Such Is Life

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1929

Production year

1929

Premiere

9 May 1930

Runtime

75 min

Category

film

Genre

drama, social

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Takový je život

Czech title

Takový je život

English title

Such Is Life

Parallel title

Román pražské pradleny

English parallel title

The Story of a Prague Washerwoman

Working title

Pradlena

Summary

Carl Junghans' social drama Such Is Life (also released under the title The Story of a Prague Washerwoman) is one of the highlights of Czech silent cinema, along with Eroticon and St. Wenceslas. Junghans could not find a sponsor in Germany because of the leftist theme of the film. In 1929, he met actor Theodor Pištěk in Prague, who was interested in the subject and raised the money. Although the film was shot in twelve days in the studio and ten shooting days outdoors, funding kept running out during the production and Pištěk had to borrow more money. In the end, the film's planned budget of 80,000 grew to more than 200,000 crowns (some roles were played by foreign actors who had to be accommodated in Prague). The Berlin premiere was a success, and the film was warmly received elsewhere in the world (and by Czech critics), but it was not released in Prague until May 1930 after the changes demanded by the censorship were made. By then, however, the sound film was already all over the cinemas, and Such is Life was shown in the capital for barely a week in mediocre cinemas without much interest of the audience. Pištěk paid off the debt for the film himself until 1941, which forced him to take all acting offers in the 1930s. – Even today, the film is impressive not only due to its strong naturalistic subject matter, camera work and editing, clearly inspired by Soviet montage films, but also due to the performances of Russian Vera Baranovskaya and a future married couple Theodor Pištěk and Máńa Ženíšková. Especially Pištěk was given the opportunity to play a distinctive character role as a degenerate coal miner, and he broke out of his usual part of high society or bourgeois fathers. – For many years the films was considered lost, but after the World War II one copy of it was found. At the turn of 1958 and 1959 the film was remastered under the supervision of Elmar Klos, new opening credits and intertitles (the film does not involve any other titles than names of each chapter) were created and the film was accompanied with soundtrack by composer Zdeněk Liška. It was re-released in September 1959. – In 2016 was the film digitally restored by the National Film Archive in Magyar Filmlabor in Budapest thanks to financial support from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and in partnership with the National Library of Norway and CESNET. As neither the original negative nor any contemporary copy was preserved, the oldest uncensored copy from the archive's collections with intertitles from the 1950s was used. Complete removal of signs of some damage would compromise the integrity of the film image. The digitally restored title was first screened in the Recovered & Restored section on 29 June 2016 at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy, and on 4 July 2016 at the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2016 in the Out of the Past section. – After more than eighty years, the National Film Archive returned the film to the mainstream distribution in October 2016. As it was not possible to use Liška's music from the shorter 1959 print, Jan Burian Jr. composed new abstract music. The title was distributed with reproduced music, and by agreement with Burian's live accompaniment. English subtitles were available on request, and a short lecture and presentation on digital restoration of the film with excerpts was also arranged.

Synopsis

The heroine of the film is a proletarian wife and mother. Her husband, a coalminer, seeks solace in alcohol and neglects his work. After he is sacked, he spends most of his time in the pub with his friends and his lover, a waitress. He wastes the money his wife earns as a washerwoman. The woman, with her work and her worries, doesn't even remember it is her birthday but her neighbours come to visit her to wish her happy birthday. Even this happy day ends in sadness: her husband comes home drunk. When he starts destroying their meagre furniture in a fit of rage, she throws him out. The man moves in with his lover. One day the wife badly scalds herself while washing some linen and after a few days she dies. The man comes home and prepares her a simple funeral which is attended by all the neighbours. After the funeral the husband holds a wake in the local inn. Then they all return to their homes as if nothing had happened. Such is life.

Note

The film was addapted in 1959 by director Elmar Klos who also added the sound track to the film. The music was composed by Zdeněk Liška (K-A 1823,8 m).

Film online

Cast

Theodor Pištěk

uhlíř, pradlenin manžel

Máňa Ženíšková

manikýrka, pradlenina a uhlířova dcera

Wolfgang Zilzer

nápadník uhlířovy dcery

Manja Kellerová

žena krejčího

Eman Fiala

pianista ve výčepu

Valeska Gert

číšnice

Uli Tridenskaja

sousedka, pradlenina přítelkyně

Betty Kysilková

výplatčí

Edith Ledererová

dcerka krejčího

Max Körner

majitel uhlířského závodu

Ludvík Veverka

zákazník u manikúry

Václav Žichovský

zákazník u manikúry

František Kreuzmann

ředitel salonu krásy

Božena Šupková

zákaznice u manikúry

Rudolf Lavecký

majitel salonu krásy

Viktor Nejedlý

hospodský

Karel Šindler

tlustý muž ve výčepu

Milka Balek-Brodská

zaměstnavatelka pradleny

Alfred Schlesinger

host ve výčepu

Josef Kobík

host ve výčepu

Emil Šulc

host ve výčepu

Filip Balek-Brodský

host ve výčepu

Antonín Šolc

host ve výčepu

Eduard Šlégl

zřízenec pohřebního ústavu

Crew and creators

Screenstory

Carl Junghans

Screenplay

Carl Junghans

Director of Photography

Laszlo Schäffer

Production Designer

Ernst Meiwers

Make-Up Artist

Josef Kobík

Film Editor

Carl Junghans

Cooperation

Elmar Klos (úprava a ozvučení 1959)

Music

Music Composed by

Zdeněk Liška (ozvučení 1959), Jan Burian ml. (ozvučení 2016)

Production info

Original Title

Takový je život

Czech Title

Takový je život

English Title

Such Is Life

Parallel Title

Román pražské pradleny

English Parallel Title

The Story of a Prague Washerwoman

Working Title

Pradlena

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

drama, social

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1929

Production Year

1929

Production specifications

date of censorship 16 April 1930 (neschváleno do distribuce)
date of censorship 7 June 1930
projection approval 25 November 1957

Premiere

premiere 9 May 1930 /unsuitable for youths/ (kina Flora /1 týden/, Koruna /1 týden/ a Roxy /1 týden/, Praha)
renewed premiere 11 September 1959 /unsuitable for youths/
renewed premiere 20 October 2016 /suitable for all ages without limit/

Distribution slogan

no caption (1959) / Digitally restored film #backincinemas. (2016)

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Distribution

Starfilm (původní 1930), Ústřední půjčovna filmů (obnovená 1959), Národní filmový archiv (obnovená 2016)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

75 min

Original length in metres

2 200 meters

Distribution carrier

35mm, DCP 2-D, BRD

Aspect ratio

1:1,37, 1:1,33

Colour

black & white

Sound

silent

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

without dialogue

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Intertitles languages

Czech

Opening/End credits languages

Czech

Revue

Carl Junghans

<b>Carl Junghans is known mainly for the “swan song of silent film”, </b><b>Takový je život (Such is Life)</b><b>, which...