Regie:
Karel AntonDrehbuch:
Václav WassermanKamera:
Wenzel WichBesetzung:
Ferdinand Kaňkovský, Anna Opplová, Anita Janová, Jarmila Horáková, Berta Reifová, George Voskovec, Ludvík Veverka, Antonín Marek, Betty Kysilková, Božena Svobodová, Mary Jansová (mehr)Inhalte(1)
In her convent school, Helenka thinks of her parental home, her family and the priest whose nephew Ríša, instead of studying, is spending his free time in pubs. Helenka's father, the forester, is fretting about the lot of his daughters. Albína is seriously ill, Gusta refuses to obey him so her father sends her to Vienna to stay with his married daughter Anna who is to keep an eye on her. Gusta, however, wanders about at night and soon allows herself to be a kept woman. She changes to such an extent that she is unable to grant the last wish of the dying Albína, that she return home. The priest invites Ríša to visit him. Helenka also returns home from the school and she meets Ríša at a ball. Because of his bad reputation, however, and refuses to have anything to do with him. Ríša promises her in a letter that he will improve himself and so they meet up several times. Helenka's father believes that Ríša is only being frivolous in his intentions with his daughter and so he asks the priest to send Ríša back to Prague. After a dramatic farewell with Helenka, Ríša leaves. After he completes his studies he returns to Helenka. (NFA)
(mehr)Kritiken (1)
It is regrettable that only half of Karel Anton's work in Czech silent cinema has survived. When looking at May Fairy Tale, it is chilling to see how contradictory the reactions it can provoke are, mainly because the film is mainly remembered as Voskovec's debut, for which he was expelled from the Devětsil association. If you are one of the more experienced viewers of old home movies, you will enjoy this experience. The story, which is not based only on Ríša and Helenka’s romance (as was later erroneously the case in Vávra's sound remake), unfolds like a bud. The rhetoric of the silent film is exactly what suits Mrštík's substance, whereas the sound film hurts it endlessly. Personally, my strongest experience came from the inside-out romance of the parish priest's housekeeper Kačka, played by Betty Kysilková, and of the contrasting story to this storyline, in which the Brno aviatrix Marie Pavlíková made her debut as the postmaster's daughter Cilka. Regarding the famous Jarmila Horáková, her fate and career correspond to the life and career of Zorka Janů. These actresses, like the very young Jiřina Steimarová, acted so vivaciously that their egotistical performances caricatured their entire roles, to the complete detriment of the film. There is no need to dwell on this any longer. In other partial storylines the entire plethora of actresses of the time, such as the excellent Anita Janová, the mature Božena Svobodová, or Mary Jansová, were finally introduced in this adaptation of Anton’s work. The sound remake is not even worth mentioning.
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