Bedřich Smetana

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Life of Czech composer Smetana, his search for love and artistic inspiration despite hearing loss, and quest for his muse Eliska. Navigating personal and professional challenges and the founding of the National Theatre in Prague.

A student rebellion precedes revolutionary events in Prague.

A man falls in love with a half-woman/half-phoenix who fell to Earth from the sky.

The film, in individual episodes, captures the fate of Bedřich Smetana from 1856 until the end of his life, from his young years until the moment when, exhausted by human and artistic hardship, he sees the fulfillment of his great dream, the opening of the National Theatre.

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The impetus for writing the play was a real event - the investigation of the loss of the class register at a boys' school in Vienna's 4th district. The perpetrator was most likely a student named F. Kirchner. Cimrman was a police inspector in Vienna's 4th district at the time, and the school principal turned to him when all educational measures had failed. Six police officers followed the suspect for three days, but to no avail. Cimrman therefore decided to influence Kirchner in a different way: he wrote a play about the theft, which was staged by the police department's drama club as a compulsory school performance. The author expected that seeing the suffering of the teacher, principal, and inspector during their futile investigation would lead the culprit to regret his actions and confess. However, the stubborn boy, the son of a nun, was not moved.

A series of dark and troubling events forces Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life… or lack thereof.

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Dalibor is based on events that took place in the 15th century: having led a peasant revolt, the Knight Dalibor of Kozojedy was imprisoned, by order of King Vladislav II of Bohemia, in a tower in Prague Castle that still bears the name “Daliborka” to this day. Legend has it that he learned to play the violin while he was incarcerated, and that the people passing by the tower would be moved on hearing his music.

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The closing concert of La Folle Journée de Nantes, galvanized by the ebb and flow of the Volga, Mississippi, and Moldau rivers. The program features works by Maria Bach, Franz Schubert, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, and Bedrich Smetana.

In this debut comedy by director Erik Terpstra, an ordinary middle-class gentleman picks up a colorful but degenerate and no-good beatnik/hippie hitchhiker and inexplicably invites him home to meet the wife and kids. The resulting conflicts between the hitchhiker, who respects no rules or boundaries, and the family, provide the substance for most of the humor in this sincere but not especially well-thought-out film. Reviewers who saw the film at the 1967 Mannheim Film Festival expressed the opinion that it was an unformed work by a promising talent.

It happened during the reign of King Vladislav Jagiellon: the rebellious knight Dalibor is sentenced to death. An attempt to free him fails. This underappreciated transcription of Smetana's opera surprises with its fresh originality, even compared to much later attempts to translate musical-dramatic works to the screen.

A documentary about Olomouc bus driver Roman Smetana, who took on injustice, corruption, and Czech politics’ bad taste armed with a permanent marker. On election posters, Smetana drew antennae on politicians’ heads and wrote that they were liars, thieves, and corruptionists. One of his colleagues turned him in. The judge who tried him was the wife of one of the defaced politicians. After all, he damaged private property! Smetana paid his 15,000-crown fine, but refused to do community service. There is nothing to reform, he said before the court. He got 100 days of hard time. President Klaus refused to pardon him. The filmmakers could not just film his story – they bought spray paint and headed out into the streets. A film about the conflict between law and justice. Does freedom of speech trump property damage? Does there come a point when we must go against social norms? Can a bus driver debate a prime minister?

Set in a South Bohemian village, this faithful film version of Smetana’s opera follows farmer Krušina’s plan to marry his daughter Mařenka to wealthy Vašek. Mařenka loves Jeník, a stranger. Through matchmaking schemer Kecal’s plots and revealed identities, true love triumphs in a festive village wedding.

The most popular Czech comic opera, with a libretto by Karel Sabina, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, in the current production of the National Theater in Prague. For more than 150 years, The Bartered Bride has dominated Czech opera. No one else, not even Smetana himself, has managed to surpass its popularity, which over the years has become part of our national DNA, so to speak. At the time of its creation in the 1860s, however, The Bartered Bride was actually quite a bold experiment – Bedřich Smetana and librettist Karel Sabina masterfully mocked all those who imagined "national opera" as an idyllic picture of the Czech countryside, where national virtues reign supreme.

Frantisek Filip film version of the Smetana opera.

A twist of fate offers the young widower Lukáš and his former lover Vendulka a second chance at the happiness once denied them. However, their short tempers, stubborn natures and lack of mutual understanding leave the lovers vulnerable to a serious quarrel all on account of a mere kiss.

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