Prague Is Calling, Even If Spielberg Isn’t

When Peter Nydrle got his first job directing a rock video, he only had one clip on his show reel--a video he had made of a designer remodeling Elizabeth Taylor’s kitchen. It gave him a valuable lesson in accommodating star whims.

“I filmed the designer tearing up the carpet and running around the poodles and then I put some Prince songs on the video,” the 35-year-old Czech emigre said. “But Liz only liked Michael Jackson, so I had to change all the music and use him instead.”

Nydrle was happy just to be working. In 1980, while still in Czechoslovakia, Nydrle’s first feature film was banned by a Prague Communist Party boss. When he received the Czech equivalent of the classic Hollywood threat--you’ll never work in this town again--he fled the country in 1984, ending up in Los Angeles, where he eventually broke into the video world.

Since then, he’s directed a host of MTV videos for such pop artists as the BoDeans, Andy Taylor, Al B. Sure!, George Benson, Buck Owens and Daniel Lanois (for whom he’s just finished a new clip of “Still Water”). But what really has Nydrle excited is the peaceful overthrow of Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime, the installation of playwright Vaclav Havel as president and the prospect of free elections later this year.

Better still, Czech authorities have invited him to return for an equally auspicious event next month: the long-delayed premiere of “Eugene Among Us,” his decade-old feature film.

“For years, people have been calling me and asking ‘When are you going to come back?’ ” explained the impish film maker who still speaks English with a heavy accent. “And I’d always say, ‘When they play ‘Eugene’ in Wenceslas Square (Prague’s famous central square),’ by which I meant never!

“So you can imagine my surprise when they now call to say ‘They are going to play ‘Eugene’ in Wenceslas Square!’ ”

Nydrle admits he has mixed emotions about revisiting his homeland, even in triumph. “My feelings are still very raw. I almost get an upset stomach when I think about it. I have a sense of excitement, but I worry if the sense of danger is still real.”

Nydrle describes “Eugene” as a bittersweet comedy about a song lyricist who writes pro-government songs, discovering that the more pro-government the song, the more successful it becomes. “In the movie I actually used real songs from the radio, so it was really funny.”

Nydrle’s first screening was a success. But he got a thumbs-down review from the head of Czechoslovakia’s state film society. “He hated it--he thought it didn’t have a very positive socialist attitude,” Nydrle said. “He told everyone, ‘Can’t you see, comrades--he’s laughing in your faces.’ ”

Told he would “never shoot another foot of film again,” Nydrle wangled a three-day tourist visa to Germany--and headed for America. His experiences in Hollywood sound like a kooky sequel to “Moscow on the Hudson.”

Unable to find movie work, Nydrle labored as a handyman, delivered pizzas and trained as an apprentice smog-certificate salesman. He also delivered coupon books for mail-order sweepstakes contests. “I was a terrible employee,” he said. “When I’d see these poor people I was supposed to get to pay $40 for the sweepstakes entry, I’d tell them, ‘Don’t buy it!’ ”

He wrote letters to Hollywood big shots. Only Steven Spielberg answered. “He said he was out of town, but he’d call me when he got back. That was 1984, and I’m still waiting.” Nydrle said veteran director Robert Wise graciously took him to lunch and told him stories over martinis, but didn’t have any contacts that would help. Nydrle even enrolled in a UCLA class for agents--”just so I could meet one!”

After entering an American Film Institute rock-video contest--and losing three straight years--Nydrle miraculously got a job directing a low-budget video for Warner Bros. Records. When the clip, which featured Jeff Lorber and Karyn White, was nominated for an American Video Award, his career finally kicked into gear.

Though he hasn’t directed any superstars yet, he’s worked with enough critically lauded artists to keep his career humming. “It will be very interesting to see what people in Prague think of these videos--I’m afraid they expect everyone who has left to become another Milos Forman,” he said. “But I think doing MTV clips has given me a real learning experience. I just hope that, in 10 years, people won’t look at my work and say it was completely ridiculous.”