One of the best Czech films of Messrs. Smoljak, Svěrák and Menzel has become the most popular comedy of the last decades. Although 37 years have passed since its creation, we can easily see it several times a year. However, the film Vesničko má středisková was not that popular in the past. And this is for both the pre-November and more recent political elites. What in particular did he not like?
The creators did not thank their comrades for the plot of the film from the socialist village environment. After the premiere, party representatives believed that the filmmakers had damaged the village’s good name and socialist economy. After the revolution, the new political powers described it as an idealization of the Bolshevik regime.
Coincidence of double kingship
The film was born practically by accident. During the royalties review, it was discovered at that time that Zdenek Svěrák was mistakenly paid twice for the film Alone in the Forest. Barrandov suggested that Svěrák write a different topic on several pages by the next day, which would be set aside among those rejected and the sum paid would thus find its destination. So Zdeněk Svěrák quickly wrote a few-page story called “Chalupa” for playwright Karel Cop, which should never have been done. A few weeks later, however, by a happy accident it fell into the hands of Jiří Menzel… And the decision was made to make the film.
When writing the script, Zdeněk Svěrák was inspired by an event when sand was brought to his cottage by a local JZD driver with a porter who, after placing the load, sat down on a log and started to rummage in the sand with a stick. Svěrák invited them to lunch and asked the driver why the carrier didn’t come too. But he answered him: “Leave him be, he’s happy like this. It’s terrible with him, we go a hundred kilometers and he doesn’t say a word”. He then wrote the script himself for six years. Thanks to Svěrák, some of the characters in the film were named after the actors of the Jára Cimrman Theater: Jan Kašpar (the character Václav Kašpar), Jan Hraběta (the character Hrabětová) and Genadij Rumlena (the characters Rumlena and Rumlenová). The first two nominees also starred in the film.
I only drink beer at seven
Menzel searched for a long time for a suitable village, which had not yet been strongly influenced by socialism. Finally, in 1985, he chose Křečovice, the birthplace of composer and violinist Josef Suk. It even has his grave directly above the Pávk family courtyard, where the composer was buried in 1935. In the film, Mr. Pávek (Marián Labuda) and the doctor (Rudolf Hrušínský) were sitting next to him behind the wall, drinking beer from the seventh step and they were talking about fine fashion upstairs. As a child Svrěk lived near the cemetery. This was precisely why he let the character of Mr. Pávek live in the same place while he was writing the script.
The director liked the environment so much that he did not lack places where the doctor loved to have fun. For example, the village of Osečany, where the famous Doctor’s Bend was located. Menzel also used Panský rybník near Neveklov, where Petr Čepek dived for a while as a Turk. Some footage was also shot in Prague. To this day, the film is one of the most popular Czech comedies of all time, thanks not only to the great acting, but also to the beautiful locations of the Central Bohemian region.
Just a few stories
The central motif of the plot is the conflict between the paternal and cautious cooperative truck driver Pávek and his mentally retarded young truck driver Otík. However, other plot elements are no less important, depicting the resort village and its inhabitants with a humorous perspective and at the same time with extraordinary plasticity and authenticity. The film is filled with Svráka’s trademark intelligent humor, sometimes a little rougher, but never vulgar, enhanced by Menzel’s sense of the “poetry and prose” of everyday life.
The film’s budget was 6 million kroner and it was shot for a total of 45 days. At that time, the National Artist’s fee was 1,200 kroner per day, and the Meritorious Artist was 800 kroner. Rudolf Hrušínský thus received 15,000 kroner for the entire film, which is today’s wages for serial actors for one day of shooting.
Otík’s role was “embellished” by Bán himself
Hungarian actor János Bán, who played Otík, said he had no problem with the famous expression of incomprehension, because he couldn’t understand what other people were talking about. The actor himself invented the prosthetic for his role as Otík. He was aware that he wasn’t going to get rid of the Hungarian accent in his lines. He wanted to hide his accent with his dentures. However, he had to do it at his own expense in Hungary, as Menzel did not have any available at the time to lend him for his role in the film. And the production was not included in the budget.
In the original version of the script, the main character was not called Otík, but called Plachťák. “The Sailboat” was also the original title of the film. But the story changed many times before the final version of the script was created. János Bán and Marián Labuda were hailed by critics as Eastern European Laurel and Hardy when the film premiered in the United States.
“When they heard that I was going to the Oscars, they immediately gave me an award which was a sort of forerunner of the Kossuth Award, which is the most important award for actors in Hungary. The then ruling class didn’t want me to be awarded in America before than in Hungary”, Prohibition said in an interview.
Bad pilot, great actor
Screenwriter Zdeněk Svěrák spent a long time choosing a film name for the role of the doctor (Rudolf Hrušínský). Ironically, Dr. Skružný’s name does not appear at all in the entire film. The model for the character of Dr. Karel Skružný was MUDr. Robert Moudr from Nové Rychnov near Pelhřimov.
The lines that Dr. Skružný utters while driving “from street to street” are taken from Mách’s “May”. Rudolf Hrušínský was among the well-known reciters of this poem, in his interpretation it was even released on a Supraphon record. Rudolf Hrušínský was a great actor, but a bad driver, which is why he preferred to let his wife drive. The role of MD For him, Skružné meant getting behind the wheel after almost thirty years. In 1987, Rudolf Hrušínský won the Golden Flower audience award in the category of the most popular film actor for his role.
Pávka Labuda played in place of Nárožný
Initially, Zdenek Svěrák did not like the fact that the character of Mr. Pávek was played by Marián Labuda. However, director Jiří Menzel pushed for him and Labuda finally landed the role. The character was originally written for Petr Nárožný.
And Mr. Pávek’s representative should have had a replacement who would lead Prague V3S in his place. However, Marián Labuda was able to complete all the scenes by himself, because he not only had a truck driving license, but he also drove this type of vehicle for two years in the army. The agricultural cooperative, where Otík and Mr. Pávek marched, survived the stormy period after 1989 and is still functioning. The only difference is that it no longer has a metal gate.
The scene where the driver Pávek and Otík go to Beroun for cement is actually shot in the opposite direction, from Beroun. The apartment block where Otík was supposed to live in as a newly minted Pražák is model OP 1.11 in the Barrandov estate, which was under construction at the time. There was an electric stove in the apartment, because gas had not yet been installed in the Barrandovo residential complex at that time. At the end of the film, Otík Pávek is picked up from the Háje (then Kosmonautů) metro station on Opatovská street.
Film awards
It is the only film in which the three Rudolphs of the Hrušín family acted. In addition to Rudolf Hrušínský, who played Mr. Doctor, his son Rudolf Hrušínský Jr. will also appear here as Drápalík and nephew Rudolf Hrušínský Jr. as a young man who is going to watch TV “when he adjusts the mirror”. At the same time, it was the first film role of the then only 15-year-old Rudolf the Younger.
The film also gained fame abroad. When Zdeněk Svěrák was visiting Japan, his host brought him a beer, opened it and served it to him with the words: “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid it’s not seventh step.” At the Paris film festival in 1987, Otík representative János Bán won the award for best actor.
Marian Labuda st. (Pávek), Zdeněk Svěrák (painter Ryba) and János Bán (Otík Rákosník) met again 26 years after the shooting of the film at the award ceremony of the Art Film Feste in Košice. “We call each other every year, but we only met now” Marián Labuda revealed at the moment.
source: Ceskatelevize.cznew TV
