Review of the series Golden Swan TV Nova

The fourteenth of March 1939, a few hours before the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German army. Meanwhile, another drama is unfolding in the streets of Prague. Gendarmes chase a suspicious young woman (Marta Dancingerová). She manages to shake off her pursuers when she runs into a recently completed department store in the city center, where they happen to be waiting for a new saleswoman. The person in question introduces herself as Lucie Tichá and without further questioning is given a deep purple uniform and a job in the fashion department.

A multi-story shop with a neon swan on the roof becomes a refuge for a woman on the run from the dangerous outside world. The house will offer the same function to high-end customers, who will soon begin flocking to buy designer hats, gloves and mink fur coats, enjoy cream rolls and champagne at the local restaurant, and collectively ignore the fact that they have Hitler in their backyard.

The period series of the proven company Dramedy Productions takes place during tragic historical events, but if the characters didn’t occasionally say something like “the times are bad, damn it!”, you wouldn’t even know it. It is possible that the events will take a turn in the later episodes, but the rustic start does not give many reasons to worry about the fate of the characters. Instead of the Nazi threat, he deals with sentimentally presented relationships, stolen jewelry or an overly heavy office door on the top floor.

The immediate Lucie gets to know her smiling colleague Eva (Beáta Kaňoková), who dreams of an acting career, as well as the handsome owner of the house Petr Kučera (Adam Vacula), who evaluates her behavior towards customers with the words “a bit rude”. The always perfectly groomed man still impresses her more than her dubious sidekick Marek (Jan Dolanský), who pulls the protagonist into the world of the Prague underworld. In parallel, we follow other members of the Kučerov family clan, vying for lovers, money and control of the company.

The nature of the conflicts resolved in The Golden Swan is not much different from Dallas, Dynasty and dozens of other series of this type. Sometimes a minor character commits suicide so that others have something to talk about in lavishly furnished offices. Or someone’s true identity is revealed. But overall, the creators save with dramatic twists and coincidences that move the plot. The one-hour episodes are quite sparse in plot, so you have time to admire the new-smelling art deco furniture, stylish hairstyles and always freshly washed and ironed brightly colored costumes.

In other words, The Golden Swan fulfills one of the main requirements for a soap opera – it is colorful and nice to watch. However, it cannot evoke the atmosphere or the spirit of the times. Even the actors speak as if they were playing in a present-day romance. While the heroes of contemporary foreign series address the audience and ironically gloss over the surrounding events, Labuť does not work constructively with the discrepancy between the past and the present. In terms of style and narrative, it is a conservative work, where anachronisms in speech and behavior seem like oversights.

We are only brought back to the last hours of the Second Republic and the first days of the Protectorate by the period props, which, as the main attractions of the series, are characteristically dominated by the glossy opening sound. The backdrops of the department store were created in Prague’s Kbely, and although they more or less correspond to how the bowels of the White Swan in Prague’s New Town looked at the time of its opening, it is hard to shake the feeling that the characters are moving through a retro museum with carefully arranged and illuminated exhibits rather than a real shopping mall.

It doesn’t help that most of the action takes place indoors. When the camera peeks out in the first episodes, it is a split shot of the facade of the titular house or one and the same white-glowing Prague street. The stiff mise-en-scene is enlivened by music, constantly assuring us what emotion we should feel, and natural actresses. Marta Dancingerová, Kristýna Ryška, Simona Lewandowská or Beáta Kaňoková play with such ease that even phrase-like lines seem fresh in their delivery. Even if you’re not a target girl, thanks to the sparkling cast, there’s a chance you’ll enjoy The Swan at least as guilty pleasure.

The preference for a female perspective and the variety of goals pursued by saleswomen or their superiors (career, relationship, independence) are gratifying. However, only in the context of today’s domestic film and television production, it is rather stingy for prominent female characters. The protectorate drama Šťastná cestu, whose story Otakar Vávra also set in a department store inspired by the White Swan, had more psychologically drawn heroines 80 years ago and seemed in every way more alive and authentic than the Golden Swan.

In Vávr’s film, and in many other films from Chaplin’s slapstick to the Marx Brothers’ comedies, the big store serves as a symbol. Modernity, capitalism or hierarchical social relations. In The Golden Swan, which does not burden the audience with the second and third plans of meaning (which is literally true in the numerous shots with a small depth of field), it is primarily an attractive decoration in which you can forget the unpleasant outdoor reality once a week together with the characters.

As long as there is something to buy, the world is fine, the undemanding series assures us. Therefore, it offers exactly what the viewers of Nova or the Slovak Markíza are used to, which was enough to introduce a remake called Dunaj, at your service. Fun, relaxation, escape into the world of unattainable luxury, pre-chewed, easily digestible emotions. And, as in the case of other programs realized according to the same melodramatic pattern, it is a work remarkable more for what needs and fantasies of the audience it tries to fulfill, not for its artistic qualities.