Known for Editing
The doomed love of a city girl caught in the vise of poverty is detailed in Vavra’s fluid, romantic work, one of the most elegant creations of the Czech Modernist era... The film lingers over its characters’ habitats and haunts, finding psychological truths in what each owns or desires, and countering every Hollywood-ready scene of gleaming restaurants and dazzling penthouses with realist moments of employment lines and crammed flats. Vavra’s classical camerawork and aura of romantic defeatism give Virginity a force comparable to the master of this genre, Hollywood’s Frank Borzage. (BAM/PFA)
One of the few European films of the 30s to criticize the Nazis, even if they couldn't be directly named due to censorship: Gangsters with gray hats stir up trouble in what is obviously the Sudetenland.
Even though the heroine works as a seamstress, she would like to become a designer. And she really has the talent, even a businessman from Paris shows interest in her. But many things turn out to be different than they seem at first. This applies to people and love.
On the coast of Yugoslavia lives fisherman Ivo Kralj, his wife Marie, son Vuk, and Ivo's mother in one happy home. Marie, who loves her husband and always looks forward to his return from sea, attracts Nikola, with whom Ivo, out of jealousy, has a scuffle at a dance. After the outbreak of World War I Ivo is mobilized. He ends up in a P.O.W. camp where he is subjected to hard labour. His family then receives news of his death. The years pass and the lonely widow Marie is occasionally visited by her friend Nikola. Ivo's mother would like her to remarry. Soon after the wedding Marie becomes pregnant. Ivo, who has been thought dead, succeeds in escaping the P.O.W. camp where he has spent several years. Upon his arrival home he finds his name on a memorial erected to the victims of the war...
The determined Mrs. Barbora Čápová, the owner of a goose farm in Brousilov, is trying to get her daughter married. The advertisement receives a whole box of responses, so the caring mother has plenty to choose from. Pavel Stehlík appears to be the most suitable candidate, and since her daughter also likes him, a famous party is held. The newlywed is not proud of the fact that he is literally drowning in debt. Moreover, he gets along suspiciously well with his father-in-law, and the two have all sorts of falling out. After some time, they set off on a trip to Prague together. As if by chance, Mrs. Barbora is on the same trip that same day - and meets her husband at a variety show, where she went with an old acquaintance. She promises cruel revenge on the unfaithful man, but her plans are thwarted by a completely unexpected event...
Wealthy and ill Petr Kornel (Karel Hasler) is not pleased with the carousing lifestyle of his nephew. He stops supporting him financially and demands that he change his name. Out of gratitude Kornel bequeaths a substantial sum of money to his nurse Alice (Adina Mandlová) with the condition that she marries. Petr Suk (Hugo Haas), as the nephew is now named, visits the doctor. In the waiting room his X-ray is mistakenly switched with one of another patient's. On the basis of this he presently learns that he is seriously ill and has only one day of life left to him.
