The Strolling Player

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1984

Production year

1984

Premiere

1 October 1984

Runtime

93 min

Director

Otakar Vávra

Genre

drama, historical

Typology

featurelong

Original title

Komediant

Czech title

Komediant

English title

The Strolling Player

Summary

Seasoned director Otakar Vávra created another of his historical film opuses working from a novella by author and screenwriter Miloš V. Kratochvíl. This 1984 costume drama tells the story of young Czech student Vavřinec (Oldřich Kaiser). His association with an itinerant ensemble of actors led by Fortunatus (Martin Růžek) provides him with an opportunity to realise his dream of putting on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Although the dramatic events of the Thirty Years War are not exactly benevolent to daydreamers and artistic pursuits, the common folk suffering from the war’s effects still enjoy the relief – if only temporary –brought by the beautiful story and poetic words… Komediant (The Strolling Player), the second to last film directed by Vávra, was given a rather enclosed character when it came to production. This was to compensate for the high costs generated by the director's third to last film, which was set in the same historical period: the sweeping biographical drama Putování Jana Amose (The Wanderings of John Amos, 1983).

Synopsis

In the first half of the 17th century, the Thirty Year's War rages in Europe. A strolling theatre group of the ringmaster, Fortunat, travels through the Saxon landscape, devastated by the war. The horses pulling the poor carrier stop all of a sudden before a prostrate body. The actors see a pitiful young man and take him in. After the young man recovers, he tells to the actors about himself. His name is Vavřinec and he comes from Bohemia. Once he found on a dead actor a translation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Since that moment, he had read the play, he had been dreaming of showing this play before an audience. Although the group is used to showing coarse farces, they are gradually enchanted by this romantic story. While touring, the group comes by chance to a village where a wedding celebration occurs. The villagers welcome them kindly and they offer them food and drink. The next pitch is Braunschweig, where, according to the decree of the earl's chancellor, they are supposed to perform in three days in front of the city ruler. The actors quickly rehearse Romeo and Juliet, but their performance at the castle ends up a catastrophe. They escape with their lives and set off to the kind village. Horrified, they find just disfigured dead bodies there. Fortunat's group falls apart, the ringmaster dies and the others run in all directions. The actor, Johnny, follows the traces of Vavřinec. He finds him in a village. The young man publicly tells the story of Romeo and Juliet. The gathered villagers are first dissatisfied, but in the end they listen carefully. While leaving, Johnny notices that the villagers are encircled by mercenaries and he comes back. Vavřinec dies before the end of the performance; Johnny finishes the play instead of him. Then he warns the villagers. The villagers, influenced by the beautiful performance, start fighting with the mercenaries, and they kill them all. Foremost after the dead Vavřinec, Johnny understands his desire to tell people beautiful ideas by beautiful words.

Film online

YouTube →

Photos

Mirko Musil

hlas diváka v Kamenici

Crew and creators

Director

Otakar Vávra

Second Unit Director

Milan Kadlec

Assistant Director

Martin Dostál, Ivana Malíková

Based on

Miloš V. Kratochvíl (Komediant – novela)

Set Designer

Jiří Matějka, Jaromír Šlápota, Eva Slívová

Costume Designer

Jan Kropáček

Costumes

Marie Charvátová, Hana Kadlecová, Květa Kamešová

Make-Up Artist

František Příhoda, Božena Došlá, Jiřina Bissingerová, František Klema

Film Editor

Miroslav Hájek

Sound Designer

Adolf Böhm

Stunts

Ladislav Lahoda

Production Manager

Jan Syrový

Unit Production Manager

Věra Lukášová, Lev Veltrubský

Unit Production Manager

Helena Landovská

Consultant

PhDr. Jan Dvořák, Pavel Auersperg

Cooperation

Ladislav Fialka (pohybová spolupráce), Ivana Vlčková, Magda Hájková, Olga Rosenfelderová, Karel Ješátko

Music

Music Composed by

Otmar Mácha

Music Performed by

FISYO

Music Conducted by

Štěpán Koníček (FISYO)

Songs

Festum festum est

Singer

René Gabzdyl (Festum festum est)

Choreographer

Alena Skálová

Production info

Original Title

Komediant

English Title

The Strolling Player

Typology

feature

Genre

drama, historical

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1984

Production Year

1984

Premiere

1 October 1984

Production

Filmové studio Barrandov

Copyright Holders

Vítěz

Festival: 35. filmový festival pracujících – léto ´84

1984
70 měst / Czechoslovakia

The Strolling Player

Country

Copyright

Production year

Premiere

Runtime

Director

Category

Genre

Typology

Original title

Czech title

English title

Summary

Synopsis

Film online

Photos

Cast

Lenka Vlachová

Ivan Havlíček

Stanislav Bělík

Jiří Jelínek (kaskadér)

Jaroslav Kadlec (2)

Jan Kriesman

Josef Pechanec

F. Beránek

Květoslav Štora

Dušan Junas

Tomáš Jančařík

I. Jabůrková

Vlasta Bejčková

Josef Bělohlávek

Anna Čumpelíková

Jiří Fiala (3)

E. Hanzlíková

B. Chromá

Vlastimil Indrák

Ondřej Jiříček

Ludmila Jiříčková

Anna Krákorová

Eva Kubištová

Alena Martínková

Jaroslav Marušák

Hana Matoušková

Renata Socháňová

Tomáš Sychra

Josef Šilha

Jiří Trapek

J. Zvelebil

Anna Fišerová

Vlastimil Jurčík

Zdeněk Khar

František Machulka

Vladimír Filipi

K. Ledvina

J. Maudr

R. Sydor

Augustin Růžička

Dubbing

Crew and creators

Director

Second Unit Director

Assistant Director

Based on

Screenplay

Shooting Script

Script Editor

Camera

Second Unit Photography

Camera Operator

Production Designer

Set Designer

Costume Designer

Costumes

Make-Up Artist

Film Editor

Sound Designer

Stunts

Production Manager

Unit Production Manager