The architect Zbyněk Hloch gave a face to a number of famous Czech films

Prague - Architect Zbyněk Hloch, who passed away on November 26, 1999, at the age of 65, collaborated on a number of Czech films. His designs helped shape the visual identity of films such as The Cremator, Petrol Lamps, and Morgiana by Juraj Herz, and he created decorations for Jiří Menzel's films including The Gardener's Son, Cutting It Short, and The Snowdrop Festival. Hloch's influence also extended to the artistic conception of the fairy tale With Devils There Are No Jokes, the Cimrman film Dissolved and Released, or the series Visitors.

Hloch graduated from the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in the late 1950s, and he was drawn to film even during his studies. In 1958, he joined Barrandov Studios, where he started as an assistant, among others on films like Where the Devil Can't Go and If a Thousand Clarinets. Due to his talent and diligence, he rose to become one of the busiest film architects, and he did not shy away from theatrical scenography, designing sets for the production Man from the Soil at the Semafor Theatre.

From the 1960s to the early 1990s, Zbyněk Hloch worked on around fifty films, occasionally also for television, but his main focus remained on cinema. His last film was The Jackal Years from 1993; prior to that, he worked on Tank Battalion and Black Barons. After November 1989, he also began teaching at the Prague Film and Theatre Faculty, lecturing among others to cinematographers and scenographers. He passed away shortly after obtaining the coveted title of professor.