In 1988 director Věra Chytilová delivered a striking generational tragicomedy on the 30-somethings of that period with Kopytem sem, kopytem tam (Tainted Horseplay). The protagonists of the caustic group portrait are pals who enjoy a tipple, all kinds of hi-jinks and no-strings sexual adventures. Auditor Pepe (Tomáš Hanák), vet Dědek (Milan Šteindler) and restaurant manager František (David Vávra) are financially secure and enjoy life with their similarly fun-loving girlfriends – at least until the moment when the brash Pepe collapses and ends up in hospital. It transpires that one of the group is HIV positive – and their hitherto cheerily shared promiscuity is replaced by the paranoid collapse of previously friendly relationships…In Tainted Horseplay, which she co-wrote with Pavel Škapík, Chytilová, then almost 60, unerringly skewers not just the moral decrepitude of the late 1980s but also the incompatible relationships of men and women, two of the film’s key themes. The target of the director’s uncompromisingly sharp-focused condemnation was not just fruitless official structures but the new, showily non-conformist generation beset by boredom, alienation, amorality and spiritual emptiness. Chytilová found well-disposed collaborators among members of Prague’s Sklep theatre who played the main characters with great gusto, drawing freely on their own sarcastic poetics. Sklep were also involved in Tomáš Vorel’s generational portmanteau film Pražská 5 (Prague Five) (1988) and Kouř (Smoke) (1990). In Tainted Horseplay AIDS, then a taboo subject, became a metaphorical threat impacting not only irresponsible individuals but also those around them. Credit for the picture’s intellectual and visual focus also belongs to cinematographer Jaroslav Brabec, who worked with Chytilová on her next, Mozart-themed film, Mí Pražané mi rozumějí (The Inhibitants of Prague Understand Me) (1991). Chantal Poullain, who had excelled in the director’s historical tragicomedy Šašek a královna (The Clown and the Queen) (1987), appears as Pepe’s attractive foreign girlfriend.
Men in their thirties, the controller, Pepe, the vet, Old Fogey, and the restaurant manager, Frantiek are enjoying life. Love is, for them, just sex and therefore they change women who have similar lifestyles: the extravagant, Jiřina, Frantiek's sprightly colleague, Jana, the mundane livestock specialist, Hanka. They all spend evenings in restaurants and bars. They don't lack money. During restaurant inspections Pepe always collects good sums as bribery. In the Carlsbad spa colonnade, Pepe sees a beautiful French woman and seduces her. Pepe meets Petra in the mountains. She is well guarded by her father, but in the end she escapes from home to Pepe. On the way home from the mountains Pepe feels sick and he has to go to hospital for observation. He is visited by the whole cheerful bunch and, out of fun, everybody lets a blood test be made. The result is tragic, as one test is AIDS positive. But nobody knows whose result it is. After this moment, the life of the bunch changes radically. Mostly for Jana, who is pregnant. Any of the three men can be the father. The Old Fogey and Frantiek are horrified, the apathetic Pepe leaves. On the colonnade, a girl resembling the French girl is watching him. Pepe just indifferently looks away.
In the film there are used texts, sayings and anthem of the Sklep theatre. The film is called according to the poem: Tainted Horseplay By the hoof here, by the hoof there, nine time passed the second day. By the hoof here, by the hoof there, mirror reflexions are burning in the sun. My heart from the body frame is crowing out, and in the evening my forehead is walking up in the row. And the command The Castle! My command Direction! I forgot for the nine time over the second day. And the drums of the bushes feel the strong tone. By the hoofs beat imprudence, by the hoof here, by the hoof there. The cimbaly smell in the grotesque right of my death. Only the kettledrums are shouting. By the hoof here, by the hoof there. And Florian Targonelli squeezes his way with his bike around the Otter´s creek. The hat reinforced above the mind and reason in the skip of a little joy. The joy lasts a small fairy of disturbance. And I am falling dazzled by her blackness. By the hoof the beats imprudence.
kontrolor Josef Málek alias Pepe/upír v televizi
veterinář RNDr. Milan Dědek/upír v televizi
provozní okresního kulturního střediska František/upír v televizi
Petra, Pepeho známost z hor
Jiřina, Pepeho přítelkyně
laborantka Hanka, Dědkova kolegyně
Jana, Františkova kolegyně
Katy-Hvězda, Pepeho idol
ředitel okresního kulturního střediska
herec, milenec Hvězdy
Petřin otec
Jandová, Františkova kolegyně
Milanova matka
profesor Netík
Netíková
cizinec na plese
prsatka Maruš
vedoucí Grill baru
číšník v Grill baru
laborantka Věra
sestra na pohotovosti
vrátný na záchytce
sestra Věra
lékařka
servírka Marie
Dana
uklízečka Maštálková
kontrolorka
číšník na plese
známá
barman na plese
sestra na klinice
číšník v Puppu/mladík na plese
mladý muž
muž v nemocnici
herec přednášející poezii v televizi
dívka
mužský
televizní hlasatelka
opilec
funkcionář SSM
ředitel Státního veterinárního ústavu
představitelka srdce
příslušník VB
žena u Netíků
závodnice/dívka na kolonádě
závodnice
vrchní číšník v Embassy/rváč
dcera Netíkových
řidič auta
cikánka zvaná Čokoládová Bety
cikánka Margit
cikánka
cikánka
rváč
rváč
představitel Švejka
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
divadelní představení
rváč
Stanislava Hutková
Michal Škoda
Milan Bábik, Jiří Matějka, Eva Slívová, Karel Vaňásek
Pavel Nový, Jitka Hoferková
Michal Přikryl, Pavel Bačkovský
Jaroslav Tomsa, František Michálek (jezdectví)
Jana Zajícová (klapka), Jaromír Komárek (fotograf), Pavel Bočkovský
Johann Strauss ml. (Cikánský baron), Johann Strauss ml. (Na krásném modrém Dunaji), Bedřich Smetana (Prodaná nevěsta /Znám jednu dívku/), Bedřich Smetana (Prodaná nevěsta /Proč bychom se netěšili/), Antonín Dvořák (Slovanské tance)
skupina Národní třída
Song Composer Zdenek Merta
Song Composer Hugues Aufray
Writer of Lyrics Ivo Fischer
Singer Tomáš HanákMilan Šteindler
Song Composer Johann Strauss ml.
Singer Josef KobrMilan ŠteindlerKarel Gott
Song Composer Angelo Michajlov
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk Podskalský
Singer Milan ŠteindlerTomáš Hanák
Singer Milan ŠteindlerTomáš Hanák
Song Composer lidová píseň
Writer of Lyrics lidová píseň
Singer Tomáš HanákMilan ŠteindlerDavid Vávra
Song Composer Ladislav Pikart
Writer of Lyrics František Řebíček
Singer Karel GottMilan ŠteindlerTomáš Hanák
Song Composer lidová píseň
Singer Milan Šteindler
Song Composer lidová píseň
Song Composer skupina ZOO
Writer of Lyrics skupina ZOO
Singer skupina ZOO
Kopytem sem kopytem tam
Kopytem sem kopytem tam
Tainted Horseplay
Geometrickou řadou
film
featuretheatrical distribution
psychological, tragicomedy, morality
Czechoslovakia
1988
1988
literary Screenplay approved 11 November 1987
technical Screenplay approved 25 November 1987
start of filming 7 December 1987
end of filming 4 March 1988
start of filming 13 May 1988 (dotáčky)
end of filming 19 May 1988 (dotáčky)
the first film copy approved 8 August 1988
projection approval 14 October 1988
projection approval 9 November 1988 (po úpravách)
withdrawal from distribution 31 May 1993
premiere 1 March 1989 /unsuitable for youths/
gala premiere 9 March 1989 (kino Blaník, Praha)
1. tvůrčí skupina, Jiří Blažek (vedoucí 1. tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
129 min
3 675 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech, German
without subtitles
Czech
Festival: 27. festival českých a slovenských filmů Mladá Boleslav
1989
Mladá Boleslav / Czechoslovakia
Jiří Chlumecký
Festival: 3. filmový festival mladých Velké Poříčí u Hronova
1989
Velké Poříčí u Hronova / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 16. mezinárodní filmový festival Moskva
1989
Moskva / Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Festival: 27. festival českých a slovenských filmů Mladá Boleslav
1989
Mladá Boleslav / Czechoslovakia
Jiří Veselý
Festival: 27. festival českých a slovenských filmů Mladá Boleslav
1989
Mladá Boleslav / Czechoslovakia
Jaroslav Brabec
Event: Československá nominace na Cenu americké Akademie filmových věd a umění Oscar 1989
1989
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 27. festival českých a slovenských filmů Mladá Boleslav
1989
Mladá Boleslav / Czechoslovakia