A May Tale

Summary

Karel Anton's poetic silent film A May Tale is based on an impressionistic novel by Vilém Mrštík. The film, which loosely develops in ten parts the love stories of four sisters of an old forester, Helenka, Gusta, Albína and Anna, is one of the most important works of Czech silent cinema. Under the pseudonym Petr Dolan, Jiří Voskovec made his debut as Ríša and Jarmila Horáková, a twenty-two-year-old talented actress of the National Theatre in Prague, made her debut as Gusta. After the sudden death of Ferdinand Kaňkovský (playing the forester) in August 1926, his role was completed by Rudolf Žák, whom the director tried to hide as much as possible. The future famous illustrator of children's books Helena Zmatlíková also played a small child role. Jan Žák, a Czech American, planned to release the film in the USA under the title Four Sisters, but failed due to start of sound film. In 1960, Bohumil Veselý used the footage from the filming in the documentary How films were made in our country. In 1940 had this idea also director Otakar Vávra and made a new film, starring Nataša Gollová and Svatopluk Beneš. – In the 1950’s, the missing parts of two prints with German intertitles were added to the surviving incomplete negative. Bohumil Veselý added Czech intertitles to this copy in a modern language adaptation. In 2005, a new print was copied from the original materials at the Bonton Zlín studios, with corrected Czech intertitles inserted according to the original subtitle list from the censorship file. – The restored film was returned to Czech distribution by the National Film Archive in March 2016 after almost ninety years. This version was first screened on 6 July 2015 at the Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre as part of the 50th International Film Festival with a newly composed live musical score by the trio Neuvěřitelno. The film was later screened at the Bonn Silent Film Festival and on 26 August 2015 at the summer cinema at the Žižkov Freight Station. The film could also be screened with live accompaniment by the Neuvěřitelno trio.

Synopsis

Note

During the filming, Ferdinand Kaňkovský, actor playing the part of the forester, died suddenly in August 1926. Rudolf Žák completed a few scenes for him (the village ball). However, he was shot mainly with his back facing the camera. Working shots are included in the film How films were made in our country (put together by Bohumil Veselý, 1954).

In 2005 the film was reconstructed by National Film Archive Prague with Ateliéry Bonton Zlín.