Muzikant

The creation of the Third Republic brought with it a number of products of sub-creative groups to the State Film. He Was a Czech Musician is the work of the Otakar Vávra/Karel Feix leading tandem. I am pointing out the product, not the art film or perhaps the announced drama. The film was based on Kubín's short story and was formally directed well by František Čáp, who made his interesting debut in Czech cinema together with Václav Krška in 1939. In other respects, the film is very aspiring, but all the less interesting and engrossing, which is a bit puzzling in the context of its attempt at a few dramatic highlights with overblown performances. One mistake is the casting of František Miška in the lead role, who only proved that he is a worse successor to Antonín Novotný - who was nice to look at in the years 1932-1941 but did not reach any peak as an actor. The camera work of Václav Huňka is decent but he did not really become another Vích or Blažek during the subsequent years. As an actor, Ludmila Vostrčilová achieved some interesting positions, and minimal brilliance was afforded to the classic episodic actors of yesteryear Ella Nollová or Alois Dvorský. Zvonimir Rogoz is rather alienating in the role of the principal, who the last of the Mohicans recalls the real glory of Czech cinema of the previous years. The new faces soon included Jiřina Bohdalová, who was reborn from a child to a young lady as an extra. After 1955, her career went up steeply. (16/03/2011)