Biography

F.A. Brabec was born on November 30, 1954 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Wild Flowers (2000), Král Ubu (1996) and The Ride (1994). He is married to Jaroslava Pecharová.

[on working with Miloš Macourek on Král Ubu (1996)]: "He said to me a beautiful sentence, "Franta, you are perhaps even more surrealist than I am." I didn't really understand it, so he added: "You think so abstractly and absurdly that your ideas are even bigger than mine." This was said to me by the man who perfectly switches characters' brains in You Are a Widow, Sir! (1971). But we didn't quite fit together. He also wrote letters to my wife, telling her that I was terrible and didn't understand the film, that all I could see was the pictures, while storytelling also needs to follow certain logic and patterns. He was a genius in that cleverness, and I was a partner in that imagery, who can make up for anything with that imagery. But it wasn't easy."

[on his favorite movie] "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). This work of Jaromil Jireš and Jan Čuřík actually got me into FAMU. I was captivated by the artwork and before FAMU, I saw the film like thirty times. I spent all my allowance on it because it was the absolute meaning of life for me."

[on working with Miloš Macourek on Wild Flowers (2000)]: "We were a professional couple who argued constantly. And in the final analysis, I think it was about the fact that I was even bolder in the sense of the narrative than he was. For example, we were dealing with Linda Rybová falling into the water. He said that the Waterman had stolen things in the water from people who come to the lake to sunbathe and stuff. And he likes her, so he cuts the footbridge with a saw when she goes to do the laundry. So the footbridge collapses and he keeps the little soul as his wife. And I said that's very realistic. And he said the Waterman is an absurd creature, so we're already in an absurd situation, and therefore the other situations have to be realistic. So the absurdity is only that he as the Waterman has a child with an earthly being. And I said: "I don't want any saw. That's poetry, Milos. It's all a poem, so she's just going to get tangled up on the footbridge." And he said, "How is she gonna get tangled?" She's gonna move to a waltz rhythm and be entranced by the scarves, and then the sun will shine and she'll just get dizzy. She's gonna fall in there like a gift, by sheer chance. Imagine you're just going to a stupid party and suddenly the most beautiful woman in the world falls into your bed. And Milos says: "Franta, you're more absurd than absurd. You can't do it like that." We filmed the whole thing according to my version."