Alfréd Radok

Alfréd Radok (17 December 1914 in – 22 April 1976) was a distinguished Czech stage director and film director.[1] Radok's work belongs with the top Czech stage direction of the 20th century. He is often cited as a formalist in his work.

Alfréd Radok
Born(1914-12-17)17 December 1914
Koloděje nad Lužnicí, Bohemia (now Czech Republic)
Died22 April 1976(1976-04-22) (aged 61)
Vienna, Austria
OccupationFilm director, stage director actor, screenwriter
Years active1938–1976

Life

Radok was born in Koloděje nad Lužnicí. His father Viktor Radok was Jewish and his mother Olga, née Toushková, was catholic.[2] Before the World War II in 1939 Radok was baptized. He planned to study journalism and theatre in Prague until all universities were closed by the Nazis.[2] He started his own theatre company Mladá scéna with his brother Emil.[2] In 1940 he was hired by the theatre of E. F. Burian and worked there until Burian's arrest in 1941.[2] Radok continued in other theatres as an assistant director but was forced to leave because of his Jewish heritage. In 1944 he was sent to Klettendorf labour camp.[2] After allied air raid in January 1945 he managed to escape.[2] His father and everyone on his father's side of the family died in the Holocaust.[2]

In 1948 he directed a film Distant Journey about the Holocaust. The film was an international critical success, but the communist government banned it in Czechoslovakia.

He worked for National Theatre in Prague in the years 1948 to 1949.[3]

For the 1958 Brussels EXPO he created the Laterna Magika, which combined live actors with projections on multiple irregularly shaped projection screens. His collaborators were scenographer Josef Svoboda, screenwriter Miloš Forman and directors Emil Radok, Vladimír Svitáček and Ján Roháč. Laterna Magika was a big success and the permanent scene was made in The New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague. In 1960 he was fired from Laterna Magika. After that he worked at Městská divadla pražská. In 1966 he was allowed to work for the National Theatre again. When Czechoslovkia was invaded in 1968 by Warsaw Pact armies he decided to leave to Sweden with his family. He directed plays at Folkteatern in Gothenburg until 1972.[2] In 1976 he was invited to direct Václav Havel's play in Burgtheater, Vienna, but after coming to Vienna he was hospitalized and died on 22 April 1976.[2]

With his wife Marie Radoková (1922–2003), Radok has a son, David (born 1954), a stage director, and a daughter Barbara (born 1948). His younger brother Emil Radok (1918–1994) was also a director and Alfréd Radok's collaborator.

Filmography
YearTitleNotes
1947Parohy
1948Distant Journeyalso a screenwriter
1948Divotvorný kloboukalso a screenwriter
1956Vintage Car

References
  1. "Alfréd Radok". ČSFD.cz.
  2. Antošíková, Marie (2015). Tvůrčí spolupráce Marie a Alfréda Radokových v letech 1955-1964 (PDF) (Bc.) (in Czech). Masarykova Univerzita.
  3. "Alfréd Radok". Laterna Magika.
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