Nocní motýl
Vintage Czechoslovakian postcard, Lucerna. Scene from the musical drama Nocní motýl (Frantisek Cáp, 1941), released in Germany as Nachtfalter (The Moth). The main actors were Hana Vítová, Gustav Nezval and Svatopluk Beneš.
"It tells the story of an unhappy love that drags a decent girl into the mud of a brothel. At first glance, it looks like a tear-jerking calendar story for not very demanding ladies and girls, however, it was given new dimensions thanks to sensitive scriptwriting and a sovereign directorial concept. The filmmakers emphasised above all the psychological accents of the melodramatic story in direct relation to the historical and social conditions in which the story was set. The film itself was conceived as a lavish costume spectacle, for which the visually rich period of the end of the century provided all the prerequisites (the film's designer Jan Zázvorka made perfect use of them), and it was set in a kind of geographical vacuum, although many of the realities (the glitter of officers' uniforms, the pomposity of ladies' toilets) clearly recalled the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was underlined by the central musical motif from Johan Strauss. The craft perfection of the film was emphasised by the excellent performances of especially Hana Vítová as the "fallen angel", the governess Marta (probably her best performance in front of the camera) and Adina Mandlová in the smaller but very important role of her friend, the prostitute Kiki. Among the male characters there were also famous names such as Gustav Nezval, Svatopluk Beneš, Rudolf Hrušínský and Eduard Kohout. The result was a film that proved the vitality and standard of Czech cinema in its time, even in the limited conditions of the Protectorate." (Source: www.csfd.cz/film/2080-nocni-motyl/prehled/)
Lucernafilm was a film company from Czechoslovakia, which lasted between 1912 and 1949. The Havel family played a significant role in it, especially its founder and long-time director Miloš Havel. It was revived sometime in the 1990s as a film distributor.
Nocní motýl
Vintage Czechoslovakian postcard, Lucerna. Scene from the musical drama Nocní motýl (Frantisek Cáp, 1941), released in Germany as Nachtfalter (The Moth). The main actors were Hana Vítová, Gustav Nezval and Svatopluk Beneš.
"It tells the story of an unhappy love that drags a decent girl into the mud of a brothel. At first glance, it looks like a tear-jerking calendar story for not very demanding ladies and girls, however, it was given new dimensions thanks to sensitive scriptwriting and a sovereign directorial concept. The filmmakers emphasised above all the psychological accents of the melodramatic story in direct relation to the historical and social conditions in which the story was set. The film itself was conceived as a lavish costume spectacle, for which the visually rich period of the end of the century provided all the prerequisites (the film's designer Jan Zázvorka made perfect use of them), and it was set in a kind of geographical vacuum, although many of the realities (the glitter of officers' uniforms, the pomposity of ladies' toilets) clearly recalled the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was underlined by the central musical motif from Johan Strauss. The craft perfection of the film was emphasised by the excellent performances of especially Hana Vítová as the "fallen angel", the governess Marta (probably her best performance in front of the camera) and Adina Mandlová in the smaller but very important role of her friend, the prostitute Kiki. Among the male characters there were also famous names such as Gustav Nezval, Svatopluk Beneš, Rudolf Hrušínský and Eduard Kohout. The result was a film that proved the vitality and standard of Czech cinema in its time, even in the limited conditions of the Protectorate." (Source: www.csfd.cz/film/2080-nocni-motyl/prehled/)
Lucernafilm was a film company from Czechoslovakia, which lasted between 1912 and 1949. The Havel family played a significant role in it, especially its founder and long-time director Miloš Havel. It was revived sometime in the 1990s as a film distributor.