“Photos of actors predominate on movie posters today, so I found it refreshing to make a movie poster cleanly painted. We can afford it with my dad in the lead role, because our viewer will recognize him, even if he is only in silhouette from the profile as the Queen of England on the stamp, “director Jan Svěrák confided with his decision to capture the film poster for Bethlehem Light.
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Bethlehem light movie poster
Photo: Cinema
And why did he decide to address the Danish artist? “Originally, we were to make this film as an international co-production. I was therefore looking for Danish creators to meet the conditions for cooperation. And I found, for example, the charismatic actress Patricia Schumann for the role of the mysterious Ludmila, who is endowed with supernatural abilities. And then, while browsing the Internet, I was approached by Madse Berg’s retro art deco graphics, “added Svěrák.
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The creators have long known that the movie poster often decides whether the audience goes to the movie or not. Nevertheless, today only a small part of the Czech ones would succeed on a global scale. But illustrator Mads Berg seems to be continuing the golden era of Czech film posters, which have managed to elevate posters to works of art since the 1960s. In this case, Jan Svěrák left the Danish artist free.
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“I sent the script to Denmark and Mads Berg loved the situation where my dad was sitting in a coffin and wanted to paint it on a poster. It came to me as blasphemy at first, but I had to agree with Mads that it captured the black humor and the fantastic light of Bethlehem. And that these situations really are in our film. Then we only worked remotely so that Dad was recognizable in the drawing and so that it was clear that what he was sitting in was not a boat or a suitcase, “the director described the origin of the poster.
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The co-production eventually came to an end with the Danish side, but the Danish filmmakers remained in the project. “For the role of Ludmila, a face that the viewer does not yet know is simply suitable in the film. And Mads Berg’s work is again suitable for our film, “added Jan Svěrák.
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The film Bethlehem Light by the duo Jan and Zdeněk Svěrák, starring Zdeněk Svěrák, Daniela Kolářová, Ondřej Vetchý, Vojta Kotek, Tereza Ramba, Vladimír Javorský and Jitka Čvančarová, was made last spring. It will be introduced to cinemas on March 3, 2022 by the distribution company Bioscop. The film is co-produced by Czech Television.
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