Ester Krumbachová (ENG) –⁠ Edith Jeřábková, Kateřina Svatoňová (eds.)

This publication is devoted to Ester Krumbachová (1923–1996), an important film and theater costume designer, screenwriter, author, director, and artist who collaborated in the theater with Miroslav Macháček, Ladislav Smoček, and Ivan Vyskočil and in film with Otakar Vávra, Věra Chytilová, Jan Němec, Karel Kachyňa, and Petr Václav. This publication aims to present a critical treatment of Ester Krumbachová’s entirely unknown estate, her work, and themes whose relevance extends into the present. The book comprises several layers, including scholarly and essayistic texts by both Czech and foreign experts from a number of fields as well as archival material arranged into thematic, loosely commented, interconnected clusters. Indeed, this rhizomatic structure is perhaps the closest to the way Ester Krumbachová herself worked and reveals her way of thinking about direction, scenography, costume design, and screen writing, as well as her thoughts on details, active objects, color concepts, and the symbiosis of film professions; on magic, folklore, and exoticism; on realism, subjectivity, hierarchy, masculine and feminine polarity, queerness, feminism, love, and sex; on food; and on cats, care, and friendship.

Author of the texts: Šárka Gmiterková, Libuše Heczková, Edith Jeřábková, Jesse Jones, Kyoo Lee, Francis McKee, Ruth Noack, Pádraic E. Moore, Sylva Poláková, Lukáš Skupa, Kateřina Svatoňová, Grażyna Świętochowska, Markéta Uhlířová, Věra Velemanová.

The research and publication of this book was supported by a grant from the Czech Science Foundation for 2018–2021 (project no. 18-22139S, Hidden Forms of Directing: Linking the film, literary, costume design and visual work of Ester Krumbachová. An analysis of her estate). Additional financial support was provided by Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic, and Agosto Foundation.