Screenplay:
Jan NovákCinematography:
Adam NovákComposer:
Jiří StivínCast:
Václav Havel, Jiřina Bohdalová, Pavel Landovský, Vladimír Merta, Jan Hartl, John Bok, Stanislav Milota, Ivan Martin JirousPlots(1)
In their documentary Citizen Havel Is Rolling Barrels, the filmmakers Jan Novak and Adam Novak go back into the past in order to render the genesis of Vaclav Havel’s famous one-act play Audience. At the same time, they introduce the viewer to the paradoxes of the odd world of the Czechoslovak “normalization” period. In 1974, Václav Havel was a playwright in danger of being declared a “social parasite” by the neo- Stalinist regime of Gustav Husák. His plays had been banned and, in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic of that time, you could go to prison if your Citizen Identification passport lacked a stamp in the employment box. Havel solved the problem by finding a job as a brewery hand. For nearly a year, he rolled barrels in the basement of a regional brewery in Trutnov, and the experience profoundly changed his writing. The documentary shows the world of the brewery as well as Havel’s former coworkers who had inspired Audience. It also maps out the circumstances of a clandestine recording of the play, featuring Havel and Pavel Landovsky, which quickly resonated through all of society and bore strange fruit – for example, the biggest Czech film star in those days, Jirina Bohdalova, had a doctor friend of hers cut her lip so that she would not have to denounce Havel on television... The film also presents an abridged version of the play itself in the form of a collage woven from archival strands, the famous audio rendering of the piece by Havel and Landovsky, photographs and various performances of the Audience from around the world. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Václav Havel
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Nineties (2022) (series) - a.f.
Marta Kubišová 1990 (1990) (concert)
Largo desolato (1991) (theatrical recording) - narrator
Jiřina Bohdalová
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Dům na nebesích (1984) (theatrical recording)
Těžká Barbora (1960) (theatrical recording)
Pohádky pod sněhem (1985)
Pavel Landovský
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Revizor (1971) (theatrical recording)
The Valley of the Bees (1967)
Adelheid (1969)
Vladimír Merta
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Yes, My Dear Friends! (1989)
Marta Kubišová 1990 (1990) (concert)
Pražákům, těm je hej (1990)
Jan Hartl
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
My Sweet Little Village (1985)
Joachim, Put It in the Machine (1974)
Muž v pozadí (1995) (series)
John Bok
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Vétéran (2020) (TV movie)
Rapid Eye Movement (1998)
Stanislav Milota
Czechoslovakia
Best movies:
Leaving (2011)
Ivan Martin Jirous
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia