A császár pékje

Perhaps the only film where I don't mind the obvious building pathos. There's so much sincere faith and enthusiasm, so much anticipation and passion that when members of different crafts start singing that famous hymn, I get chills. The good from the '50s is what makes this film. In the best sense of the word, this is fun for the people, but intelligent, graceful and exciting. With his double role, Jan Werich may have historically made Rudolf II impossible, but he has made him probably the most popular film monarch. Before SORELA made a hideous propaganda pamphlet out of Czech film without a drop of taste and artistic ambition, Frič proved that at its core, an engaged culture for the wide masses is possible... Unfortunately, if it's of really good quality, it proclaims values other than what the dark totalitarianism needs... How else do you explain that this work has enjoyed lasting popularity for more than half a century? (2004.02.16)

The first half is dominated throughout by Werich's bravura portrayal of the decadent, spoiled, and childish emperor, through which, incidentally, he brilliantly revives archaic vocabulary ("there will be no hackles"). The second half, crammed with the constructivist cackling of a street-wise baker, gets on the nerves a bit in places. Not perhaps because of what he’s preaching about (the times demanded that we just try it), but how he does it in a self-aware and transparent way. One can get past this, however, by purely objectifying scenes like "the protagonist gets confused by the color red and a plum, so he starts singing, without anyone asking, in honor of the utopian beauties of socialism." Hand on heart, who among you has never had that happen? (2020.12.27)

“This one can do this, that one can do that and all together they are doing much.” – The Czech Christmas classic. (2016.12.27)