Jan Werich

Assignment K

Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap his girlfriend to force him to reveal the identities of his fellow spies.

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

A 20th century man lands on the Moon and discovers that Baron Munchausen has beaten him to it, accompanied by Cyrano de Bergerac and the characters from Jules Verne's novels about the conquest of the satellite.

The Emperor and the Golem

The Emperor's mismanagement of his country is provoking some in his court to plot to overthrow him. He feels successful, at least, when he discovers the legendary Golem, which he believes can protect him and even cure his imaginary illnesses but, when he disappears while on a bender, his kindly baker, who looks just like him, is mistaken for him, and begins to put things in order. However, the conspirators, not to be outdone, determine to bring the Golem back to life to do their bidding.

Jan Werich's Fimfarum

Humorous as well as educational stories about magical and everyday problems, about devils, miracles, ordinary human vices and wisdom. The graphic design of the stories reflects the humour and the atmosphere of the stories Fimfárum, When the Leaves Fall from the Oak, Franta the Fearless, A Dream Come True, and Greedy Barka, that were recorded by Jan Werich on an LP in the 1960’s and published in a book called Fimfarum.

Fimfarum 2

The sequel to the successful film Fimfárum by Jan Werich. Four brand new stories “for clever children and clever adults” from the popular book written by Jan Werich. Břetislav Pojar introduces the story of little Tom Thumb full of twists and adventure. Aurel Klimt brings to life three brothers, The Hunchbacks of Damascus, re-creating the atmosphere of the Middle East and variety of the oriental storytelling. Vlasta Pospíšilová’s Three Sisters and One Ring shows a rural Decameron-like manual on how to enchant one’s loved ones with a mere ring and Jan Balej lets his characters Marek and Kouba re-live an ancient fairy-tale about greed, devils and natural phenomena in his The Sea, Uncle, Why is it Salty?

Two Little Frosts

Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry comic folktale.

Once Upon a Time, There Was a King...

A selfish self-centered widowed ruler, barely tolerated by his subjects and called appropriately enough, 'King Myself, First' asks his three daughters to name the measure of their love for him. When one of them says, "more than salt", he banishes her from the kingdom. Not understanding what she meant the King assumes love can only be measured by precious metals or one's own talent, the 'correct' answers from his other two daughters. The arrogance of the King leads him to gather all the salt in the kingdom and destroy it. Of course, this backfires as he slowly learns the universal value of the substance, and of course, the essence of his daughter's reply. With the help of the wise and magical old 'herb woman', the King also learns what it means to be a true and wise ruler.

Fimfarum - To the good of all

The film contains three Jan Werich's fairy tales, each directed by one artist. The first story sets out to the Sumava mountains in Southern Bohemia to find out whether Ogres ever lived there. The middle tale The Hat and the Little Jay Feather concerns a king who sends his three sons to bring back a hat he left at a tavern when he was young. The third and longest fairy tale Reason and Luck is about the two virtues of the title try to prove their importance by changing the life of a pig herder named Louis. Written by

The Creation of the World

La Création du Monde is among the first animated feature films made in France. But to be exact, the film was animated in Czechoslovakia and directed by Eduard Hofman. It is adapted from a series of five books by Jean Effel, a French caricaturist and illustrator. The visual style is adapted from his drawings. The film is a comedy about the creation of the universe in six days, with the devil messing around and contributing in his own way.

Your Money or Your Life

A czech film that focuses on an unfaithful husband who married in to money, as well as an impoverished man who is turns to theft.

The Fall of Berlin

Surrounded by a few party officials, Alexei Ivanov, a stakhanovist smelter, is decorated by Stalin. The "Little Father of the Peoples" takes this opportunity to invoke threats of war.... One day, war indeed breaks out. Bombs fall on the field where Alexei finds himself in the company of the schoolmistress Natacha, his fiancée. Alexei joins the Red Army and soon becomes a sergeant. Fighting rages and German troops advance. Natacha is arrested and deported. But the tide turns decisively with the German defeat at Stalingrad. Now the major offensive against Hitler can begin.

Hudba z Marsu

The employees of the furniture company MARS welcome a rare visitor with hired music. Their boast that they would put together an orchestra is taken seriously, so they receive a small gift - musical instruments for thirty musicians.

Powder and Petrol

The Voskovec and Werich duo play a peculiar pair - a clumsy coach driver and an equally clumsy traffic policeman, who both fall in love with a young actress. Although their ludicrous courtship does not work out, both buddies become successful revue comedians.

The World Belongs to Us

One of the few European films of the 30s to criticize the Nazis, even if they couldn't be directly named due to censorship: Gangsters with gray hats stir up trouble in what is obviously the Sudetenland.

Heave-Ho!

A Milk-Cannery baron, Jakub Simonides, is broken by the Canned Milk-Trust and, in his wanderings with a worker, Filip Kornet, he discovers he still owns a half-finished apartment-house. They rally the workers and complete the building for use as a collectivist dairy. The cooperative flourishes and after a chase/pursuit with the police, pratfalls, slapstick and various crashes, the workers buy out the Milk-Trust.

When the Cat Comes

While old Oliva tells a group of children about his life as a sailor and how he met Diana and her cat with sunglasses, a strange circus arrives in town.

The Good Soldier Svejk

Adapting Jaroslav Hasek's raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada's equally famous illustrations to garrulous puppet life, posed Trnka one of his biggest creative challenges. Trnka himself felt that the final episode was the most artistically successful, but there's much to enjoy in all three, not least the way that the lackadaisical layabout Svejk's own self-serving anecdotes are realized through cut-out animation.

Crisis

A documentary about the conquest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis just prior to World War 2.

Here in Kocourkov

Curious citizens await the arrival of an important guest, the son of poacher, who became famous abroad. Begins celebration in his honor, but nobody knows that instead of the hero arrived cursory prisoner number 1313. He quickly understand how things are and decides to take the opportunity and very quickly gets into a new role.

Balada z hadrů

Jan Werich and Miroslav Horníček in the legendary play of the Liberated Theatre.

The Dear Departed

When Jan Werich wakes up as his seemingly deceased grandfather, he discovers that all the survivors are only interested in his property. That's why he decides to get married.

When the Oak Leaves Fall

The story is a celebration of the cleverness and wit of the simple peasant Čupera, who triumphs not only over the demon of alcohol, but also over the bureaucratically persistent and thorough devil. The hell that the farmer goes through during the withdrawal process is stylized as a shantytown, a galley with a prison and a dehumanized night club.

The 25th Hour

A Romanian peasant fights to get back to his family after he's imprisoned by the Nazis.The picture is based on real events. It includes Hungary's government in collaboration with the Nazis, the encroachment of Romania by Stalin's troopers, and other happenings.

Kočár nejsvětější svátosti

Jan Werich, as the Spanish viceroy in Lima, Peru, at the end of the eighteenth century, is not only afflicted with gout but also doubts about the fidelity of his mistress, an actress of the local theatre, with whom he intends to settle his scores very firmly...

Medvěd

Will a young widow's determination to spend the rest of her life alone hold up when an uncouth but nevertheless attractive man bursts into her house? An adaptation of Chekhov's play performed by Jan Werich and Stella Zázvorková.

Magnetické vlny léčí

Detective Biddle arrives in a small American town to warn the local mayor Banks about a fraudulent healer. Together, they agree on how to convict the con man. They only need to catch him in the act, so the mayor feigns illness and the healer is called upon to help him. Directed by Vojtěch Jasný, they played with gusto - the healer Jan Werich and the mayor Jiří Sovák.

King and Women

A married couple in which he is the older and powerful one and she is young and charming. Their mutual teasing, fussing and bickering filled a royal morning in the bedroom. The mighty King Henry VIII of England, who, as we know from history, had more than one of his wives put to death, and the last of them, Catherine Parr, using all the powers of her youth. The main dispute is over the colour of Alexander the Great's horse. Was he white or black? Will he, she, or the love that lies behind all the words win?

The Cry

While a woman is in the hospital preparing to deliver her child, her husband has all day to reflect upon his wife and their relationship. As he tends to his job as a television repairman, Slavek fondly remembers how he first met Ivana and the days they spent getting to know one another. Slavek also grows increasingly aware of the environment that surrounds him and questions the society his new child will be entering.

Tears the World Can't See

Three friends from a wet neighbourhood come back from the pub properly stoned and decide to continue partying at the home of one of them, because he has a nice wife who understands and gives them a nice treat. But the reality is somewhat different...

Mean Barbara

When the village school master discovers the body of a mean-spirited, miserly old woman, with whom he has had a disagreement, he decides to dispose of the body himself without alerting anyone else to it, but when the body is discovered by another villager the same cycle begins again, with the body eventually passing through the hands of half of the village.

Italienisches Capriccio

Biography of the comic poet Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793).

Pan Tau – der Film

Pan Tau, the friend of all children, now also helps the adults. A movie producer is in trouble and decides to shoot another Pan-Tau movie. But the old Pan-Tau actor Karasek is no longer young enough to walk the almost weightless walk of Pan Tau. Mr. Novak turns up - he resembles Pan Tau like a twin brother. He succeeds every pirouette. And as if by magic, he solves all the problems between people! Who is Mr. Novak? Is he really ...?

The Golden Fish

A poor fisherman catches the golden fish that promises him to fulfil three wishes if he sets her free again. He does so and the fish fulfils two of his three wishes. However, she refuses to fulfil the third one, the last one in which the fisherman’s wife wants to be equal to God.

Dog's Heads

The history of the rebellion of the brave Chody, led by Jan Sladký Kozina and Matěj Přibek, against the violent tyranny of the foreign nobleman Maximilian Lamminger of Albenreuth. Based on the novel of the same name by Alois Jirásek.

Jaroslav Hasek's Exemplary Cinematograph

Jaroslav Hašek screens four film stories in the fairground shed around 1900. After period advertising slides and a "newspaper", we see "the first part of a sensational, exemplary, parfuss, salon program - a film from the life of school-age children, shot under very difficult circumstances". The plot of this film takes place partly in a school classroom and partly in a gymnasium toilet, where the primate Chocholka took refuge from a Latin composition. "Exemplary Family Happiness" is the second film that takes the viewer into the family of the municipal official Honzátek, in which many stormy scenes occurred when the hamster, provided by Honzátek Jr., moved into the sofa - a wedding gift from Sister Ema. Equally surprising are two other stories, one of which tells about the "father of the poor", the owner of a company with unrecoverable cash flow and a famous patron, and the other about the fateful consequences of a joint trip between the old bachelor Mr. Hanzlíček and his neighbors.

Jonáš a Melicharová

Jonáš, an aging comedian, wanders the restored Semafor theater lost in memories of his glory days. He finds unexpected inspiration in Melicharová, a music-loving cleaner who joins him in sketches and songs drawn from their stage show. Interwoven with archival clips from Semafor’s past productions and earlier TV projects, their collaboration sparks a poignant musical reunion.

Královna Koloběžka první

A Czech animation.