“Hello? This is Bohdalová, “said a reed voice from the phone on my editorial desk. It was about ten years ago and I gasped. Then I stuttered something like a greeting. “I wanted to ask you why you don’t like me,” he said later. Only then did I realize why Jiřina Bohdalová was calling me. It was a reaction to my mocking review of one of those interchangeable television films that Zdeněk Zelenka, Jiří Strach and similar directors shot and continue to shoot with the icon of Czech cinematography. So I replied to Mrs. Bohdalová that of course I like her – who wouldn’t like her Czechs?
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During her long acting career, Jiřina Bohdalová has become a similar national treasure as Karel Gott and coronation jewels. It is no wonder that the vast majority of this republic is inextricably linked with New Year’s Eve evenings. In fact, the whole Czech Christmas is connected with Jiřina Bohdalová and the flood of her roles in television fairy tales. This year, she blinked at us from the screen on Christmas Day in the Immortal Aunt and in the lesser-known Cap, after both Christmas holidays again from the Angel of the Lord, and during the holidays we saw her many more times. But none of the previous days and previous years can match today.
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New Year’s Eve on Czech Television will be fully directed by Jiřina Bohdalová, who celebrated her 90th birthday this May. As a gift, she was given the opportunity to invite her guests to the show The Biggest Party. The group of leading faces of Czech television entertainment is to take part, including Marek Eben, Lucie Bílá, Bolek Polívka and Hana Zagorová. In the evening, Bohdalová likened it to classic New Year’s Eve with Vladimír Menšík, which is a bar that is hard to beat.
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What is the almost immortal magic of “Bohdalka”? Even if Bohdalová shot only Claustrophobic The Ear or the comedic Světáky in her life, she deservedly belongs among the top in domestic cinema. Most of her acting filmography, however, kept her reputation going. In film and television during and after normalization, she was cast unsurprisingly and acted as well.
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She appeared and often appears in fairy tales, dubs animated characters from Večerníčky and reigns on New Year’s Eve evenings. Gradually, as with many popular faces, it simply became a symbol. The power of her fame gave rise to the phenomenon of “Bohdalka”, because of which we know exactly what to expect, and the actress will definitely not offer anything that would deviate from the assignment.
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She often collaborated with the aforementioned Zdeněk Zelenka, the result was interchangeable television productions and fairy tales, in which she only varied her performances in previous fairy tales. It is also a mistake of Czech directors that in recent years we have known her mainly from television and that they do not cast her in more interesting films. But at the same time, they are not too surprised – Jiřina Bohdalová guards her media image as strictly as Karel Gott used to be. Any deviations from the “Bohdalkov” myth are excluded. When the image was disturbed, it was usually more like the actress’ personal attitudes – in the eyes of a large part of the public, her public appearance with politicians across the political spectrum was questionable.
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One of Jiřina Bohdalová’s most interesting acting performances in recent years is actually quite inconspicuous and unknown to the general public only jednapůlminutový film. In 2019, it was filmed by director Martin Krejčí as one of the starring jingles of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. In the black-and-white film, Bohdalová, who was awarded the Festival President’s Award three years earlier, plays himself.
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With a self-ironic exaggeration, he has a sclerotic dialogue with Křemílek and Vochomůrka. She walks through her home in a nightgown, slippers and warm socks, surrounded by ubiquitous memories of her life, and converses conversely with the voices of animated characters, while soldering her Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe into a table lamp.
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Her acting is suddenly free of the diblery and creation she has shown in most films of recent years. And thanks to the black and white stylization, she remembers the best pictures of her long-term acting career. Unfortunately, not even the biggest party will overcome this.
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If you want to give Jiřina Bohdalová a chance, her biggest party starts on ČT1 at 22:15. Not only Bohdalová is a live New Year’s Eve spectator. Czech television stations will offer unestablished merriment from the very morning. You can start, for example, at 10:25 with the movie Trhák. From TV Prima’s menu, however, it is worth noting Václav Vorlíček’s sci-fi comedy Who Wants to Kill Jessie? from 6 p.m. The primetime program will be filled especially by various New Year’s Eve specials. If you want to avoid them, we recommend switching to ČT2 at 20:15, where they will present the western classic Sedm brave. And not only witnesses can watch Krejčík’s great comedy Wedding as a Belt on ČT3 at 8 pm. Surprisingly without “Bohdalka”, but with “Janžurka”!
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