Genius and madman, sex, drugs and symphonies. Readers discuss the film Smetana – News List

“They were normal people with all their virtues and faults. They did not think 24 hours a day about their country and they did not pray the rosary. We were given the image of conscious artists by female primary school teachers. So why talk about a legend?” he asks in the discussion below News List reviews to the TV movie about Bedřich Smetan, Diana Králová’s reader.

The film Smetana, which was shown by Czech Television on Sunday evening, caused a lot of reaction. Some interesting contributions, both critical and complimentary, have been selected and cited by the editors. Readers’ Forum:

Keywords: It was a great movie! I don’t want to increase discount fees, but if CT’s product was like that, I would be convinced. Bedřich Smetana already has many stone monuments. There is no reason to build another “monument” to him through filmmaking. He was portrayed in the film as he was, and if it had been otherwise, he would not have done what we are singing today.

Vladimir Nemec: Unfortunately, it is always easier (but also very cheap) to make a tabloid about interpersonal scenes and bed than to study the biography of a good person, know his music and his work and make a true biographical film. The authors should first keep in mind that the image of Smetana will forever be a memory of the one who looks at this not as a great author of unique operas, symphonic poems that create our authentic national recognition, but as a sexual predator and madman. .

Saskie Hajková: As I wrote in another review, I find it hard to believe a film that portrays a 19th century personality and uses language and turns of phrase that are just contemporary. It was bearable with the German, it didn’t hit the ears like that, but here it was almost impossible to listen to him.

Vítězslav Štefl: Yes, that is normal and modern today – tearing down, knocking down, cutting down idols. Mostly without celebrating the great, right? Above all, don’t celebrate a Czech… It’s a shame what’s happening this morning… What today… From the nineties… He was a wonderful person ‘ in Bedřich Smetana and he is known because of his music, his gentlemen, his filmmakers, and not because of his side…

Vaclav James: Perhaps sexuality is not a barrier to human dignity. Rather, the question is whether one ideological bias in the picture is replaced by another tendency, for example the obligation to throw down to make it “different” and thus attract viewers.

Allan Horníček: A very pleasant surprise for me. After a long time I finished watching something. Beautiful picture, nice camera, believable acting. It is good that, like the case of Božena Němcová, we see national idols removed from all paths. We see ordinary people, their passion, the traits of bad characters… They become more understandable, human. If the tabloids worked then as they do today, it would be celebrities with one scandal after another. And we must learn to separate their personal life from their work.

Ludvík Svoboda: I have mixed feelings about the movie. The actors played very well, yes. However, it would be better not to focus only on the last painful decade of this generation. Perhaps a four-part series would be better, where they would do something from The Bartered Bride and the My Homeland poem cycle. If the teacher told the children: “Watch the TV tonight, there will be a film about Bedřich Smetan”, what did the children take away from it?

Jan Smržovský: Music writers (as well as other artists) were just as popular as rock stars today. And logically they used it, they were flesh and blood people. Only then, compared to today, it was more sex, drugs, symphonies.

Renata Brodilova: I was looking forward to the film, but a big disappointment. A painful, drawn-out plot slowly portraying the composer as a sex maniac and his second wife Betty as an infidel, who eventually sacrifices herself to Smetana and cares for him in his illness . The viewer did not learn anything interesting or informative, except that the composer was fascinated by music and women. As far as I know, only the letters between Eliška Krásnohorská and Smetana remain, and she made a libretto for it. That he would cast himself on her as some kind of maniac, it was hardly possible.

Tony Knecht: It is a shame that the film only captures the last years of Bedřich Smetana’s life. Here, he looks like a horny psycho who turns everyone on. But even Mr. Neužil played it brilliantly.

Vlasta Abadzieva: Unfortunately, the film prioritized his sex life over the popularity of his work.

Marie Urbanca: I think that love life is a private matter for each person. Despite the fact that after so many years none of the creators know what it was like at that time. For most, this is just their “artistic” technique. Most people are interested in Smetana as a great composer. This activity of his can be recorded and should form the basis of the film. The creators did the same thing when they filmed the series about Božena Němcová. The story consisted of sexual and love issues. We did not learn much about her writing and compilation work.