And fate in the form of covid may have struck happily in this case. The time that has passed, and which is merciful, has moved the document from a level mostly sad to a more pleasant one, and so it will remain. As a fond memory and a gift that Karel Gott sent to his fans, wanting to receive him with a smile rather than the sadness that his departure caused. This does not mean, however, that at the same time the admiration and emotion of the humility, reconciliation and dignity of the eighty-year-old husband, father and grandfather left the world washed away.
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The film consists of two basic levels. The first is a fairly common cross-section of the singer’s life and career, which he remembers on his own, and almost always in the presence of his wife Ivana, or with his companions such as Jiří Suchý, Ladislav Štaidl or Eva Pilarová.
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And when Staidl admires Gott’s endless patience and helpfulness with the whole crowds, one realizes that even this was not an insignificant reason for the singer’s unceasing popularity.
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In his memories, he also returns through archival photographs to his childhood, to his school years. He admits to bad grades, and to Ivana’s rather stating question “Didn’t you finish the conservatory?” He answers the question with an almost mischievous smile: “And who told you that?”
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There are a lot of shots from concerts, tours and performances as well as from meetings with a beloved audience, in terms of proportions too much, because the viewer knows most of it. Given that Gott, who also participated in the screenplay, intended the film as a gift, it is perhaps in place and filmgoers will no doubt be happy to remember everything. Moreover, and this is important, in the case of Gott’s career, there is no danger that anything from it would be boring. Just because the director herself admits how enormous the amount of material she had to regret during editing, one wonders that fewer songs might mean even more information about Gott.
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Ivana and Karel in the film.
Photo: Karel Gott Agency
However, even that is not enough. Not perhaps about the facts, his life was quite public, but rather about his thoughts, attitudes to life, admitted mistakes. Gott could not avoid the period in the film, which earned him the nickname “normalizing singer” for part of the public. The recording of his interview for German television “I would only emigrate with the feeling that whenever I can go home, and it is not possible” shows how strongly he was connected with his homeland and his local fans. And when he is upset once in the film that his signature under the so-called antichart is still being tampered with, the viewer is not surprised by his anger and does not even need the “absolution” from Marta Kubišová.
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The second basic level is the farewell to life. The Gotts, who ordered the film from Olga Malířová Špátová, had great confidence in the director because ten years earlier she had made the documentary The Phenomenon of Gott for the singer’s 70th birthday for television. And this time they let her into their life together so close that it often made her cold.
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To a household where the famous tenor is just the father of two little daughters and he knows that it was too late to figure out what is most important in life and what cannot be brought to his old knees. To the hospital the moment the man listens to the eagle and the woman just holds his hand quietly, wounded but dignified, just like him. And when Gott asks about the prospects and risks of possible therapy and then announces that he has already decided to “live happily”, the viewer can only envy his strength.
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Karel is what is called a film monument. Built with admiration, respect and love, from solid, high-quality material, which will undoubtedly survive the famous era of Karel Gott in Czech history. In some exceptional cases, and Gott is, such a monument is justified.
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| Karel |
| Czechia 2020, 133 min. Directed by: Olga Malířová Špátová |
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