Film Program: "The Play's the Thing:" Václav Havel, Art and Politics

October 11, 2013, 12:30 PM

We regret to inform you that due to the government shutdown this event has been canceled.

The National Gallery of Art will screen The Heart above the Castle on October 11, at 12:30 pm, in the East Building Auditorium as part of the film program entitled "The Play's the Thing:" Václav Havel, Art and Politics. In the documentary, Václav Havel takes director Jan Němec behind the scenes of the NATO Summit in Prague 2002. Going into areas normally inaccessible, the film brings the formal world of the politician and the international grandeur of NATO into the everyday rhythms and quirks of humankind. Delve into the life of a man who went from being a dissident to president overnight.
Photo © Tomki Němec

The Play’s the Thing:  Václav Havel, Art and Politics
Václav Havel (1936-2011), the dissident and imprisoned dramatist who went on to become  world renowned statesman as first president of the Czech Republic, changed the course of twentieth-century history by mixing theater with politics and peacefully ending communism in his country. His plays, filled with metaphor and pointed innuendo, exposed the failings of the system, and Havel became a hero in an epic struggle. This program is based on the places and people that Havel knew, from the influential Theatre on the Balustrade where his theatrical career began, to his friendships with filmmakers of the Czech New Wave, to his political ascendancy in Prague.

The Heart above the Castle (Srdce nad Hradem)
Václav Havel takes documentary director Jan Němec behind the scenes of the NATO Summit in Prague 2002. Going into areas normally inaccessible and interviewing people otherwise unreachable, the footage shows the human face of top politicians. The camera captures comical commentaries, hesitancy, small stresses, bringing the formal world of the politician and the international grandeur of NATO into the everyday rhythms  and quirks of humankind. (Jan Němec, 2007, Czech with English subtitles, 48 minutes)  

Event Details:
National Gallery of Art
East Building Auditorium
4th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20565

Admission is free. No reservations are required.