The Ear
The Secret Agent Network
January 7 - 13
Banned for decades for its unvarnished depiction of state surveillance, The Ear unfolds over one sleepless night when a couple discovers that “the ear” of the Communist regime is listening in on their every word.
Already on edge in the wake of an ongoing Communist purge, a government official, Ludvik (Radoslav Brzobohatý), and his soused wife, Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová), return home from a political soirée to discover that their keys are missing, their electricity has been cut, and “the ear” of the regime may be listening in on their every word. So begins a long night’s journey into dread as the two of them bicker, booze, and crawl the walls with fear. Could Ludvik be the next party member to disappear? Completed in the uneasy aftermath of the Prague Spring and immediately banned for its unvarnished depiction of state surveillance, Karel Kachyňa’s The Ear—unseen publicly until 1990—compresses an entire police state into one sleepless night, revealing how authoritarian power hides in plain sight, twists perception, and corrodes the fragile boundary between safety and fear.
Digital restoration of this film, funded from the donation of Mrs. Milada Kučerová and Mr. Eduard Kučera, was carried out by Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in collaboration with the Národní filmový archiv, Prague and the Czech Film Fund in UPP and Soundsquare. The Ear was produced in 1969, when its public screenings were not allowed, and the film did not premiere until 1990. On this occasion, the opening title placing the story into 1952 was cut from the film at the director’s request. The 1990 premiere version was used as the reference for the digital restoration. The sources for the digitization were the original image negative and original magnetic mixing tapes. Film materials are preserved by the Národní filmový archiv, Prague. The restoration was done in 2022.
Special thanks to our Community Partner, Czech Center New York.
"The Ear is a fascinating look at an authoritarian society. It seems to have the logic of Kafka, and of course, it comes from the same culture. It's all very mysterious. You can tell that there is the weight of the authoritarian regime. Nothing is really made very clear. There is a sense of dread and a sense of mystery which is never really explained. I think it's a film that I thought a lot about when I was developing The Secret Agent, and I must have seen it a couple of times. I love the mystery of it and how elusive it is. Also, very much like The Trial, Kafka's book, which Orson Welles adapted so well."
—Kleber Mendonça Filho
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