The archetypal image of Christ and its narrative assimilation in the modern cinema of Evald Schorm

Resumen

This article attempts to analyse and interpret the archetype of Christ in the cinematographic work of Czech director Evald Schorm in the decade of 1960. Throughout the investigation the fact that all of Schorm’s protagonists prefigurate Christ will be showcased as a symbolic motif he uses to articulate a series of films reflecting on modernity’s tendency towards the alienation of the individual, the loss of ideals and the moral decadence of his time; concepts that link him with the cinematographic modernity of the fifties and seventies. Nevertheless, and in stark contrast to other authors who had a great reception in the international scene, Schorm’s cinema hardly made itself known outside Czechoslovakia. It is this article’s objective to delve into the reasons why one of the most relevant filmmakers in Czech cinema was led to isolation.