The Magical Night

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1964

Production year

1964

Runtime

10 min

Category

film

Genre

étude

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent filmshort

Original title

Kouzelná noc

Czech title

Kouzelná noc

English title

The Magical Night

Synopsis

In a hotel room, two men are getting ready to sleep. Fragments of their conversation indicate that they are colleagues from work and that this is not the first time they are sharing the room for the night. While one of them is in the bathroom the other swaps the pillows and pretends to be asleep, but his "dear colleague", as they address each other, forces him to get up and turn the lights off. Before going back to bed, the man moves the shelf blocking the door to the neighbouring room and leans down to the keyhole. The nosy colleague can bear it no longer. He gets up as well and pushes his way in hope of getting a better view of something of interest. The man goes back to bed with a sullen look on his face and falls asleep. In a dream he is haunted by his colleague. He wakes up and in the darkness sees his colleague still stooping at the door, watching.

Cast

Crew and creators

Based on

Sławomir Mrożek (Kouzelná noc /Czarowna noc/ – jednoaktovka)

Screenplay

Zdravko Dragnev

Director of Photography

Jiří Štíbr

Sound Designer

Oldřich Tichý

Production Manager

Jindřich Pitter

Pedagogical management

Karel Kachyňa (režie), Václav Hanuš (kamera), Bohumil Šmída (produkce)

Production info

Original Title

Kouzelná noc

Czech Title

Kouzelná noc

English Title

The Magical Night

Category

film

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent film

Genre

étude

Student film

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1964

Production Year

1964

Production

Studio FAMU

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

10 min

Original length in metres

287 meters

Distribution carrier

35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37, 1:1,33

Colour

black & white

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech