13. komnata

It’s not a successful episode, but rather a retrospective look into the now-defunct Luděk Sobota's Ridiculous theater and the events that followed. (2021.12.04)

Why am I rerunning this crap? No and no again. Marie Formáčková and her great questions...just, no. I can at best tolerate Ondřej Suchý's argument that contextualizes the story of Nataša Gollová at Prag-Film, who survived the post-1945 purges. However, even that defense ends up with Suchý talking about films, but Nataša had only one Prag-Film (and Zita had two). Zita didn't live to be a hundred and her esprit left at least at age ninety-eight, but the media kept the false illusion going. And you enjoyed it. It’s too bad the real actress disappeared during the embalming process. (2013.05.04)

Who is Pavla Břínková? For the uninitiated, perhaps at least a double Thalia winner in operetta/musical. Her personal story is something incredibly powerful, and the authentic confession of course makes it much more plastic than the narrative of her 1990s book "Taková jsem já". Břínková is a great performer who is maturing with her repertoire. In her youth she used to be Helena Zaremba, today she sings Jadwiga. And as such, it is worthy of the widest attention. (2020.06.02)

The story of Hana Talpová's life is very typical of Czech history. As an actress, I find her very likable even in things that would otherwise be completely unwatchable for me and I enjoy her flirtatious delivery. In recent years, her voice has been some of the best in Czech dubbing. This documentary is not as sterile as it might seem and is in fact one of the better ones in the cycle. Mrs. Hana is not pushed into any role and the creators do not push themselves beyond their competence. (2010.04.15)

Even Slovakia has its own fairy tale about an actor with an international career in the 1960s who was denied everything during normalization. I don't want to diminish the qualities of Ivan Palúch, but if he is, according to a film historian, the most brilliant of all, it is a somewhat shaky balance. Should a few successful acting moments represent the best Slovakia has given to world cinema? Come on. The 13th Chamber is a powerful human story. Unfortunately, Palúch’s professional career only falls into the popular "could have been wonderful if" category, and there have been many of those. Alas. (2017.07.24)

Personally, I think The 13th Chamber came too soon for the director in this case. The personal theme was, of course, already dramatic enough, but Radim Špaček as a filmmaker was only at the beginning. (2020.06.10)

This is utter futility. It's as if the team forgot that it's in a short format and the whole thing ends mid-sentence. Just for the record, it is good to notice various details - it is always pointed out that Andrea Sedláčková gained weight in exile and that such matters are dealt with through various experts. However, it's also not entirely clear that she really had a chance to pick up where she left off in her studies. After all, after half a year out of school, pretending that nothing has happened and offering to enroll in the next semester as if by magic does not give the university a good name. (2020.05.02)

If these shows are structured in such a way that they just illustrate the commentary that a person prepares about himself, then that's fine. Who better to talk about the childhood, private life, and marriage of this or that actor than he himself? I'm glad Studenková got this opportunity. Her work is very eloquent and her guest appearances in Prague studios have always lit up films. Today, I am retrospectively filling in her Slovak roles and I am satisfied. Studenková is an ideal representative of the generation when Czech-Slovak music made sense. Today, surprisingly, this appears as something new, but it is not. (2017.02.26)

A deeply human story. It is the story of the transition from Petr to Lucie Brychtová. It was quite interesting to watch the wave of interest that her appearance on the Jan Kraus show and the subsequent debate at the Na Prádle theater generated. However, it should be noted that as compelling and full of emotion as Lucie's story is, it is only one of many, and the details vary for other trans people. Let us therefore not lump them together, but let us wish them joy in life and the opportunity to work in the fields they were engaged in before their transformations. Because why would someone like Lucie act as a guide? Does that make sense to you? (2017.05.23)

Ondřej Suchý’s personality is presented in this mini shot in a somewhat random way. He moved with Nostalgic Mouse to Šemanovice, because he is too similar to his brother. Even though he wrote a book he was not accepted to university. And to make matters worse, his son turned to drugs. Obviously, no dramaturgist worked on this show. (2020.06.18)