Národní filmový archiv presents a film based on stories by Bohumil Hrabal
LARKS ON A STRING
After 'Victorious February' the working classes finally took power
and became the ruling class of the state.
The remnants of those defeated classes were integrated into working life,
to compensate with honest work for their former bourgeois standing.
WHY NOT BE GLAD WHEN WORKING FOR OURSELVES?
CATCH UP AND SURPASS
Where does steel production start? Here, at the scrapyard.
Everything you can see here
we will smelt into usable steel,
from which we'll make tractors which will plough our fields.
We'll produce more washing machines to wash our dirty overalls.
This is our working brigade. Mostly of bourgeois origin.
We'll smelt them too. Into new men.
This was a professor of philosophy, Prague's former chief librarian.
He was assigned to industrial production for refusing to have
decadent, rotten bourgeois Western literature pulped in a paper mill.
How are you, professor?
I'm getting better, thanks. Spiritually, at least.
Let me introduce the rest.
He was a lawyer, a prosecutor who ended up here
for claiming that defence isn't part of the prosecution.
He should feel lucky he didn't end up before a comrade prosecutor!
This is...
Hey!
This is Tiny, a former joiner, patented... patented...?
Patented manufacturer of washtubs.
He satisfied his bourgeois cravings by employing four workers.
Jack-knife, a former barber. Why him? We got rid of three out of five barbers.
Men, mind your hygiene!
Tiny, don't eat bread with hair!
Do you want to contract malaria or leprosy?
This one, Saxophonist, is here
because we abolished the saxophone as a bourgeois instrument.
And this one here, that's Milkman.
We're really proud of him.
He decided to close his dairy and volunteered for a socialist life.
This is Pavel Hvězdář, a chef fired from a hotel
because he refused to work on Saturdays for religious reasons.
He still declines to work on Saturdays,
and I hereby charge him with a third reprimand from the factory council.
This man won't die a natural death.
These are our workers: a philosopher, a public prosecutor,
a barber, a chef and a saxophonist.
I'm the only one here who's a worker by origin.
Professor, come and join us.
I can't, they took my ladder away.
You'll discuss... events.
The cinema audience will see that not only them but all decent people
view the capitalists' imperialist scheming with revulsion.
Americans, jump into the sea!
The Busan fortress will soon fall.
Busan.
And you'll say doubtfully: "If only!"
No way, I'm in the doghouse as it is.
All I'd say is: "Ami go home!"
Excellent! It'll get dialectical.
You, the people's tribune, will cry out:
"Imperialists, we'll pour peaceful steel down your warmongering throats!
"Hands off Korea!"
Imperialists, we'll pour peaceful steel down your warmongering throats.
- "Hands off..." - Hands off Korea!
Hold on!
What's that about! She's a convict.
It's alright. I vouch for everything.
IRON, THE BLOOD OF OUR FIVE-YEAR PLAN
You two hold hands
and look blissfully into each other's eyes, as it were.
That's it.
There will be the following commentary:
"We do it for our future, for the future of our young people,
"who love each other, who founded families to have beautiful children
"who will never see war or suffering, but ever-lasting peace."
Backs a bit straighter, that's right.
Take the newspaper.
Hold it like this, as if you're reading it.
That's it, wonderful.
Okay, let's roll!
Smile!
- It's an honour to work! - If it's well paid.
Yes, great. Great!
- Silence, please! - Why haven't you loaded any scrap?
Americans, jump into the sea, the Busan fortress will soon fall.
Americans, go home!
How come you haven't loaded any scrap since this morning?!
- We're on strike! - What?
- What did you say, Václav? - Let's pack up!
We're not working until the increased targets are discussed by the book!
Imperialists are closing in. We can't wait.
We have to pour the steel down their warmongering throats.
We've read the Party daily, too.
- Who ordered that targets be raised? - The Ministry of Heavy Industry.
- On whose proposal? - Ours, the labour union's.
What about those who should have been asked first?
Are we just numbers?
I only did what was approved by the union.
- So, are you going back to work? - Only with the original targets.
Okay, then I have to report this to the management.
Why would you take money from my pocket?
Václav, you, an old Party member, talking to me like that?
You ruined my life.
Václav, I'm one of you. I'm a worker as well!
So you should be able to understand.
You should've filmed that, you window-dressers!
Hands off the strike!
Hands off each other!
I haven't had such a good laugh for ages.
Come on, girls, cut it out!
WORK IS A MATTER OF HONOUR!
Female defectors.
The Penal Code of 12 July 1950,
law number 86,
paragraph 95 - Desertion of the Republic:
"He who leaves the Czechoslovak Republic without permission
"will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years.
"The Court may withdraw their citizenship.
"Suspended sentences are inapplicable."
Watch it!
Oh come on!
Did you wash your hands?
Don't try too hard!
Attention, please!
We're playing 'Polka for Jarmilka' in honour of Vomáčka's smelting team
and their record-breaking number of melt-downs.
All those record melt-downs.
They broke the record with fourteen melt-downs in 24 hours.
One of the roller operators told me he'd take all those 'innovators' to court,
because half the steel the mill rolls from the famous
fourteen melt-downs will end up as scrap again.
It's true that 'well begun is half done', but as our grandfathers used to say:
'Haste makes waste!'
- What's the penalty for going on strike? - I'm just thinking about that.
If they enforce the Peace Protection Act, that carries heavy penalties.
But we're in the right! We have to keep our position!
Maybe you. But not me, or the others.
On the other hand...
If I were a comrade prosecutor,
I'd charge us all with a nice anti-state conspiracy.
I'd charge myself as an intellectual instigator of the whole strike,
with the exacerbating circumstances that as a former prosecutor
I should have known better.
Yet here, we are all equal!
Both members of the defeated classes and the communists.
We all work here to make everyone's life better!
Even brutes may enter the kingdom of heaven.
So you're getting married, right?
Get married then!
There is a double-slap theory.
If a worker slaps me, they may lock me up.
Because I provoked him.
And if I slap a worker, it's classified as grievous bodily harm.
Even if it's only actual bodily harm.
That's nice. But that's not allowed here in Kladno!
So don't get married then!
Not here!
- Honour to work. - Honour.
It looks like I have to.
Really? Get married then!
But I'm scared...
So don't get married!
Stand up!
Stand up! There's a delegate from the labour union.
He's hard at work, but still found the time to come and see us.
Get married then!
Look, comrades,
I was sorry to hear that you don't agree with the demand
that we move closer to socialism.
What would the author of Red Glow Over Kladno think of that?
Yeah, what would he think?
You've imposed targets you haven't even discussed with us!
Tonda was not against us.
I was a boy when he played the harmonica with my dad.
In the evenings he taught workers never to give in.
On a harmonica?
An accordion.
He used to go with my father for a drink.
Tonda Zápotocký was never a phoney, comrade.
Comrade, you can't talk like that.
You're just playing into the hands of aggressors.
Then you need to talk to comrades Krosnář and Zápotocký.
They taught us it's the duty of those at the top to listen to us down here.
- That just plays to the reactionaries! - Raise the targets the right way.
Tell the planner to come and discuss it with us.
If you don't know the Party line, at least I do.
Let's go for a beer, boys! This is just useless talk!
Don't get married then!
Our comrades here in Kladno are tough as nails.
- Who's that man? - That's Milkman.
He voluntarily closed his dairy shop and came to work here.
He's our best worker, a loyal Party member,
a hard-boiled Kladno man.
Strange people.
So get married then!
Here's the wedding present from me.
Thank you. Carry on.
Back to work.
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
It was such a nice wedding that I have to get married too.
The bride was beautiful, almost as beautiful as you.
Or to be more accurate,
the gypsy girl was so beautiful she could be from our family.
And Angel looked smart too!
When a gypsy started dancing with his bride,
the fat was in the fire.
- He crushed his violin. - Watch out!
Angel trampled the gypsy's violin...
If it were my wedding
and some lout danced with my bride in front of my eyes,
I'd set the house on fire out of jealousy.
I'd like to have a wedding like that.
And what would you like?
Lenka needs some writing paper.
- And what else? - And some chocolate for Elsa.
But what do you want yourself?
Just from me?
I have to go now.
WE'RE NOT SCARED OF WORK THERE'S NO TARGET WE'LL SHIRK
How are you, sir?
Thanks for asking.
Since I was thrown out of my job,
evicted from my flat, and almost put in jail,
I've been getting better and better.
Can you believe I've got rid of my rheumatism?
Send them a thank-you letter.
I'd better not, but somehow it simplified my mental make-up.
I used to travel by taxi, now I take the tram.
I used to drink Dubonnet, now I drink Popovice beer.
I used to go to a club, now I just go to the sitting room.
Mankind has hardly changed for thousands of years.
Go away!
What do you want yourself? And just from me?
Never set a house on fire.
And what else?
Nothing. I'm glad you're here.
You know, I'm still interested in Dreiser, Picasso and Chaplin,
but I compare them with my landlady
who dresses up her three kids and drags them to a crèche each morning.
She spends the whole day mixing cement and sand.
In the evening, she collects the kids and brings them back home.
She means more to me than An American Tragedy,
Monsieur Verdoux and the 'Dove of Peace' put together.
"When a man goes walking on a quiet summer night
"and the flickering light of the stars twinkle in the sky,
"one gradually becomes absorbed with the feeling of friendship
"and contempt for the world and eternity.
"In this universal silence of nature and peace of mind,
"the immortal soul's hidden faculty of knowledge speaks
"an ineffable language,
"and gives us such concepts that cannot be described."
That was Immanuel Kant!
- What is next to godliness? - Cleanliness!
Show me your little mugs, then! Come here!
Let me see!
You too!
- Is the washtub ready? - Yes.
It's much better now, professor.
Christian Europe is consolidating.
What Europe? Why Christian?
It's more Jewish than ever before.
- Christian! - No way!
At one end, Christ, a Jewish genius,
at the other, Jewish genius Marx.
Two experts in totalities.
And for good measure, apart from Christ and Marx...
Apart from these two, the Jews took over art and medicine with Freud,
and physics with Einstein.
Four genius Jews who make the world spin.
What a discovery!
So the products, or the waste of the Jewish genius
are Haydn, Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and also Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas.
No way!
I'm just saying what I'm terrified of...
Ah, that's right.
So you say that God speaks Hebrew
and the official language in heaven is Hebrew?
Not at all.
Neither Hebrew nor Latin.
So how does our dear Lord speak?
How?
"You are the gods", says Christ.
And thus here he speaks Czech.
And where is your Lord?
Here, you idiot!
"He who is at home in all places is worthy of God.
"Who is identical through all time, in him God abides.
"And he in whom all creatures were made silent
"was God's first-born son,"
thus spoke Meister Eckhart.
Was he Jewish?
No.
So Christian Europe after all.
The world won't just look on. Take Iran...
- Going at it hammer and tongs. - Iran?
You mean Iraq, don't you?
Guys, you're not going to the pictures tonight?
It's as I said.
Iran.
Christ, you heard Iraq. You must have!
I didn't.
I listened to Radio Free Europe. They said 'Iran'!
Look, there's no difference between twit and twerp,
but there's a huge difference between Iran and Iraq.
A guy climbed in and got six months.
Only six months? I'd go for it then.
You'd get six months for your lust. It'd count as mitigating circumstance.
But if it were me, I'd get ten years.
Because my lust would only be a pretense and
I'd climb in among female convicts only to instigate sabotage!
- Iran! - You heard Iraq!
To be able to brag to the world, our dear Lord made the female body.
There's always plenty there to entice a man's hand and eye.
Iran, I say!
It doesn't cost you anything, just raise your head and see the sky.
Mr Kant used to take walks in Königsberg and wrote:
"Two things fill the mind with every new and increasing wonder and awe,
"the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
"What is above destroys my importance so I see myself as some beast.
"But the moral code infinitely adds to my worth,
"making me absolutely independent of the world of the senses."
This is the glorification of man!
His head is full of ideas while his feet are stuck in shit!
Victory is one big shithouse!
PATENTED MANUFACTURER OF WASHTUBS
Don't wake up the kids!
You stink of booze. You had a meeting?
Wait, Venoušek dear, come to Daddy, that's right.
The kids will be surprised.
Daddy will give you a surprise.
Keep still, Venoušek dear!
Raise your little hands, dear!
Now open your little eyes.
- Who bought it for you? - Daddy.
Now close your eyes, Venoušek dear!
- Who bought it for you? - You, Daddy.
Look, I've got the new clothes!
I'll buy something for you too.
I'll buy you a sailor's suit too.
And you? I'll buy you everything, because I'm your Daddy.
Although I make steel instead of patented washtubs,
every good Daddy likes
buying things for his kids.
Terezka dear!
One, two, three!
Chocolate, cigarettes, and the writing paper.
Thanks.
Is there really nothing you want?
Or do you want to hear my poem
"Miner's daughter forgot her proletarian origin and gave in to Eros' lure"?
Strength! Victoria aeterna!
Crap!
Don't get hurt, please!
We've lost Milkman and have to do his work.
I'd be responsible for it.
Guard, do they have to shift all of that so far?
We're finished. Can't we help them?
- Angel of God. - My guardian dear.
Guard, have we ever put you down?
Off you go then.
But only three of you!
We've come to help you, let's make a chain.
Why are you so sad?
Well...
I was warming up the water for my fish and fell asleep.
They got boiled alive.
Do you sell fish?
He's got fish that need air.
Otherwise they drown.
So you really don't want anything?
Take your gloves off.
Didn't you know that?
I've got an aquarium.
Some drown on me, some I boil alive.
Right now, I have trouble with flying fish.
They're too friendly with sparrows.
They get so playful they won't stay in aquarium in the evenings.
They sit on the chandelier and I can't catch them.
- Really? - Really.
He has to catch them with a butterfly net.
Guard, he has something in his eye. Can I help him?
Yes.
There's nothing in my eye.
You've got beautiful eyes.
Not only does he breed fish, but he also plays the bugle.
Last month, a pub brawl broke out, Tiny hid under a table
but kept shouting out to set them off again.
When they found out the noise came from under the table,
they dragged him out, beat his rump and rubbed salt and pepper in it.
Let's go!
That's enough!
I'll do it myself!
- Make sure you don't have any more kids! - What would you know?
Too foolish for it, both of you!
Do you think I couldn't?
You could.
And I'd die of shame at school.
Wash your feet before you go to bed!
I like you.
You didn't let them shred Schopenhauer.
I'll read you my poem on Jaroslav Vrchlický, okay?
Okay.
"No domain was left unexplored by your poetic spirit
"on pilgrimage of your gigantic life.
"Your verses immortalised the good and bad of many eras
"and thus, with bright words you uplift the astonished brothers.
"Today, your traces head into eternal glory,
"though for constant bustle,
"the false sheen of the moment has dazzled our ken and view.
"Yet with every spring, the orchard blooms anew
"and from chaos the spirit endeavours for order again."
Nice.
No! Don't!
That's another six months for you!
The good old days are getting smelted and you don't even know it.
You've been beaten by the era. And your response?
You're feeding the furnace your own social class's means of expression.
The world won't put up with that.
Eisenhower will show strength now.
Yeah, America will surely go to war because of your lathes and saws!
You know what will become of you?
Ingots.
This era will smelt you too.
I can't wait to see Paris stockbrokers sweeping the roads
whilst being kicked up the arse by the workers.
Good morning.
- Chocolate for the girls. - Thanks.
Is there really nothing you'd want?
How about some cigarettes?
How about some chocolate?
And how about marrying me?
And what about all those legions of whores in the good old days?
One only felt sorry for them.
They worked in a department store for so little pay.
They needed extra money.
What about the girls today? Don't they need money too?
Go to a nightclub.
There are secretaries making money from a friend's flat.
Oh my, going into an establishment today is absolutely desperate.
You have to drink swill with a fool who can't tell a goose from a gander.
She can't play the piano or hold an animated conversation.
But in the old days...
The epoch will devour you all.
This is our motto: "Be always ready!" This is our motto: "Be always ready!"
We let the brave song sound with all might,
Come seek the truth now, we know no fear.
Morning is coming, daybreak already, This is our motto: "Be always ready!"
Children, these are our workers.
Show me your hands. Good.
The situation is getting worse owing to the imperialists exploiting
our reactionaries for their nefarious goals.
Look at those repugnant faces soaked with imperialism.
The fascist beast never sleeps.
They stick their snouts into our blossoming garden again.
When they can't use weapons, they abuse these monsters for subversion,
whom we stopped from defecting to their paymasters.
Keep them at arm's length.
Not like the one who dug in and made one of the inmates pregnant.
Yuck!
Bearing another decadent soul poisoned with capitalism.
We're too kind.
Work discipline seems to be fading away.
You bet.
Human beings are fading away too.
Not just in an abstract way. Actual people are disappearing.
- Comrade! - Just let the children hear it.
Milkman disappeared because he spoke the truth about the enforced targets.
I'm not asking about discipline, I'm asking where Milkman is.
Chalk up the consequences to yourself. Tough.
Who is he?
Let's go, children!
Listen, Václav...
You'll get two years for disrupting work discipline.
Maybe you'll get more if they qualify it as peace violation.
Or maybe five years for aiding the enemy.
I surely will.
I'll take that.
- Is the washtub ready? - Yes.
Gentlemen, there's nothing lovelier in the world than family life.
When my time comes, I'll get married.
I'll marry a lovely girl and we'll have children right away,
because, gentlemen, eating, drinking, sleeping,
bathing and also love-making are the most noble acts of life.
Your hands are shaking.
- I slept badly. - I know that.
You sit here and think about what's going on at home.
I had it just like you.
I've got nothing to complain about.
But I couldn't stand it one day.
I left a customer half-shaved, and rushed home. I knew.
Sure I caught her in the act.
My hands shook like this.
I couldn't shave people for six months.
Wilful desertion of a site
is punishable by demotion and suspension for five years.
That's just too much.
I'm responsible for this!
I'm the foreman's representative!
If they find us talking with defectors,
we'll be in big trouble!
Jack-knife, you're a typical Czech.
Once you get a post you think the sun shines out your arse!
Excuse me, I would like to know...
What?
Nothing.
We would like to know...
What?
We would like to know how Mr Zátopek ran yesterday.
- Great race indeed! - Really?
- A national disaster. - Oh, and we were all rooting for him.
It was a wonderful race!
At the start Schade and Pirie were leading,
Chataway...
Weddings should be before Easter. Ideally around the solstice.
Couldn't we wait?
- There might be an amnesty in May. - No, the solstice will be best.
The Sun embraces the Earth on 21 March, and we'll marry in their honour.
I'll still be in jail. It won't be possible.
Sure it'll be possible.
How come?
I'll sort it out.
Even the impossible is possible in this country.
But from the eighth lap it was nerve-wracking.
Zátopek broke away as only he can, but Mimoun took the lead
and the damage was done.
- So Zátopek lost? - We really wanted him to win.
Dear ladies, in the end, the devil Zátopek sped in front and broke a new record.
Thank goodness we crossed our fingers for him!
On the bus we were sad
that there would be unpaid extra shifts to honour his victory.
HONOUR AND GLORY
- What's going on here? - There'll be...
Disperse!
Our state aids the family materially and spiritually for it to take part
in the peaceful building of socialism.
I ask you, Pavel Hvězdář,
do you take Jitka Hlaváčová by proxy to be your wife,
not knowing of any impediment to this union?
- I do. - Mrs Thimingová,
you who is here on behalf of Jitka Hlaváčová
do you take...
Do you know that Jitka Hlaváčová takes Pavel Hvězdář to be her husband?
I do.
I consider and declare this union closed.
Mrs Thimingová, the bridegroom's aunt,
place the wedding ring by proxy on the bridegroom's finger.
Congratulations.
Honour to work.
So, Miss Hlaváčová, let me inform you
that since half past eleven,
that's three hours already,
you have officially been Ms Jitka Hvězdářová.
Congratulations.
Have you got the ring?
Out!
- Mum, I got married. - That's good.
- And where is your bride? - She's in jail.
That's good.
Mum, I'll make something nice for dinner.
That's good.
Goddamn!
Mum, we're having soup with liver meatballs. Just how you like it.
That's good.
And the mushroom sauce with beef and dumplings.
That's good.
And then...
Look.
I smartened up for today.
That's good.
Jitka!
Let the wife be obedient and faithful... Long live the newlyweds!
Let husband and wife support each other,
stick together, bear and bring up children!
Welcome.
Wait, you may find this handy.
- Hang on! - But I'm...
He's here. Let's welcome him!
No way, we have to welcome him.
PLEASURE IN WORK PLEASURE IN LIFE
Beautiful!
So many flowers!
Beautiful!
If only Božena Němcová had lived to see this.
Or even Smetana.
Can you hear that?
I can hear what is missing.
Music!
Where's the music gone?
But one can't live on music alone.
He needs bread too.
And there will be bread.
And there will be butter.
And cream.
And Fibich and Dvořák.
Of course.
But where is the music, young man?
Of course, the music, but
we'd like to know what happened to Milkman and the philosophy professor.
And where are the good old days
when people respected and loved each other?
Yes.
Who is this nice boy? A prematurely wise person?
- Is the washtub ready? - Yes.
Starting a new life again, you bastards?
There you are, Ilonka.
Our government looks after your needs, with Sanitary Law.
And what do I do instead of playing cards?
I look after the new man.
- And who is this new man? - Me.
Exactly.
A new life?
You only look after the young ones, ignoring the old ones!
Just have a look!
Who's going to wash our granny?
That's the policemen's duty.
Go out and guard.
It's nice that new people don't care about heaven and angels.
They care about humans.
We're happy that here on earth we're all angels.
What a nice regulation.
Where did you pick it up?
Right here.
We'll stick together, my friend.
Together we will preach the gospel of hygiene.
The rule says to love your neighbour.
I had such a lovely wedding.
The Žehuň Pond was just being fished out.
When we came back from the church, my bridegroom Pepík had disappeared.
He came back two days later.
Soaked as if he'd been fishing.
What about your guy?
He's so good-looking,
almost as if he were from our family.
But he's not home yet.
Married for six months, three weeks out of jail, still alone.
How come?
He got two years.
He'll be back in 18 months.
One day the truth will come out.
- I married the truth. - And where is she?
Over there. She's always with me.
Like Antheus I grew weak, but gained strength when I touched the earth.
My truth can be sat on my knee.
It's like a loaf of bread on the table.
Yet it's not here anymore, those bastards have stolen our truth.
Where is the truth?
Fate bids me to refine my philosophy.
Oh man, I'm so happy.
I was born.
All that sorrow, all that wrath,
all that got burned down with the purifying fire.
I'm happy.
I've found myself.
Starring
Screenplay
Costume Designer
Set Designer
Editor
Music
Director of Photography
Director