Acting
Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which belongs to a married lady, spending time in the company of young and hot Lieutenant Emil. Emil literally puts a knife to Maurice throat - or the lady will get back the exact same hat immediately, or he will arrange such a scandal that no wedding will not happen ...
A frightening atmosphere, full of chilling dampness and darkness, follows the fate of a desperate searcher who tries in vain to unravel the supposed secret of the altarpiece...
The opera lady singer Ema Destinnová is in all her splendor at the American stages. But in Europe there rages war and she decides to return home to Bohemia.
In a South Moravian wine-growing village in the early 1970s lives an old man who cannot accept the attitude of the younger generation towards nature and agriculture. Director Hynek Bočan made a number of films based on Jan Kostrhun's drafts, mostly set in the South Moravian environment (including The Face Behind the Glass), but the portraits were very flat. Relationships between people were often depicted in predictable schemes. The hero this time is an old villager who is struggling to cope with the changes in his attitude to nature and to agricultural work in general. He sees his only hope in his grandson, to whom he tries to pass on his life experience.
Technical school student Pavel Brychta, arrives at a youth correctional facility located within a chateau in Konečno. He is an atypical, but not hopeless case for the institution. Pavel comes from a well-off family and his antisocial behaviour on the verge of criminality was some kind of response to his difficult relationship with his authoritative father. However, it takes quite some effort for Pavel to find his place in this environment of bullying, and also diverse methods from the tutors
Cyril Dadák (Václav Postránecký), a TV reporter falls in love at first sight with a young engineer Milena (Jaroslava Obermaierová) while he makes a reportage in a chemical factory. Milena has been dating for several years with a test driver Pavel (Rudolf Jelínek), however when she meets Cyril she feels that he might be the Mr Right. She accepts Cyril's invitation for a date and she spends a night with him. In the morning she finds in her flat Pavel. She wants to explain to him everything but Pavel makes coffee with a smile and gives her back the keys from the flat.
This lavish Soviet/Czech co-production is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous novel, The Gambler, which tells the story of a Russian living in Germany, in a gambling resort. This film is set at the turn of the century, and was filmed in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Czechoslovakia. Played by Nikolai Burlyayev, the gambler succumbs completely to his addiction, using up every resource he has (human, spiritual and financial) in his wagering, finally becoming a rootless drifter.
The hero, rushing from one misfortune to another, is former accountant Řehoř Maršíček, who after a heart attack, out of fear of death, decides to live a calm, moderate life and follow the principles of a healthy lifestyle. Not to smoke, not to drink, to exercise and eat healthily. He takes up the position of an auditor of patients and hopes that he will have peace in his new job. Instead, he experiences one nervous breakdown after another. He gradually makes one good resolution after another. Řehoř falls into unhealthy food, alcohol and women. In addition, he gradually loses most of his life's certainties, including a roof over his head. The result is a second heart attack, after which the hero promises himself again that he will fix everything and live a healthy life.
People can be addicted to things, like high-calorie food. But the struggle against overweight and overeating is often futile, so the unfortunates have no choice but to lose weight under the guidance of experts - and they don't mind that the conditions in the sanatorium in question are quite oppressive and humiliating. Although, with a lot of good will, one could detect some metaphorical elements, the bitter comedy, reveling in naive stylisation, ultimately wants to be nothing more than an entertaining piece of work.
No Woman is allowed into Karlstejn Castle! Yet the enamoured Daniele Kolářová and the equally enamoured Jana Brejchová manage to spend one night in disguise in the Castle despite the strict royal ban.
A dramatic patrol car weekend on the streets of Prague's city centre. Lieutenant Josef Kabát and his colleagues drive through the centre of Prague every day in a patrol car. He loves his neighbourhood more than anything and wouldn't trade it for a more comfortable life in the office or at the control room. After a citizen calls the 158 emergency line, Kabát goes to various cases, be it accidents, thefts, disturbances or assaults. In one burglarized apartment, he finds the perpetrators' broken dioptric glasses and a torn piece of leather jacket. These are exactly the kind of things worn by his 18-year-old son Pavel, who coincidentally disappeared at the same time, allegedly with friends on a cottage holiday. However, Kabát has no time to deal with his family problems: there are too many thieves and shady characters roaming the streets of Prague. The worst of them are a couple of young men who have just raped and murdered an innocent girl...
