Author Spotlight

Jonathan Owen

Jonathan Owen is a writer and researcher specializing in Eastern and Central European cinema, avant-gardes, and cult film. He is the author of Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties (2011) and the coeditor of A Reader in East-Central European Modernism, 1918–1956 (2019). He has taught and researched at the University of Exeter, the University of St Andrews, and the Courtauld Institute of Art.

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The Velvet and the Worms: Ester Krumbachová’s Unsung Legacy

Primarily known as a costume and production designer, this multitalented visionary deserves to be more widely recognized as one of the most important creative forces behind the Czechoslovak New Wave.

By Jonathan Owen

Features— Mar 10, 2023
The Cremator: “No One Will Suffer”

Juraj Herz’s macabre tale of madness epitomizes the artistic and political audacity of Czechoslovak cinema during its golden age of liberalization, a period that would soon prove to be short-lived.

By Jonathan Owen

Essays— Apr 22, 2020