A leading filmmaker of the Czech new wave who made literary-inspired shorts before crafting his first feature, "Diamonds of the Night" (1964), Nemec is known for his intense psychological studies of familial and/or political oppression. His themes are perhaps best represented by "A Report on the Party and the Guests" (1966). Long a critic of the totalitarian Communist state, Nemec celebrated the short-lived Dubcek regime--and documented the Soviet invasion which crushed it--in "Oratorio for Prague" (1968). His career was stifled during the post-invasion years and, in 1974, he was permitted to emigrate to France where he directed one feature, "Le Decolete dans le dos" (1975). He later moved to the US but has been largely inactive except for a brief stint as a consultant to Philip Kaufman on "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988).
Nemec was briefly married to costume designer/screenwriter Ester Krumbachova and later married singer Marta Kubisova.