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Blu-ray available at PRAGUE NIGHTS (PRAŽSKÉ NOCI), 1969, Czechoslovakia, 99 min. Dirs. Miloš Makovec, Jiří Brdečka and Evald Schorm. A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius (Miloš Kopecký), lonely and looking for a night’s diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde, Zuzana (Milena Dvorská). In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In director Jiří Brdečka’s stunning “The Last Golem,” a young rabbi (Jan Klusák) struggles to fashion a massive, silent giant out of living clay – until he’s distracted by a mute servant girl (Lucie Novotná). Utterly hypnotic and dreamlike, set to a haunting chorus of ghostly voices, “The Last Golem” ranks with Fellini’s “Toby Dammit” in SPIRITS OF THE DEAD as one of the finest supernatural short tales of the decade. In the second episode, “Bread Slippers,” an 18 th -century countess (Teresa Tuszyńska) indulges her passion for sweet cakes, adulterous affairs, and secret kisses with pretty maids – until a mysterious visitor (Josef Somr) whisks her away to an abandoned mansion, where Fate has a different kind of dance in store for her. In the final story, “Poisoned Poisoner,” a ravishing murderess in the Middle Ages dispatches lecherous merchants to the tune of upbeat 60s Czech Pop songs (scored by the renowned Zdeněk Liška). A true rediscovery for horror and fantasy fans and lovers of the occult, PRAGUE NIGHTS has been restored for its first-ever U.S. release by the Národní filmový archiv, Deaf Crocodile Films and Comeback Company. In Czech with English subtitles.
