The Cinematheque

“With Oil Lamps, Herz sealed his reputation as a master of the psychological film, and the performances of Iva Janžurová and Petr Čepek became the stuff of legend.”

Karlovy Vary IFF

Juraj Herz’s distinctive, ​“decadent” works were a rare high point for the besieged and battered Czechoslovak cinema in the period following the 1968 Soviet-led invasion. Fin-de-siècle decadence is pungent in Herz’s atmospheric period drama Oil Lamps, adapted from the novel by Jaroslav Havlíček. A psychosexual ​“romance” set in a provincial Czech town in the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the film centres on the miserable marriage between two cousins: Štěpa (Iva Janžurová), a vivacious, modern-minded woman who, approaching thirty, is ready for love and happiness, and Pavel (Petr Čepek), a dashing army officer weighed down by debt, cynicism, and syphilis. Herz’s lavish movie, which debuted in competition at Cannes, features superb performances by its two leads and gorgeous work by costume designer Irena Greifová and cinematographer Dodo Šimončič.