photo: Wikimedia Commons, Martin Pauer, for media use/Josef Abrhám
“And you make excuses instead of punishment? What’s your occupation, with what means did you buy a handgun, you bridle, you fool of the mind, feigning a passion for hunting…” Perhaps only one Czech actor was able to deliver Vančura’s screwed-up sentences in such a way that the average moviegoer didn’t find it starched and schoolboyish. Josef Abrhám, who left us at the age of eighty-two, was able to humanize difficult words and difficult characters for the viewer. An actor with extraordinary nobility who never lost his humanity and sincerity.
PrahaIN.cz repeatedly went to Špindlerův Mlýn, which is a well-known place not only for tourists and skiers, but also for filmmakers. For all the films, let’s name Snowboarders, Špindl, Svatopluk’s Cook’s Embarrassment or Vrchní, prchni! It is the last one that has long been considered one of the best in Czech cinematography.
The Prague bookseller Dalibor Vrána was brilliantly played by Josef Abrhám. It was filmed both in the capital of the Czech Republic and in Karlovy Vary or in the Giant Mountains. To this day, many people remember the scene in which Dalibor Vrána is caught by his neighbor Pařízek in the center of Špindlerův Mlýn. The humorous situation scene ends with a dash and the realization that the Crow is not the Crow, but the engineer Rabbit.
“Moment! Erno, Evzen, come here,” urges Svěrák, while Abrhám puts the suitcase and the children into the blue zhigulik. Then he drives off, flap, cut.
But the memories linger.
A symbolic place. Photo: PrahaIN.cz
It was filmed at the Jelínek Hotel, where the aforementioned film is remembered for a long time. The editors have repeatedly noticed a tree right next to the Bílé bridge, on which shots from the beater have been stuck for years. After the actor’s death in May 2022, one more Thursday was added. Portrait of Joseph Abraham. We’ve passed by the place maybe ten times this summer. And in eight cases, someone stood here, took pictures or talked about how they remember the actor’s career. One of the women was so moved that she finally left.
The interest and emotions were repeatedly confirmed by the local staff. “We are proud that it was here,” remarked one of the waiters, still with the goulash in the palm of his hand.
That Josef Abrhám had universal respect is evidenced by the fact that we did not once notice any damage to the published photos.
From his life:
Josef Abrhám himself had the heritage of the “old times” in him. The grandson of the owner of the Kunovické brick factory, whose bricks were used to build the famous Baťov houses in Zlín, related on his mother’s side to the Slovak theater and film family of Hollý, would probably have been included in the social elite, but February 1948 turned everything around and young Josef had no chance for any “normal ” college.
The Theater Academy of Performing Arts was a way out of a crisis that gave Czech theater and film one of its unforgettable legends.
After 1989, he tried to continue the family business for some time, but in the end he sold the brickyard to a foreign company when he openly admitted that life had taken a different path for him.
His family life with Libuša Šafránková was also very “traditional” and old-world. Although both natives of southern Moravia, they only met in Prague at the Drama Club, and a few years later, which is little known, the famous Cinderella took his surname in her citizenship card after getting married in the church.
And from a certain time, it was also known among Czech filmmakers that when they want to cast one of the Abraham husbands, the decision-making process will benefit greatly if they also have a role for the other.
Source: PrahaIN.cz
The symbolic memento of the film was the vintage Velorex. It was parked on the sidewalk in front of the church during his funeral. Right at the bus stop. Because of this, traffic was monitored not only by police officers, but also by employees of the Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague. Photo: PrahaIN.cz
2023-09-02 08:48:28
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