Film Archive

A Walk Worthwhile

Special Events 2009 / Dobře placená procházka / Czech Republic 2009

A film by Miloš Forman of the renowned play of the same name by Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr. A film version of a reprise production at Prague’s National Theater from 2007. An exquisitely staged, comic, jazz opera on the reality of divorce and a vision of wealth and love.

Synopsis

The famous stage production of A Walk Worthwhile by legendary writing duo Jiří Suchý & Jiří Šlitr was created for Semafor theatre in 1965. Several generations of audiences grew up on the original music of Jiří Šlitr, the poetic texts of Jiří Suchý and the entire Semafor ensemble. Miloš Forman and Ján Roháč shot A Walk Worthwhile in 1966 as a television film. The new premiere of the theatre production was held in Prague’s National Theatre in 2007, directed by Miloš Forman in association with his sons, director Petr Forman and stage designer Matěj Forman; and this also gave rise to a new film version of the exquisitely staged, comic jazz opera. Uli and Vanilka are getting a divorce. They are in the middle of sorting out snags in the divorce proceedings with the Advocate when the Postman brings two mysterious telegrams from Liverpool. Rich Auntie has decided to bequeath to Vanilka’s future child one million pounds. In the wake of this news, Vanilka, Uli, the Advocate, Auntie and the Postman engage in various wily amorous capers with the aim of securing this untold wealth for themselves. In the end, however, like Auntie and the kindly Postman, it all turns out to be just an illusion, a stage phantom.

About the film

85 min / Color, 35 mm
World premiere
Director Miloš Forman / Dir. of Photography Jan Malíř / Editor Tonička Janková / Producer Radka Kadlecová / Production Radka Production / Cast Jiří Suchý, Dáša Zázvůrková, Petr Stach, Petr Píša, Tereza Hálová / Contact Falcon a.s. / Distributor Falcon a.s.
www: www.dobreplacenaprochazka.cz

About the director

Miloš Forman (1932, Čáslav, Czechoslovakia), graduated from Prague’s Film Academy in 1955, and he was at the forefront of the Czechoslovak New Wave. His films reveal a sense of ironic humour for the weaknesses and tribulations of ordinary people: Audition (1963), Black Peter (1963), Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Fireman’s Ball (1967). Since 1969 he has worked in the USA. There he has earned international acclaim for the films Taking Off (1971), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, five Oscars), Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Amadeus (1984, eight Oscars), Valmont (1989), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996, Golden Bear at Berlin), Man on the Moon (1999), and Goya’s Ghosts (2006). He has received numerous honours, including the Czech State Medal of Merit, first grade (1995), a Czech Lion (1997), the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at Karlovy Vary (1997) and France’s Knight of the Legion of Honour (2004).