berlin, which was distributed in many countries. He arrived in Yugoslavia by invitation of Branimir Tuma, the director of a Slovene film production company, to help develop the Slovene film industry in the 1950s.
In the 1950s and 1960s, ÃÂap directed five films for Triglav film and another six coproductions and non-Slovene productions. ÃÂáp's first Yugoslav film, the romantic comedy Vesna (1953), had elements of Heimatfilm and preâÂÂWorld War II Czech and Austrian melodrama, and it proved highly successful both artistically and commercially, as did its sequel Ne ÃÂakaj na maj (1957). Vesna remains one of the most popular Slovene classics. It took the place of the first commercial filmâÂÂand the first comedyâÂÂin Slovene cinema, and was precisely the urban, modern, and technically exquisite film that Triglav film had hoped for when it employed ÃÂap.
ÃÂap's second Slovene film was the war drama Trenutki odloÃÂitve (Moments of Decision, 1955) about the urgency of reconciliation between the Partisans and Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia, a topic with which he produced the first censored film in Slovenia.
During his "Yugoslav era", ÃÂap engaged not only in Slovene productions, but also in various other acclaimed productions and coproductions. He directed Am Anfang war es Sünde (Sin / Greh, 1954, Saphir Film) and the romantic drama La ragazza della salina (Sand, Love and Salt / Kruh in sol, 1957), which featured Marcello Mastroianni. For Bosna film, he directed a drama about juvenile delinquency, Vrata ostaju otvorena (The Door Remains Open, 1959), introducing Milena DraviÃÂ, one of the leading film stars in Yugoslavia, in her very first film role, and another comedy, Sreà ¡ÃÂemo se veÃÂeras (Meet You Tonight, 1962).
In 1956, ÃÂáp shot Die Geierwally (The Vulture Wally), based on the novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern, in Germany, while X-25 javlja ("X-25 Reports", 1960), a World War II spy thriller set in Zagreb, saw extensive international theatrical release as well. However, after his poorly received comedy Naà ¡ avto (Our Car, 1962), ÃÂáp was unable to find work in Yugoslavia and he turned to direct for television. He was engaged in directing a TV series and two TV films for German and Austrian televisions. In Slovenia where he lived, though, he was only able to participate in one more production, directing a short film Piran (1965).
Contemporary Slovene film criticism widely accepts that the five films that Frantià ¡ek ÃÂáp directed in SloveneâÂÂVesna, Trenutki odloÃÂitve, Ne ÃÂakaj na maj, X 25 Reports, and Our CarâÂÂintroduced a Hollywood type of narrative and cosmopolitan appearance to 1950s Slovene cinema. Though struggling with negative criticism in his own time, today ÃÂáp is praised as a craftsman that helped the undeveloped Slovene and Yugoslav cinemaâÂÂat the time infected with dilettante technical standards, problematic focus on local issues and stiff literary adaptationsâÂÂto rise to the level of an exquisite craft with universal intelligibility.
Some critics viewed it as "genre cinema"âÂÂbecause ÃÂáp mostly directed comedies, thrillers, and melodramasâÂÂalthough these do not correspond strictly to genre rules. "Mainstream cinema" is a term that more accurately describes its aim to attract the audience by means of a classical, easily intelligible narrative, and by emphasizing the story and dramatic structure, not so much qualities of cinema as an art form.
The negative reviews of ÃÂáp's work occurred mostly during Yugoslav film criticism of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Orthodox communist reviewers saw in it a bourgeois threat to socialist values and a conservative return to the middle-class phantom concepts (e.g., the idea of innocent romantic love). They also minded ÃÂáp's comedies' prevailing themes of spoiled youth and their sexual awakening in Vesna and Ne ÃÂakaj na maj.
The name object of early criticism, however, was the misrepresentation (or lack of representation) of Slovene culture in ÃÂáp's cinema, especially in the hugely popular comedies. A number of reviewers saw ÃÂáp as a foreigner that had never assimilated to Slovene culture. They resented that the films were not specific enough and could be set anywhere in central Europe. These reviews seem traditionalist and xenophobic from contemporary point of view. Contemporary Slovene film theorists have largely praised ÃÂáp's "foreignness" or "otherness", reasoning that his ignorance for regional values and conflicts has actually helped him to maintain the necessary objective distance and his particular sense of film direction and storytelling.
Contrary to complaints regarding the generic nature of the films, it is well recognized that ÃÂáp contributed drastically to the adaptation of Slovene for cinematic use. The dialogues were fluent and had substance, there was plenty of wordplays, verbal comedy, urban slang and authentic regional accents. The dialogues from ÃÂap's comedies came into general usage and became items of universal joking across generations and nation. Whereas Slovene in pre-ÃÂap cinema had not functioned well, ÃÂáp invented a slang liberated from constraints of purism and theatricality. Thus the director, while being attacked for directing un-Slovene films by many reviewers, in fact enriched Slovene language and culture.