Good-natured and garrulous, Schweik becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I -- although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and...
The Stolen Airship (Czech: Ukradená vzducholod) is a 1967 live-action/animated film by Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. The story is based loosely on Jules Verne's novels Two Years' Vacation and The Mysterious Island. The film in Art Nouveau style consists of live-action scenes, generally shot in...
In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling training schedule; the second, a housewife...
Martin, a poor student, volunteers to go on a quest to find a cure for the princess Adriana, who is stricken with a strange illness. Unknown to Martin or anyone else, the princess is actually under the spell of the powerful magician Andlobrandini, who is preparing a rejuvenating elixir made from...
Inspector Brumpby (Jaroslav Marvan) and the young crime reporter Allan Pinkerton (Vít Olmer) attend wedding of Sir Hannibal Morris (Oldrich Nový) with beautiful Clarence (Kveta Fialová). After the ceremony, Clarence's ex-husband, criminal Manuel Diaz (Waldemar Matuska), who was believed dead,...
For the Novák and Bartáček families, money is king, and they'll do just about anything to get it. While René Novák pitches his parents a lucrative scheme to swindle as many people with the last name Novák in the country as possible, the Bartáček clan decides to pretend to be much poorer...
At long last, King Dalimil and Queen Eliška have produced an heir, Princess Růženka. Consumed with envy, Eliška’s sister Melánie casts a curse: On the day Růženka turns seventeen, she will prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep together with the entire kingdom.
Leopold Kohák married a rich widow a long time ago and now has nothing to do compared to his energetic wife. He's growing old and troubled by the fact that he betrayed his first love Emča and his beloved river Sázava where he spent his childhood and youth. A visit from an old friend Lebeda...
A wonderful fairytale about looking for love, defeating evil and learning some valuable moral lessons on the way. The story begins with the young Prince Velen , who is left in charge of the castle and his three sisters. During the night he has a visitation and before he knows it, all his sisters...
Alois Novák (Oldrich Nový), a minor clerk in a travel agency and the husband of a dowdy housewife Marenka (Natasa Gollová), lives a run-of-the-mill, dull life. In his soul, however, there resides an inextinguishable desire for adventure. And so once a month he poses as a playboy. As the...
A village shop owner is convinced by his children to move to Prague, where they say he'll be able to enjoy a fine retirement in a modern furnished apartment. Bored by life in Prague with nothing to do, the old man takes to helping a young widow in her stationery shop.
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...
A comedy based on the novel of Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Svejk happens during the World War I. I Dutifully Report: In the introduction to the second part of the film adaptation of Hašek's novel The Good Soldier Švějk presents his main character Josef Švejk. With the distinctive...
Private psychic Mathias Scibolini practices his profession properly and to the full satisfaction of his clients. When the integration of the clairvoyants into the municipal enterprise occurs, he continues to divine under his civil name Mathias Scibolini. The administration is broken up, the...
This comedy is about one average family. The father works as master in the factory and his son is studying on high school. One day father must start to visit the evening school. It's the same school as his son visiting. The lives both students are connecting together. The son must teach the math...
Marta (Jana Brejchová) and Viktor (Vlastimil Brodský) celebrate the tenth anniversary of their wedding half-heartedly. They both think they don't suit together. While visiting Marta's friend Alena (Iva Janzurová), who just got married for the third time, they learn an interesting thing. It was a...