Karel Kachyňa continued his pursuit of the themes of childhood and adolescence in this film set in Prague’s proletarian Žižkov quarter during the 1950s. Following Lásky mezi kapkami deště (Love Between the Raindrops, 1979), the experienced director again chose Žižkov as the setting for a story about a boy coming of age in a formidable era. Though he based his film Blázni a děvčátka (Young Girls, Crazy Guys, 1989) on Vladimír Kučera’s novel of the same name, the episodic storyline is dominated by Kachyňa’s usual flair for poetic cinematographic atmospheres. In the role of the 13-year-old Jirka, who is experiencing his first love, along with longing and pain, is Radim Špaček, today himself a film director. The part of the crazy eccentric Pepíček, whom Jirka looks after, gave Milan Šimáček an opportunity to shine.
The quirky Prague neighbourhood of ikov in the 1950s. Common people and among them, variously handicapped people, live near the pompous national monument at Vítkov. The little Pepi is adult but his reasoning is that of a child. He likes horses and always tenderly holds his small horse made of rugs. The fool nicknamed "Cat-and-Dog" was driven insane when he was tortured by the Nazis, the notorious alcoholic Kozel claims to be the very last Hussite. This peculiar world with all its contrasts is sensitively perceived by the thirteen-year old Jirka. He is cared for by his father who plans an academic career for him. He thus watches with embarrassment when Jirka sometimes comes home with visible signs of fighting. Jirka cannot fight much and is bad at football, and the rough boys treat him as a whipping boy. He is not successful with the girls, either. But Jirka is not afraid and wins his place among the gang. He even bravely faces the truth about his mother who left the family with a lover, as well as the fact that his father was imprisoned for beating up his rival. Pepi escapes from the mental asylum and Jirka tends to him, sharing with him a shelter near a railroad track where he hid himself after a quarrel with his father. Pepi constantly suffers from headaches and Jirka procures him pills. But they are discovered one day and the emergency services come to get Pepi. The desperate man runs away and ends up under the wheels of a locomotive. The sad Jirka returns home. A paralysed boy in a house across from their shelter is playing the harmonica.
žižkovský kluk Jirka Akrman
žižkovský blázen Pepíček Várlichů
Akrman, Jirkův otec
žižkovský opilec Kozel st.
žižkovský blázen zvaný Kočička a pejsek
strýc Vašek z Kotína
Kocman, Jirkův spolužák
Kozel ml., Jirkův spolužák
Batlík, Jirkův spolužík
kluk zvaný Kuře
Martina, Jirkova kamarádka z Kotína
Říhová, Jirkova spolužačka
sousedka Holanová
železničář Josef
sedlák František Vrbenský
Honza, syn Vrbenského
učitel Kouba
Alena Hrubá, Jirkova spolužačka
Kocmanova matka
Javůrek, starší příslušník VB
listonoš
listonoš
starý lékař
výčepní
lékárník
kostelník
farář
Mára zvaný Marbulajz
svíčková bába
Kremličková
mladý příslušník VB
saniťák
Voice by Zdeněk Ornest
saniťák
chlap o holi
mladý lékař
bába v okně
kojící žena
harmonikář
mladý harmonikář
vesnická žena
žena v okně
žena v okně
voják, milenec Říhové
Bartošová
varhaník
žižkovská slečna
žižkovská slečna
žižkovská slečna
muž v okně
muž v okně
Pepíčkova sousedka
prodavač
žena v šátku
žižkovský obejda
Jirka Akrman sedmiletý
hasič/kluk z party roháků
hasič/kluk z party roháků
voják/kluk z party roháků
voják/kluk z party roháků
milenec v okně
milenka v okně
mladá dívka na pavlači
Dzurková
žižkovský frajer
řidič
vedoucí
kočí poštovního vozu
ministrant
ministrant
spolužák
spolužák
spolužák
spolužák
hudebnice
vojín
vojík
vojín
desetiletý chlapec
výrostek v tričku/kotínský kluk
mladík
mladík
Vladimír Kučera (Blázni a děvčátka – novela)
Michal Kraus, Vladimír Kvěch, Karel Šebo, Miloslav Dvořák
N. Kalinová (klapka), Miroslav Jirsa (fotograf), Miloš Schmiedberger (fotograf), Jan Čuřík, Marika Kráčmarová, V. Polák, J. Červený
Studiová skupina Milana Svobody (Music Conducted by Milan Svoboda), Radek Krampl /sólo na foukací harmoniku/
Singer Josef Somr
Singer Karel Smrž
Song Composer Ludvík Podéšť
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav Dietl
Singer sbor
Song Composer Ludvík Podéšť
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav Dietl
Singer sbor
Song Composer Jan Seidel
Writer of Lyrics Bedřich Bobek
Blázni a děvčátka
Blázni a děvčátka
Young Girls, Crazy Guys
film
featuretheatrical distribution
tragicomedy
Czechoslovakia
1989
1988
start of filming 3 August 1988
end of filming 24 October 1988
the first film copy approved 3 February 1989
projection approval 28 March 1989
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1992
premiere 1 December 1989 /suitable for youths/
4. tvůrčí skupina, Marcela Pittermannová (vedoucí 4. tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
83 min
2 362 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Festival: 30. festival filmů pro děti Zlín
1990
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Kristián Suda
Festival: 30. festival filmů pro děti Zlín
1990
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Festival: 30. festival filmů pro děti Zlín
1990
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Milan Šimáček
Festival: 30. festival filmů pro děti Zlín
1990
Zlín / Czechoslovakia
Exhibition: 21. národní přehlídka filmů pro děti Ostrov
1989
Ostrov nad Ohří / Czechoslovakia
Exhibition: 21. národní přehlídka filmů pro děti Ostrov
1989
Ostrov nad Ohří / Czechoslovakia
Milan Šimáček