Directed by:
Jiří SlavíčekCinematography:
Ferdinand PečenkaComposer:
Dalibor C. VačkářCast:
Dana Medřická, Vladimír Šmeral, Eduard Dubský, Vladimír Řepa, Vítězslav Boček, Marie Burešová, Vladimír Hlavatý, Rudolf Deyl ml., Rudolf Deyl st., Bedřich Vrbský, Antonín Kandert, Helena Friedlová (more)Plots(1)
Marta Kulišová is wrongly convicted of murdering her husband and sent to prison for ten years. In the court process, she doesn't reveal the real murderer, who she knows and to whom she is bound by an uncertain feeling and belief that he killed her husband out of love for her. In the first year of her imprisonment, she writes a theatre play, in which she describes her case - marriage with a ruthless cheater, quarrels with him and with his mistress, getting acquainted with another man who prevented her suicidal thoughts. After nine years, the director of the prison decides to show Marta's play before the prisoners and the jury who condemned Marta years ago. He considers the play to be a psychological experiment, which could help bring a final light on this case. The experiment is successful, the real murderer gives himself up. But the renewal of the trial doesn't take place. Marta realizes that she would put the blame on the man she has been thinking about for nine long years. She takes the blame for the murder onto herself and believes that, after her sentence is finished, her freedom will not be inconsolable loneliness. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (1)
This film is one of František Langer's works that deal primarily with justice. The idea was brought to Langer by Olga Scheinpflugová, and it all fits in with the interwar trend to take a relative view of contemporary justice. On the stage of the Vinohrady theater, "Dvaasedmdesátka" had a total of 56 performances. However, the filmmakers did not return to the subject until Langer became a national artist in 1947, which is a shame because, as we know, the film could not have been more apart from this tumultuous time period. The post-February dramaturgy turned its back on Slavíček's artistically ambitious rewrite and the premiere, postponed by five years, condemned the film to incomprehension and disinterest. The result may not be perfect, but the original formal method of theater-on-theater will always be a challenge for filmmakers. Personally, I don't see it as an ideal choice to cast Dana Medřická in the lead role, who for some unfathomable reason was considered a femme fatale in the second half of the 1940s. Is she a good actress? Sure. A female vamp? Nope. Slavíček's favorite Šmeral is much better off. The psychological level is of course very interesting. All in all, it was a premature farewell to a quality pre-war dramaturgy that still had much to offer.
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