Czech Cinema Terms

internal sound

originates from the character’s mind/thoughts

external sound

exists in the physical world of the film and can be heard by other characters

Diegetic Sound

Song belongs to the story world

Nondiegetic Sound

Sound does not belong to story world and exists outside of it.

Simultaneous sound

Occurs at the same time as the image that accompanies it

Nonsimultaneous sound

Either from the past or the future

Faithful to source

Matches what you would expect from source

Unfaithful to source

Sound is distorted or replaced

Continuity Editing

The dominant form, edits are designed to be invisible and to preserve a coherent sense of time and space

Discontinuity Editing

breaks continuity rules to disorient, alienate, or draw attention to the film's own construction

Diegesis

the story world itself, everything that exists on the fictional universe of the film even if offscreen

unrestricted narration

audience knows more than any single character, omniscient perspective, we can see multiple storylines

restricted narration

our knowledge is limited to that of a single character

narrative

the structure of how a story is told, including order, perspective, and what is revealed or withheld.

story

the complete set of events in their logical, chronological order — everything that happens in the fictional world, including events that are implied or inferred

plot

the specific selection and arrangement of events that the film actually presents to the audience. The plot can reorder, omit, or emphasize events from the story.

mental subjectivity

when the film renders a character’s mental state visually or aurally

1898

Beginning of Czech Cinema

1914

beginning of WW1

1918

the end of WW1/ czechoslovakia founded

1939

beginning of WW2

1945

end of WW2 (cinema is nationalized)

1948

communists took power

1963

Beginning of czechoslovak new wave

1965

First czech oscar film

1992

Barrandov studios privatized

1968

warsaw pact invasion of soviets into czechoslovakia, ended new wave