Sensitive Spots

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production year

1986—1987

Premiere

1 May 1988

Runtime

88 min

Category

film

Genre

psychological

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Citlivá místa

Czech title

Citlivá místa

English title

Sensitive Spots

Working title

Závislost

Summary

During the 1980s, Vladimír Drha established himself as the author of everyday, psychological contemporary stories. One of the films that is the culmination his work in this period was a story describing the relationship between a mother and her 20-year-old daughter. Both protagonists are struggling with difficult periods in their lives: the attractive Jana Burešová is 45 years of age and her midlife crisis has been complicated by a relationship with a younger man. This self-centred woman focuses only on herself and does not notice that her daughter, Simona, is living through a much bigger drama: the young nurse is pregnant. She hides her condition and decides to secretly give birth to the child out of wedlock. On her birthday, Jana unexpectedly discovers via the police that she has become a grandmother. Simona, however, refuses to communicate with her. The time has come for these two alienated and frustrated women to find each other again… Jana’s mother also plays a role in the story. Simona is part of the third generation of socialist women who have been pushed by enforced emancipation into feelings of guilt and helplessness. The men in Citlivá místa (Sensitive Spots) are presented as immature, arrogant, and easily manipulated people, who are unable to provide support for their female counterparts. Vladimír Drha collaborated on the script for Sensitive Spots with Katarína Slobodová, who also wrote the original story. The director conceived the purely female theme as a psychological drama whose protagonists are two strong female personalities. The appeal of the film, which criticised a loss of faith inside the family at the end of the 1980s, is enhanced by an all-star cast. Jana Brejchová took the role of the mother while the part of Simona was played by her real daughter, Tereza Brodská. Both actresses brought a strong element of authenticity to their confrontational roles. They also played the roles of mother and daughter a year later in Evald Schorm’s Vlastně se nic nestalo (Nothing Really Happened, 1988). In that film, however, Brejchová played a mother who was overly protective of her adult daughter.

Synopsis

Jana celebrates her forty-fifth birthday with her female colleagues from a bookstore and her ten-year younger lover Pavel. She is deeply in love with him and egoistically refuses to admit that he is married and has two children. The student Tomᚠis sent to a gardeners' colony by his mother to get some fruit compote. An unknown car is parked in front of the cabin next door. A child's cry makes the young man look inside. He finds a neonate and an unknown, bleeding unconscious girl. He takes both to a maternity hospital. Although the baby was treated professionally, the mother and child faced death in the cold weather. The doctor calls the police. The police also pick up Jana at home and take her for interrogation without any explanation. The woman who has just given birth is Jana's twenty-year old daughter Simona, a nurse by profession. The two women did not understand each other lately, mainly because of Pavel, and Jana vainly claims that she had no idea about her daughter's pregnancy. As do her mother and grandmother, the pleasant Tomᚠdaily visits Simona, who is worse psychically than physically, in the hospital. The girl communicates with the granny but sharply rejects her mother's visits. The vigorous grandmother, Jana's mother, blames her daughter for always preferring men to Simona. Jana looks up the father of her newborn grandson but finds him to be a superficial womanizer, moreover a married one. In the critical situation, Jana is also left by Pavel who was pulled back to his family due to the sickness of his child. Simona finds herself lodgings but feels helpless and desperately cries the very first evening. The forsaken Jana cannot stand the pain and runs to visit her daughter. She slaps her across the face and then the two fall into each other's arms.

Note

The impulse to film the story came from the actress Jana Brejchová who also influenced the final form of the script.

Film online

Cast

Jana Brejchová

prodavačka v knihkupectví Jana Burešová

Tereza Brodská

Simona, Janina dcera

Ivan Urbánek

řidič autobusu Pavel Čada, Janin milenec

Rudolf Kubík

student Tomáš Junek

Eva Tauchenová

Janina matka

Pavel Rímský

vyšetřovatel Kopecký

Jana Šedová

bytná Truda Šedová

Gabriela Wilhelmová

Gábina, Tomášova matka

Marie Durnová

gynekoložka Kateřina Jedličková, Janina přítelkyně

Pavlína Mourková

zdravotní sestra Pavlína

Nataša Roithová

vedoucí knikupectví Nataša

Eva Matalová

Eva Taušová, Janina kolegyně

Marek Vlachovský

mládenec

Jaroslav Rybář

muž v autě

Rastislav Dvorský

Peter Calábek, Simonin bývalý přítel

Vladimír Drha

Tomášův otec

MUDr. Josef Bendl, CSc.

lékař

Jiří Počta

diskžokej

Antonín Trnka

Janin kolega

Helena Pokorná

sestra u Kateřiny

Ivana Jarošová

Věra Matyášová

Zuzana Kožešníková

Crew and creators

Second Unit Director

Kryštof Hanzlík

Assistant Director

Georgi Ivanov

Shooting Script

Vladimír Drha

Dramaturg

Miroslav Vaic

Director of Photography

Josef Pávek

Production Designer

Karel Černý

Assistent Production Designer

Michal Krška

Costume Designer

Jan Růžička

Film Editor

Jan Chaloupek

Sound Designer

Dobroslav Šrámek

Production Manager

Miloš Stejskal

Unit Production Manager

Hana Štefanová, Daniela Jenčíková

Unit Production Manager

Jiří Lendr

Consultant

MUDr. Božena Žemličková, Josef Bendl

Cooperation

N. Kalinová (klapka), Zdeněk Vávra (fotograf)

Music

Music Composed by

Zdenek Merta

Music Performed by

Zdenek Merta, FISYO (Music Conducted by Josef Pech)

Songs

Zpěv beze slov

Song Composer Zdenek Merta
Singer Petra Janů

Decibely lásky

Song Composer Michal David
Writer of Lyrics Richard Bergman
Singer Michal David

Směj se, mé srdce, směj

Song Composer Julius Kalaš
Writer of Lyrics Josef NeubergFrantišek Vlček st.
Singer Jana Brejchová

Můj klid

Song Composer Petr Janda
Writer of Lyrics Pavel Vrba
Singer Petr JandaOlympic

Zlatokop Tom /Ty jsi to moje zlato/

Song Composer Ruda Harnisch
Writer of Lyrics Ruda Harnisch
Singer sbor

Production info

Original Title

Citlivá místa

Czech Title

Citlivá místa

English Title

Sensitive Spots

Working Title

Závislost

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

psychological

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production Year

1986—1987

Production specifications

literary Screenplay approved 25 July 1986
start of filming 22 September 1986
technical Screenplay approved 18 October 1986
end of filming 11 May 1987
projection approval 30 June 1987

Premiere

premiere 1 May 1988 /unsuitable for youths/

Creative Group

1. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupina, Jiří Blažek (vedoucí 1. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupiny)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

88 min

Original length in metres

2 490 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech

Awards

Vítěz

Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu

1988
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Katarína Vaculíková

Vítěz

Festival: 26. festival českých a slovenských filmů Brno

1988
Brno / Czechoslovakia
Jana Brejchová

Vítěz

Festival: 15. festival zdravotnických filmů Podbořany

1988
Podbořany / Czechoslovakia