Jiří Menzel shooting a new film

 Jiří Menzel shooting a new film On 30th June film and theatre director Jiří Menzel starts shooting a new film called Skirt Chasers. It is a story about how it is difficult to make opera as well as everything else in life. This time the Oscar-­‐winning director is the author of the film theme as well as the script to his new movie. Prague 29 June 2012 – After the success of I Served the King of England (2006), which was awarded four Czech Lions, FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale and other international awards, Jiří Menzel comes with a film which unveils the world of opera stripped of its glamour and brings a story about love, about the disillusionment by love for opera and about a lifelong passion for opera singers, mainly soprano singers. All served with the right amount of irony and humour typical for Menzel's films. On Saturday 30th June with the sound of the first clap of Skirt Chasers a more than two-­‐month-­‐long shooting marathon begins, which will take place on attractive locations all around the Czech Republic. “Can there be anything interesting about an opera? Adults dressed in ridiculous outfits, made up as clowns, enacting implausible situations and making strange sounds – and very loud ones too, to drown out the noise coming from the orchestra pit! Opera is the queen of all arts. But what is one to do with it these days?” This is how Jiří Menzel comments on opera. But opera is not just a dressed-­‐up game that the audience can see on the stage. Opera is created by people, ordinary human beings, with everyday problems and ills to whom life brings serious as well as comical situations. Opera are singers often affected by professional drill, but also devotees who make opera for their love of music and for the pure joy of singing. Opera is also Don Giovanni, a punished rake, who has a lot of followers in today’s world. The main characters in the film are – opera director Vítek, teacher Markétka and opera singer Jakub played by Jan Hartl, Libuše Šafránková and Martin Huba. Supporting roles have been cast by well known Czech actors -­‐ Jiřina Jirásková as Markétka’s mother, Ivana Chýlková as Markétka’s daughter, Emma Smetana, Václav Kopta and others. The film’s connection to the music world is its distinctive feature therefore Jiří Menzel decided to cast the roles of opera singers with professional vocalists. The audience can look forward to seeing many of the Czech opera personalities on the film screen for the very first time – Thalie Award winner Anna Klamo, Lucie Juránková, Jan Mikušek and others. The film crew consists of Menzel’s usual co-­‐workers. Many of them are the leading figures of the Czech cinema: legendary Czech DOP Jaromír Šofr, internationally acclaimed music composer Aleš Březina, film editor Jiří Brožek (winner of eight Czech Lions), production designer Milan Býček, scenographer Jaroslav Milfajt, costume designer Sylva Hanáková-­‐Zimulová, make-­‐up artist Jiřina Pahlerová and sound-­‐engineer Radim Hladík jr. Also, Tereza Brdečková has cooperated on the script. The premiere of Skirt Chasers is scheduled for the first half of 2013. Film is produced by MediaPro Pictures Prague Production Company. Co-­‐producer is TV Nova and Medialogue, distributor Bontonfilm. Petr Slavík PR manager Email: [email protected] GSM: +420 604 419 042 For more information go to www.mediapropictures.cz Jiří Menzel – Screenwriter & Director Jiří Menzel is one the most acclaimed Czech film and theatre directors. He is, however, also an experienced film and theatre actor. He studied film direction at FAMU from 1958 to 1962, at times which gave birth to an entire generation of filmmakers called the Czech New Wave. In Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic Jiří Menzel made 14 feature films, many documentaries and TV films. His feature debut Closely Watched Trains (1966) won him an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968. The Time magazine has listed the film in the 100 of the most influential films of all times. In 1965 Menzel started to cooperate with the Drama Club in Prague (Činoherní klub v Praze), founded in the same year, where ones of the best productions were made in the context of the Czech 60’s theatre. Menzel’s first production was Machiavelli’s Mandragora and it would be showed there for the next 9 years. He has been a successful theatre director and actor since and has worked with many theatre companies in the Czech Republic as well as abroad. In 2010 he produced Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the South Bohemian Theatre (Jihočeské divadlo), the performance was also showed many times on the famous old revolting stage in Český Krumlov. Menzel had already started acting during his studies at FAMU. After all, he played in some of his own movies including the famous ones like Closely Watched Trains, Capricious Summer or Larks on a String. He has also written two feuilleton books called Tak nevím (1996) and Tak nevím podruhé (1998). Jiří Menzel has often sought inspiration in literature, which he then adapted in his very own way. The connection between his films and the great Czech writes as Bohumil Hrabal or Vladislav Vančura is therefore quite essential. Menzel’s cooperation with writes Zdeněk Svěrák & Ladislav Smoljak is equally important. Selected Awards: 2007 I Served the King of England – Berlinale/ FIPRESCI Prize & Czech Lion for Best Director 2003 IFF Karlovy Vary/Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema 1990 Larks on the String (Skřivánci na niti) – Berlinale/Golden Bear & FIPRESCI Prize – Honorable Mention 1968 Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky) – Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Selected Filmography (Feature Films): Pearls of the Deep (Perličky na dně) – 1965 Crime at the Girls School (Zločin v dívčí škole)– 1965 Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky – 1966 Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto -­‐ 1968 Larks on s String (Skřivánci na niti -­‐ 1969 Seclusion Near a Forest (Na samotě u lesa – 1976 Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (Báječní muži s klikou – 1978 Cutting It Short (Postřižiny -­‐ 1980 The Snowdrop Festival (Slavnosti sněženek -­‐ 1983 My Sweet Little Village (Vesničko má středisková – 1985 End of old Times (Konec starých časů – 1989 Beggar‘s Opera (Žebrácká opera) – 1990 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (Dalších deset minut II.) – 2002 I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále – 2006 Jan Hartl – Vítek A recognized theatre, film and TV actor of comical and tragicomical roles. At first he became famous for his portraits of shy young men, intellectuals and loners . Later on his popularity grew even stronger as he started to be cast as more or less comical characters that he always managed to embrace with the exact amount of humour and irony. For the past fifteen years he has chosen his roles in feature films rather carefully. He is more often to be seen in TV films and shows and particularly on stage. Selected filmography: Okresní přebor – Poslední zápas Pepíka Hnátka/ Sunday League -­‐ The Movie (2012, dir. Jan Prušinovský) Otesánek/ Little Otik (2000, dir. Jan Švankmajer) Golet v údolí/ Valley of Exile (1995, dir. Zeno Dostál); Czech Lion nomination for Best Supporting Actor Konec starých časů/ The End of Old Times (1989, dir. Jiří Menzel) Vesničko má středisková/ My Sweet Little Village (1985, dir. Jiří Menzel) Tajemství hradu v Karpatech/ The Mysterious Castle in Carpathians (1981, dir. Oldřich Lipský) Libuše Šafránková -­‐ Markétka One of the most acclaimed Czech actresses and Czech Lion winner for Best Actress in Leading Role in Kolja/ Kolya (1996). Famous and popular for her roles in the films of, among others, Jiří Menzel and Zdeněk Svěrák. She has been an actress, mostly in film, since childhood. A sort of fragility, elegance and irony are typical for many of her unforgettable characters. She has been often cast in film fairy tales. At the same time, her portrait of a Jewish mother in the internationally acclaimed drama All My Loved Ones by Matěj Mináč was successful with both critics and audiences. Selected filmography: Všichni moji blízcí/ All My Loved Ones (1999, dir. Matěj Mináč) Báječná léta pod psa/ The Blissful Years of Lousy Living (1997, dir. Petr Nikolaev) Kolja/ Kolya (1996, dir. Jan Svěrák, Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film) Obecná škola/ The Elementary School (1991, r. Jan Svěrák) Vesničko má středisková/ My Sweet Little Village (1985, dir. Jiří Menzel) Slavnosti sněženek/ The Snowdrop Festival (1983, r. Jiří Menzel) Martin Huba -­‐ Jakub They call him actor-­‐aristocrat. Truly excellent and versatile actor, theater director and a professor at the Bratislava Academy of Performing Arts. Originally from Slovakia he has become vastly popular with Czech audiences. Since late 90’s he has occasionally performed on stages around the Czech Republic and directed there. At the same time he started to appear regularly in films by Czech directors where he played a number of unforgettable characters. He has been famous for his elegant and refined acting style. He always chooses his work thoroughly and likes to say that "popularity is one thing and quality is another“. Selected filmography: Kawasakiho růže / Kawasaki’s rose (2009, dir. J. Hřebejk); I served the King of England / Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (2006, dir. J. Menzel); Hapiness / Štěstí (2005, dir. B. Sláma); Musíme si pomáhat / Divided we fall (2000, dir. J. Hřebejk); Kuře Melancholik / Melancholic Chicken (1999, dir. J. Brabec) Jiřina Jirásková – Markétka’s mother Extraordinary Czech film and theater actress. Widely acclaimed both for her comic and dramatic, for playing vigorous and complicated characters as well as for her sense of humour. She became widely popular with movie audiences in the 60’s for example as Markéta in the famous Czech comedy Men about Town by Zdeněk Podskalský. For the whole of the 70’s she was prohibited to appear on stage and in movies. She then came back in the beginning of the 80’s. For ten years she was a managing director of Vinohrady theater in Prague. One cannot forget to mention also the many TV films and later on also TV shows which she has starred in. Selected filmography: Anděl Páně (2005, dir. J. Strach); Fany (1995, K. Kachyňa); Slunce, seno, jahody / Sun, hay, strawberries (1983, r. Z. Troška); Sestřičky / Sisters (1983, r. K. Kachyňa); Jak svět přichází o básníky / How the world looses poets (1982, r. Dušan Klein); Světáci / Men about Town (1969, r. Z. Podskalský) Ivana Chýlková -­‐ Adélka Belongs to the most popular Czech actresses, both with audiences and filmmakers. One wouldn’t miss her even in the smallest part. She won a Czech Lion for Best Actress in Leading Role in the comedy Thanks for Every New Morning by Milan Šteindler. Two years earlier, in 1992, she played a persecuted Czech dissident in the TV miniseries Girlfriend from the House of Mourning, for which she was awarded at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes in Biarritz. Selected filmography: Perfect Days – I ženy mají své dny/ Perfect Days (2011, dir. Alice Nellis) Oběti a vrazi/ Victims and Murderers (2000, dir. Andrea Sedláčková) Díky za každé nové ráno/ Thanks for Every New Morning (1994, dir. Milan Šteindler) Čas sluhů/ Time of the Servants (1989, dir. Irena Pavlásková) Anna Klamo -­‐ Alenka Critically acclaimed Czech soprano singer and winner of a number of awards, who has performed on stages both in Czech Republic and abroad. She sang parts of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, Frasquita in Carmen and many others. She currently performs in Severočeské divadlo opery a baletu where she sings the title part in Delibes’ Lakmé. This part has also won her Thalia Award 2012. Selected repertory: W. A. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) – Susanna F. Lehár: The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) – Valencienne B. Smetana: The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta) – Esmeralda L. van Beethoven: Fidelio – Marcellina L. Bernstein: West Side Story – Maria