Known for Acting
The film portrays the final days of the most famous Czech authoress, Božena Nìmcová, who in the mid-19th century dared to live a life free of social constraints.
The main character, a forty-year-old doctor, tries to cope with situations that life throws at her as a successful dentist, but a less successful mother, lover, and ex-wife. The heroine's relationship with her daughter, lover, mother, and ex-husband is portrayed very convincingly and without the slightest idealization, reflecting the ambiguity and controversy of the contemporary female condition. Although the author accumulates in his novel and television script almost all the paradoxes of today's self-employed woman in the heroine, nevertheless (or precisely because of this) her story reflects the experience of most contemporary women. Especially those who place high demands on themselves and others, which, however, can rarely be met one hundred percent. And if it turns out that we owe the greatest debt to our own daughter, then it is no surprise that everything starts to change completely...
Based on an autobiographical novella by Ivan Olbracht, the film tells the story of Hanele Safarová, who grows up just after the First World War in a little Ruthenian schtetl which, in true Hassidic fashion, awaits the arrival of the Messiah. But Hanele decides to follow the Zionists instead. She moves to the city to prepare for her departure to the Promised Land, where she meets a successful businessman named Ivo Karadzic, who has renounced Judaism to become a free-thinker. Their love for each other doesn’t only drive Hanele’s parents to distraction, it also threatens to destroy the entire community in the schetl.
The play S úsměvem idiota (With the Smile of an Idiot) by the duo Vodňanský-Skoumal was composed for the Činoherní klub theater and premiered on May 19, 1969. It was performed with great success until 1973, when administrative measures prevented the duo V+S from performing. The play was never recorded in its entirety. This was only achieved thirty years later, when the duo returned to the Činoherní klub with the play S úsměvem idiota. The recording is a selection of the best works by the successful songwriting duo. We remember the songs "Aristocrat," "Marshals," "At the Opera in La Scala," "Grizzly," and others, as well as their original style of humor, on the sad occasion of the death of composer, pianist, and occasional lyricist Petr Skoumal.
The story of a young woman takes place at the end of the war in an apartment belonging to a Jewish owner who was forced to leave for a concentration camp. The young woman is waiting for her lover, a tall German officer who promised to take care of her and take her with him. An offer of rescue arrives, but it is only an attempt to lure her into handing over the jewelry that the Jewish owner of the apartment had entrusted to her for safekeeping. The woman finally understands the moral abyss and the hopelessness of the situation in which she finds herself...
The theatre director encounters the disinterest and irresponsibility of the acting troupe, whose members are scheming and looking for side income. The tired and sick artist wants to finish his work at any cost.
