A-E-I-O-U
Country
CzechoslovakiaCopyright
1979Production year
1979Premiere
5 September 1991Runtime
56 minCategory
filmGenre
comedyTypology
featuretheatrical distributionstudent filmmediumOriginal title
AEIOUCzech title
AEIOUEnglish title
A-E-I-O-UWorking title
O básníky nikdo nestojíSummary
Students of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) were often capable of producing films that the post-1968 “normalisation-time” censors would lock up in the proverbial vault straight away; they were films that would only make it to audiences after the 1989 revolution. Examples of such films include the negativistic satire Evžen mezi námi (Eugene Among Us) made by FAMU student Petr Nýdrle in 1980, and the comedy A-E-I-O-U (AEIOU) which follows a similar theme and was created by the duo of Dušan Kukal and Martina Bezouška in 1979. It is a story of rural secondary school student Karel Sedláček (Ivan Luťanský) fleeing to Prague from an undesired marriage with his pregnant girlfriend (Vlasta Žehrová). In the capital, Karel tries in vain to cut it as a poet and eventually gladly swaps his failed revolt for the initially shunned career of a member of the police force somewhere in the backwoods near the country’s border. The medium-length film made it to the silver screen in 1991 together with another FAMU movie that had gone straight to the censor’s drawer: Nezvaný host (The Uninvited Guest, 1969) by Vlastimil Venclík.
Synopsis
Student Karel Sedláček resists the offer to enter the ranks of the Communist police after graduating from secondary school, even though the recruiting officer tends to him with utmost care in a class otherwise full of girls. Karel finds out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and runs away from her parents' house where he was invited to make wedding arrangements. He, as a villager, finds Prague to be a suitable asylum. But he has no place to stay, and thus sleeps elsewhere, including a cemetery where he is found by a gravedigger. The shocked man calls the police. The policeman releases Karel on parole, but insists that he gets a job and accommodation. The young man then encounters various people and also mistakenly concludes that he could make his living as a poet. He, however, fails to settle down in the city. He even meets his ex girlfriend, who underwent an abortion. Karel succumbs to the pressure of conditions and becomes a policeman in a small middle-of-nowhere borderland village.
Note
In the additionally attached beginning of the movie, the artists thank Evald Schorm for "supervision" because the contemporary circumstances would not allow listing him in the captions. The film is dedicated to the memory of the tragically deceased actor Ivan Luťanský. The closing of the movie reads: This experimental excercise of Department of Screenwriting and Dramaturgy was filmed in collaboration with the Department of Camera and Editing and the Studio of Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts. In the additionally attached end credits for distribution in 1991, the copyright Filmové studio Barrandov 1990 is erroneously stated. However, the film was already completed in the fall of 1979. Filming took place on 16mm film material. The film was released in September 1991 with the film The Uninvited Guest (1969, Nezvaný host; directed by Vlastimil Venclík).
Photos
Cast
Ivan Luťanský
Karel Sedláček
Vlasta Žehrová
Karlova milenka
Eva Jakoubková
Dagmar
Jan Kačer
soudce
Katarína Benčičová
Slovenka, svobodná matka
Josef Kemr
příslušník StB
Vladimír Šmeral
hrobník
Jana Bermanová
kamarádka
Ivan Vyskočil
otec
Pavel Bošek
aktivní muž před kamerou
Vladimír Mišík
on sám, zpěvák
Leoš Suchařípa
vedoucí reklamní agentury
Bohumil Bezouška
příslušník Bezpečnosti, náborář
Bohumil Šmída
on sám, vedoucí komise na FAMU
Jaromír Kučera
on sám, člen komise na FAMU
Petr Šícha
člen komise na FAMU
Jiří D. Novotný
televizní reportér
Zdeněk Krištof
kuchtík
Dušan Kukal
Němec
Martin Bezouška
Němec
Karel Novák
muž na lavičce
Věra Brabcová
Crew and creators
Director
Screenstory
Martin Bezouška, Dušan Kukal, Vladimír Poštulka, Petr Nýdrle
Screenplay
Dramaturg
Petr Bartoš
Director of Photography
Art Director
Dana Hávová, Jana Preková
Film Editor
Titles Designed by
Václav Junek
Production Manager
Pedagogical management
Ivan Osvald (scénář), Jiří Macháně (kamera)
Cooperation
Evald Schorm (režijní supervize), Václava Benešová, Miroslav Čvorsjuk, Marie Fulková, Jozef Horal, Tomáš Kepka, Irena Kvěšová, Petr Mariňák, Štefan Uhrík, Jan Uhrín
Music
Music Composed by
Music Performed by
Songs
Počkej, ty budeš litovat
Singer sbor
Přátelství
Song Composer Pavel Žák
Writer of Lyrics Pavel Žák
Singer Petr Rezek
Šup sem šup tam
Singer sbor
Špejchar blues
Song Composer Vladimír Mišík
Writer of Lyrics Jan I. Wünsch
Singer Vladimír Mišík
Production info
Original Title
AEIOU
Czech Title
AEIOU
English Title
A-E-I-O-U
Working Title
O básníky nikdo nestojí
Category
film
Typology
featuretheatrical distributionstudent film
Genre
comedy
Student film
Origin country
Czechoslovakia
Copyright
1979
Production Year
1979
Production specifications
withdrawal from distribution 31 July 1993
Premiere
non-distribution premiere 1 December 1980 (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze)
premiere 5 September 1991 /recommended for 12 and over/
Production
Copyright Holders
Distribution
Technical info
Duration typology
medium length film
Duration in minutes
56 min
Original length in metres
1 630 meters
Distribution carrier
16mm, 35mm
Aspect ratio
1:1,37
Colour
black & white
Sound
sound
Sound system/format
mono
Versions
Czech
Dialogue languages
Czech
Subtitles languages
without subtitles
Opening/End credits languages
Czech
