INTERVIEW

PETR JARCHOVSKÝ

Was Robert Graves’ poem Beauty in Trouble the prime inspiration to write the screenplay?

At the beginning of writing a screenplay there is always a certain person, which I know from the neighborhood or from stories. In this case it was a young woman who lives in an unhappy marriage and must decide if she will stay with her husband or if she will leave him. She chooses to leave into another environment, which is for her an escape from pillar to post. She really gets into trouble.

When we talked about it with Honza, he said: „Well, that is a kind of Beauty in trouble.“ At that moment we remembered Graves’ poem in Šrut’s translation. In the 80’s Petr Skoumal set it to music, and we took a liking in the version sung by Luboš Pospíšil. We declaimed it and realized that we could really follow its track, that the poem lyrically expresses what we would like to show dramatically.

How essentially did Aňa Geislerová influence the figure of the Beauty? She certainly completed her with her charisma, her unique style, with which she does a gesture, a gaze. Did you write it directly for her?

We didn’t write it directly for her, but she was very soon cast in our conception. At one point we realized it could be her. This is quite unusual in our movies, we normally do the casting ex post. Aňa was cast a little earlier. She even stepped in during the finishing of the screenplay in the completion of two versions of the story, as spontaneously and matter-of-factly as she herself is. And I must say she helped me a lot. Those are exactly the important things, when an intelligent actor says: „I wouldn’t do that...“ Or: „Why does that guy behave like this?“ These are the last adjustments I need, so that certain scenes appear credibly.

I will ask you about the love scene. How did you describe it in the screenplay and how did you like it interpreted?

We first need to state more precisely the term love scene. A love scene is for example when in Cosy Dens a young boy looks at a girl. This is an erotic scene, sexual. You can’t describe it without becoming a kitsher or a pornographer. In the screenplay I wrote it in one sentence: they make love passionately. Then it depends on the intelligence and the view of those who have to interpret it in front of the camera. And let me tell you, it really is no fun. There I am awaiting that the great actors will help me.

Professor Vávra, who used to teach us at FAMU, told us that a truly good erotic scene is very hard to do, because it is about a subjective experience of the characters, and not about an objective voyeur thing.

With Honza Hřebejk we never did such scenes, because we never needed them. We were rather annoyed that in movies, even good directors often add erotism, sex or nakedness because of a special „obligation“ towards the audience. As long as we didn’t need them for our characters, we didn’t use them. So when we use such a scene in our movie, it is only to make the story clear.

To have one part of the story taking place in Italy is also untraditional for a Czech movie. Why Tuscany? Is this region somehow special for you?

We like Tuscany, we travel there a lot. We know this region not only as tourists, but a little more, we stayed there some time, with the local people, we got to know their mentality. And what’s more it’s a beautiful country. When you need to show in a movie that a person is having a hard time going back home, you can’t show Karl-Marx-Stadt.

What role did Radůza have in the context of the whole story? The director said that in the end, she had a different role than she was planned to have originally.

Everything keeps evolving of course. When the whole material is ready, the words of the screenplay are translated into the language of images, the original ghost characters become specific actors, who shift it all further, and suddenly you realize the movie maybe got a new tempo. Then you have to change the original idea, that there will be a specific song somewhere, otherwise it would slow the movie. Suddenly you realize that to place that song in one moment of the movie is stronger than if we had used it four times during the movie in shorter fragments. And this is how the role of Radůza changed. In the movie she plays herself. She plays a chansonier who sings in a music club. Originally we thought she would be less present in the movie, but more often. In the end she has two scenes there, but on the other hand both have a larger extent.

Would you like to say something about a character?

I have to mention the part played by Josef Abrhám. Originally it was supposed to be a thirty-five year old boy. But it somehow didn’t fit. I wanted to make up a character for him, but something wasn’t correct with him. We left for Italy to have a break from it, and there a miracle happened. The character came to us. Suddenly there was a man there, who presented us his nice young wife and invited us to his house. There we realized he is the part we need in our story. With the only difference that he is thirty years older than ours. So we thought, what if we copied reality and made our character thirty years older? I was scared I would have to rewrite the whole screenplay. But in the end I only rewrote three sentences, because our character talked from the beginning as that sixty year old guy. He was conjured from the beginning, and we couldn’t bring him to light, so he had to come and say: „It’s me!“

How does your cooperation with Honza Hřebejk look like? He interferes in the screenplay. When the screenplay is ready and the shooting starts, do you still have the right to interfere, or do you only stand by?

It was always like that, that I could work with the material until the very end. Of course at one point the director takes on a big responsibility and becomes the captain in command. It would be counterproductive if the screenplayer was running around the set telling the actors different directions underhand. It would be a quick end. I have the privilege to be able to be present at the filming. When the director doubts something, he consults it with me, we talk about it. No one has the impression to have degraded the other’s work. Nobody will ever hear me say – I meant it differently, but the director did it this way. The complicity is lasting from the beginning to the end. We even carry the blame together for any particular mistakes. On the opposite the gratification can be the shared satisfaction.

All the movies you made and were retro were made with humor and simplicity. The present in your movies is rather bitter than comical. Is it because you don’t have an overview or because you perceive it that way?

When you have a theme you remember, or it is a souvenir given by your parents or older friends, the distance enables nostalgia to come in. The look on the present brings a different approach. There are other emotions, for ex. the topicality or the immediate commentary, you can give way to hate, irony, take an attitude. But I would be glad if even the bitterness didn’t exclude humor.

How will your future creations go on? First they were retro comedies, now they are movies about the present. Are you willing to write any sci-fi?

Definitely not. You can’t even plan like this. We didn’t even decide we would first do movies about the past, and then the present. It just met us on the way. The cooperation with Petr Šabach presented us to each other, he was older, he already had studied and written some, and we were just beginning. And that’s how it gradually evolves. I would also be glad to know where it is taking us.

I actually have already a certain lead. While we are finishing Beauty in Trouble, I have already written another screenplay. The working title is Medovník (Honey cake).