2024-09-25 12:30:07
The biographical drama Smetana tells about the last 16 years of the life of the famous Czech composer, which premiered on Monday evening at the Finale festival in Pilsen. His 37th year will culminate on Wednesday.
The film directed by Marek Najbrt will be shown by Czech Television on November 3, and will appear on the iVyslínie platform on the same day. According to the creators, it gives an intimate look into the civilian life of personalities known from busts and textbooks. This year marks 200 years since the birth of Bedřich Smetana and 140 years since his death.
The composer, played in the film by Pilsen native Václav Neužil, became deaf ten years before his death. The film shows the time when he was struggling not only with his hearing loss, but also with his relationship with two women – his second wife Betty, played by Sarah Haváčová, and the writer Eliška Krásnohorská, played by Denisa Barešová, a few years younger.
The mask with the characteristic beard for Neužil was prepared by make-up artist Martin Valeš, holder of the Czech Lion. “I studied Smetana for about four months. It wasn’t a big physical transformation like for example at Zátopek, where I really had to run, here was a mask,” compares Neužil, the star of the film about the famous Czech endurance runner from 2021.
He didn’t enjoy himself while he lived in Pilsen, he taught piano for ten years. “I have mastered one composition, namely Jiřinkova Polka, but I have already become quite stunted in the piano,” notes the actor. Because of the role, he now had to practice conducting with Jan Chalupecký at the National Theatre, among other things.
According to the director, the film is not only about the composer and his relationship with women. “We tried to penetrate Smetan’s nature, which was obviously quite passionate. There was such a basic thesis that in order to create, he needed to be in love,” mentions Marek Najbrt. According to him, Smetana composed in absolute deafness in the last years very concentrated.
In the middle is Václav Neužil as Bedřich Smetana. | Photo: Pavla Černá
Smetana’s music will also be heard in the film, but most of it comes from contemporary composers Aleš Březina and Pavel Ridošek. “The idea was to get electronic music in there to make it a really contemporary film,” explains Březina.
The film was produced by Czech Television. It premiered this Monday at the Finale festival next to Pilsen’s Smetana Gardens, where the composer went to high school and where he has a bust. “Presenting the historical figures we’ve been talking about in history as flesh and blood beings is, I think, what Czech viewers enjoy,” said TV chief Jan Souček at the premiere.
According to experts, Smetana, an admirer of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, did not achieve such fame as Antonín Dvořák or Leoš Janáček. Nevertheless, together with them, he is the founder and representative of the Czech musical culture of the 19th century.