Known for Acting
The documentary First of May explores the more than a century-long evolution of the celebration and the meaning of this day. The structure is composed of memories, newspaper excerpts, testimonies found in archives, etc. - all these passages are brought to life by the actors' voices, taking on the roles of journalists, factory workers, policemen, workers and ordinary people who watch May Day, sometimes with interest and verve, sometimes with distance or irony.
A story of a little girl Verka and her life during the beginning of WWII. Based on Vera Sládková novels.
Journalist E. E. Kisch tells crime stories from old Prague, which he himself experienced in the years before World War I and recorded in his reports and stories: he participated in the discovery of the real murderer of a rich innkeeper, attended the wedding of a beggar's son with the daughter of a complacent rich man, and witnessed the mysterious murder of a money-changer's uncle.
Josef Laufer portrays Egon Erwin Kisch in two daring journalistic adventures: in “Zuřivý reportér,” Kisch goes undercover in a poverty lodging house, uncovers a tattoo’s dark backstory and deciphers a secret telegram hinting at war via the legend of the black rose; in “Lovci senzací,” he pursues sensational leads and exposes hidden truths, proving why he was rightly called “the raging reporter.”
The movie is a satirical look at foreign occupation - a medieval Czech jester entertains a German king and his French wife, or a modern Czech villager helps a Bavarian hunter and his French wife find wild boar in Bohemia - the story switches back and forth between the two plots and time-periods.
The idea of mystery unites the three debut stories - the original Bermuda Triangle with its mysterious phenomena has begun to shift and can be traced anywhere in the world, including Czech and Slovak territory. Here, too, unexplained shifts in space and time occur. This idea is supported by the aforementioned short stories, but the inventiveness of the subject matter and staging is very heavy-handed, and the film passed through the cinemas without much interest.
The film is essentially a feature-length commercial for an exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the nationalisation of the Czechoslovak film industry, to be held at the Prague U Hybernu venue. The protagonists of the piece are comedians Oldrich Kaiser and Jirí Lábus, who are set to accept an award from Japanese television representatives at the exhibition. At the same time, five gangsters plot to seize a revolutionary invention devised by professor Suzuki - a super holograph, which enables any figure from television to be transported in the flesh into the real world, and vice-versa.
