Tribute to Jan Svěrák 2021 / Jízda / Czech Republic 1994
Two friends in an improvised convertible, a young female hitchhiker, a stunning summer landscape, and songs from the Czech band Buty – these are the ingredients of the road movie that became a cult statement for the nineties generation. The young appeared to have it all – freedom of spirit, exhilaration and sheer joy of life, and it seemed that, in order to achieve this, they didn't need “one arm longer than the other”, as the film’s lead song would have it.
A country road lined with magnificent, full-grown trees, a golden canopy of meadow grass shimmering in the setting sun, the velvety surface of a lake, fine thistledown swaying in the breeze, villagers working in the fields, then having a siesta outside the village pub – these are the scenes that flash by as two friends take a drive through the summer landscape with no particular destination in mind. Svěrák’s direction is both intuitive and emotive, and his images combine to create the lyrical line of the film, evoking a mood of warm sunny days which simply call for idleness, daft boyish pranks and little adventures. Stopping for a hitchhiker looks like a good way to liven up the proceedings, but the girl isn’t as childishly innocent as she initially seems. Attempts to elude a jealous lover lead to tragedy and the glimmering, convivial atmosphere at once tips over into darkness. The director entirely avoids anything explicit, all the same, we sense that Radek and Franta now realise that insouciance is meant only for dreams, which disperse as soon as we wake up.
Zdena Škapová
88 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Jan Svěrák
/ Screenplay Jan Svěrák, Martin Dostál
/ Dir. of Photography F. A. Brabec
/ Music Radek Pastrňák, Buty
/ Editor Alois Fišárek
/ Producer Přemysl Pražský, Bohdan Kysil, F. A. Brabec, Jan Svěrák
/ Production Luxor
/ Cast Anna Geislerová, Radek Pastrňák, Jakub Špalek, Filip Renč
/ Sales Biograf Jan Svěrák s.r.o.
/ Distributor Biograf Jan Svěrák s.r.o.
Biograf Jan Svěrák s.r.o.
Nad Vinohradem 250/1, 147 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
E-mail: [email protected]
Jan Svěrák
Film Director / Producer
Anna Geislerová
Actress
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