Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a certain genre or year with great nudity. This week: Czech Movies!
I wanted to do an entire Staff Picks feature just on the revolutionary and wild films of the Czech New Wave, but there have been some recent hot Czech movies, so I expanded the topic a little bit.
Eastern Europe as a whole had a bit of a pause on filmmaking during the Soviet Union's reign. Movies had to be approved by the government, so a lot of the radical films that Czech filmmakers were experimenting with in the 60s and early 70s were banned and those filmmakers struggled to get their work made. Some of them left the country as a result - like Milos Forman!
Here are films that are decidedly Czech and that also have hot nude scenes. Do you love Eastern European women with their tops off? Then here are our Staff Picks:
Daisies
Let's talk about one of the most influential Czech films ever made: Daisies. Vera Chytilova directed this film that was so controversial that she struggled to get her films made in communist Czechoslovakia for the rest of her career. While it might not seem controversial to modern viewers, the movie was banned in Czechoslovakia for being "wasteful". There is a long food fight scene in particular that Czech officials took issue with because it "glorified" wasting food.
The plot follows two teen girls who want to live like spoiled brats. They are definitely not wealthy, but they decide to act like it. They then play go on a bunch of destructive adventures all in the name of their own pleasure, wreaking havoc everywhere they go all because they want to. It's a simple plot, but the film packs a memorable punch.
Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová are our leading ladies who spend a lot of the movie in their bikinis - or in nothing at all! Like in this scene where the girls share a bath together:
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
This movie is simply wild. Jaromil Jires directed this 1970 Czech New Wave film that is heavily inspired by fairytales but with a more adult twist. Valerie is a young woman being chased by an Eastern European vampire (oh yeah, Dracula lives over there). In the process of running away, she gets seduced by a horny priest and runs into a ton of trouble.
The nudity in the film comes from actresses Helena Anýzová and Alena Stojáková who both show their breasts. This fairytale will give you a happy ending!
Zabic Sekala
Zabic Sekala or "Sekal Has to Die" takes place in a rural Czech village just before the Nazis occupied the territory. A farmer on the run from the Germans hides out in this small village where the residents are immediately distrustful of him. That's understandable as there is definitely a scary war going on.
However, the real danger is a man named Sekala who has Nazi connections. The town eventually decides that Sekala has to go! That's a lot of tense war drama, so Agnieszka Sitek arrives to take off her top and give us some much-needed sexual relief.
Lunacy
2005's Lunacy is a real trip! It's a part-animated film, part horror, and part BDSM fantasy. Are you interested? I thought so! The best part is that this film comes to us from renowned director Jan Svankmajer who is best known for his disturbing stop-motion animation which he also includes in this film. Enough with the surrealism already - onto the nudity.
Anna Geislerová stars and goes very nude in multiple scenes. She poses for a living painting with her right breast exposed and in another scene, we get to check out her booty and bush as she stands nude. Lunacy will make you a lunatic for Anna Geislerová!
Anna also goes nude in the 2003 film Zelary which has more great looks at the redheaded Anna's cans.
Gangster Ka
This 2015 crime drama from Jan Pachl starts off relatively innocent: a gangster gets rich by running a tax scam. He plans another big heist, but his dad gets kidnapped by a rival gang. Now he has to save his dad AND pull off his heist. Luckily, he takes a break to have sex with Vlastina Svátková.
The Glass Room
The Glass Room or The Affair from Czech director Julius Sevcik goes by either title and is based on the novel The Glass Room about a Jewish girl who marries a wealthy man in the years leading up to WWII. He makes a house with large glass panels that leaves them very little privacy. That means anyone can see Hanna Alström naked!
As the war approaches, our leading lady worries that her heritage will be found out and she is also concerned for her friend Hana, played by Carice van Houten. So she solves the problem by inviting her friend to live with her in the remote, glasshouse which is when these friends turned roommates become lovers. Thank goodness for those glass walls!
