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Golden oldies

A new DVD series of vintage Czech films
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 5th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Pure class. Kristian is a gem.
COURTESY PHOTO
Katakomby is Burian at his best.
The Zlatý Fond DVD Series

From Filmexport Home Video

In this welcomed cineplex lull, before the fall arrives with the third installment of Resident Evil and barely fresh attempts at comedy from Robin Williams and Adam Sandler, I’ve been discovering gems of early Czech cinema courtesy of the Zlatý Fond DVD Series.
The Zlatý Fond is reissuing films from the National Film Archive that are expertly remastered, with an English subtitles option on many (though not all) of its output. There’s also a wealth of bonus features with each DVD, though these are strictly in Czech. However, for those unfamiliar with the history of this country’s cinema, there’s much here to celebrate. And it beats forking over money for summertime rubbish like Transformers.
The series runs the gamut from Technicolor historical pageants to Barrandov screwball comedies of the ’30s and ’40s. Perhaps the most conspicuous part of this library is the films of the famed Czech comedian Vlasta Burian, with no less than 30 of his films available.
Burian is still one of the most beloved of Czech comedians, though his career suffered a sharp decline after the war because of his ties with Germans during the occupation. The DVD series features one of Burian’s first films, a silent, along with a few of his comeback attempts in the ’50s. The vast majority are from the apex of his career in the ’30s and early ’40s, many of which were directed by Martin Frič, the Mervyn LeRoy of Barrandov’s soundstages.
The Catacombs (Katacomby), 1940, directed by Frič, is the perfect vehicle for Burian, allowing him to showcase both his subtle physical comedy (he is a master clown) and his singing (Burian was also a famous Prague cabaret staple). The story is the classic screwball setup of humble people suddenly finding themselves hobnobbing with (and usually showing up) the rich. The supporting cast includes two wonderful character actors, Jaroslav Marvan and Theodor Pištěk, who frequently pop up in other Burian films.
Anton Hooter, Sharpshooter (Anton Špelec, Ostrostřelec), 1932, directed by Frič, has Burian as a bumbling auxiliary army corpsman who manages to cause general havoc among the ranks. Marvan and Pištěk are again on hand, and there’s an excellent performance from Růžena Šlemrová as Anton’s wife.
The Zlatý Fond series offers a few discs with double features. While almost all of Burian’s films come with an English option, Anton Hooter is bizarrely joined with the one film (Frič and Burian’s Hrdina jedné noci) that lacks English subtitles — a prime example of crack Czech marketing.
Another star with a checkered past, Lída Baarová, also appears on a double-feature disc. The beautiful Bohemian screen goddess, who drove Josef Goebbles to attempt suicide, wound up briefly on gallows’ row after the war, eventually making her way to Italy to work with Fellini. She is shown at her best in The Girl in Blue (Dívka v modrém), 1939, directed by Otakar Vávra.
The Girl in Blue is as witty a romantic comedy as Ernst Lubitsch might have confected in Hollywood. With shades of the Schanzer-Wellisch operetta The Lady in Ermine, a bewitching royal from the past steps out of her portrait and into the 20th century. Her modern swain, the great Oldřich Nový (imagine Eric Blore as a leading man), will suffer much with his 300-year-old lover. “What,” he asks exasperatingly after she steps from the frame, “will the preservationists think?” The superb cast includes Růžena Šlemrová and Nataša Gollová, the former lover of Tristan Tzara, who would endure her own ostracism after the war.
Unfortunately, the film comes shackled with Vávra’s turgid melodrama The Turbine (Turbina) from 1941. Baarová is much better served by comedy.
Finally, there’s Kristian from 1939, with Frič, Nový and Gollová at their most sophisticated. This charming comedy about a man who is a lowly travel agent by day, and a smooth, Casbah-whispering lothario by night, also features another lost star worthy of recovering, the exquisite Adina Mandlová. Kristian is as perfect as a glass of Moet & Chandon, akin to great Paramount Depression Era comedies like Trouble in Paradise and The Gilded Lily.
These are only a few of the films available from Zlatý Fond, and more are on the way. Who needs Milla Jovovich and Robin Williams?

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (5/09/2007):

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