Dvojí život

It can be assumed that Václav Kubásek considered the novel the film is based on to still be a current bestseller, even six years after its last edition. However, its author, Vavřinec Řehoř, had already been dead for two years and Kubásek, without Kokeisla, with whom he wrote the screenplay for the first film adaptation in 1924, somewhat overestimated his abilities. The sprawling folk novel reflecting the change in circumstances before and after the war simply was not ideal material for a modern update and relocation to the year 1939. The merging of two plot lines into one at the expense of multiplying the number of potential love affairs was truly unfortunate. While in the novel and in the first adaptation many events make sense in relation to the time the story is set (the introduction takes place in Vienna or Prague before 1910), similar situations unfolding on the brink of World War II sound at least unlikely. Among the most significant problems are the disjointed acting in Kubásek's second film, the spontaneous Marie Glázrová experiences her injustice and rape very expressively and in successful contrast to the cheerful nature of her heroine in the first half of the film. Míla Pačová acts overtly theatrically, because although she was interested in the film, she did not have many roles in sound film at that time (and could not apply her experience from silent film)... Actors such as Vilém Pfeiffer, Jiří Dohnal, Gustav Nezval, or Drahomíra Hůrková needed better directorial guidance for their performances to be at least decent, so in the end the only civilian performance was given by Darja Hajská in a cameo, which is one of the biggest paradoxes of this production. The highlight thus remains the performance of Míla Spazierová-Hezká and the fact that we have so much material left from the collaboration of Kubásek and Řehoř to compare. (25/01/2022)