Whimsical Summer - Summer Cinema

Open-air cinema in Podzámčí.

July 24 - Capricious Summer "This kind of summer seems rather unfortunate to me..." In the somewhat dilapidated river spa on the banks of the Oršea River, three older gentlemen meet daily: the owner of the spa, Antonín Důra, the well-read abbé Roch, and retired Major Hugo. The weather is unstable, mostly drizzling, and Mr. Důra is struggling to attract customers. Therefore, he spends most of his time in conversations and petty quarrels with his friends. However, no argument is serious enough that it cannot be mended by a glass of wine and a few pickled sausages with onions. A wandering magician named Arnoštek, and especially his charming ward Anna, brings a stir to their lives. During her very first evening performance, she enchants each of the three eccentric philosophers. They each begin to vie for her attention in their own way... Vladislav Vančura considered this slender book of discussions among three friends, in which they ponder the meaning of existence, the beauty and fidelity of women, and the elusive whims of summer weather, to be his best work. However, the profound sentence from one of them, "This kind of summer..." became famous thanks to the film directed by Jiří Menzel in 1967. With absolute certainty and great artistic expertise, he tackled the problem of adapting Vančura's prose into the language of film images. He extracted images full of beauty, poetry, and life wisdom from it. And he knew exactly who would embody the characters speaking in a beautiful, yet still literary language - Rudolf Hrušínský, Vlastimil Brodský, and František Řehák. The charming Anna was portrayed by Jana Preissová, then still under her maiden name Drchalová.