Honour and Glory
This excellent movie by director Hynek Bočan has sadly fallen into oblivion. Iva Janžurová excelled in the character of a battered servant and at the same time a lover of her master. You will immediately notice her barking voice when she comments on her duties. One of her gestures and glances are enough to make us understand consequences of the harshness of war times.
Bočan was inspired by Karel Michal’s novel in which the writer describes the process of losing hope and illusions, and people’s reaction when persuaded to anti-regime behaviour. The characters are engaged in long conversations about freedom of thought and religion. The somewhat hesitant, sceptical and egoistic knight Rynda (played by Rudolf Hrušínský) lives in a fortress that looks more like a muddy farm yard. It was too late before he decided to take any action – in the meantime, the war was over, the Peace of Westphalia was signed and the Emperor’s gains acknowledged.
The movie comments on Czech nature and the nation’s fate. If you have been bowing and scraping to somebody for a long time, it is difficult to mend it just by one Don Quixote like determination which, on top of that, comes at a moment when everything is lost. All that remains is hope. Omnipresent doom, both material and moral, haunts every scene. Honour and Glory ranks among Czech historical movies that sought parallels and contain parables. The movie had its premiere in 1969, and the commercials contained the advertising slogan “Honour and glory to the movie Honour and Glory”.
Royal Mistake
This movie was directed by Oldřich Daněk. It is based on his own novel Král utíká z boje (King Runs from Fight) that describes a real historical event. Highest Royal Chamberlain Jindřich of Lipá (played by Miroslav Macháček) is accused of treason and imprisoned. The accusation proved to be unjust but King John the Blind (played by Vlastimil Harapes) can’t be mistaken, even though he is only nineteen. Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia (played by Jana Hlaváčová) offers Jindřich mercy if he confesses to what he hasn’t done. I am lying on the straw in pitiful state, deprive of my rights. One right they can’t take away from me though – the right to say NO,
says Jindřich of Lipá in the movie. On the order of the King, Burgrave Hýta (a fictional character played Martin Růžek) was the one to become Jindřich’s jailer.
Oldřich Daněk plays out a clever enactment of the inner motivations of both jailer and prisoner, and shows their relationship to the royal court. He also points to the conditional nature of real power. He created a historical parable that was ahead of its times, if only by several weeks. At the time of the premiere, the audience perceived the topic as too abstract and not relevant to the current situation.
PS: Surely it is not just a coincidence that between 1967 and 1969, apart form the above mentioned titles, the movies Markéta Lazarová, Údolí včel (Valley of the Bees), Kladivo na čarodějnice (Witches’ Hammer) were made. They have lots in common and could only have been created thanks to the freedom of the time.
