Humour is a necessity: Jiri Menzel

Acclaimed Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel, whose bittersweet comedies often have a happy ending, feels showcasing the lighter side of life on screen is important.
Known for making political satires masked behind humour, the 75-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker has been conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the on-going India International Film Festival (IFFI) here.
His latest directorial venture 'The Don Juans', an opera based comedy, was the opening film of the festival. The film has been selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
"Many films are misused for violence and vulgarity and it is very depressing. I like to make the opposite. A sense of humour is important for everybody... Not just for me and my cinema. This life is not stupid or hard as everyone likes to think.

"We may not be satisfied with our lot, but we must acknowledge that our life is better than our ancestors. Life is meant for living. To be optimistic is good for our health," Menzel said on the sidelines of IFFI.
Menzel was 28 when he made his debut feature, 'Closely Watched Trains', one of the key films of the Czech New Wave. It went on to win the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1968, the first of many awards he has collected in his remarkable career.

Menzel's vision combined a devotion to the poetry of the commonplace with his own special brand of slapstick and satire.

Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vancura. He is also one of the few filmmakers to have made a successful switch from silent cinema to digital technology.
"It has been a great journey. I am happy that I could follow all the developments in the film industry in my film career so far," Menzel said.
On the difference between filmmaking then and now, he said, "There is a huge difference. I started with silent films, then went on to do talkies and now I use digital mode.