Amerikai levelek

There are as many films about Antonín Dvořák as there are saffron and I am glad for every new addition to that small family. So that would be the first plus for The American Letters. The others are the precise acting performances of Hynek Čermák (I liked the scene in which he feathers Josef Suk and then makes up with a cigar the most) and Petra Špalková, the set design, the pleasantly strange mood of the film and I think the portrayal of most of the characters is quite faithful. The big minus, however, is one really important historical error. The death of Dvořák's children is very vividly portrayed in the film, the script puts great emphasis on it and is impressive... But it is completely thrown off by the confused causes of the deaths of little Otík and Růženka. Otík died after drinking phosphorus solution for home-made matches, Rosie died of smallpox. Not the other way around, as the script claims. And that's just such a shame... And yet pointless... All the other shortcomings are trivial (that the quote about all symphonies for the invention of the locomotive was said by Dvořák at another time and to someone else, that the letter around which everything revolves did not really exist and I have no idea why Petr Zikmund made it up at all...) and I can overlook them. But not such a fundamental factual error. Alas. And so I'm still waiting for a great film about Dvořák. The closest to it is still Vláčil's Concert at the End of Summer. (2015.01.05)