Starting in 1957, screenwriter Jaroslav Dietl began to gain considerable experience in television – and this medium remained his chief domain. But Dietl’s ambitions to make a silver screen breakthrough surfaced in his collectivisation-themed drama Cesta hlubokým lesem (Passing Through a Thick Forest, 1963), followed one year later by Einstein kontra Babinský (Einstein contra Babinský), another Dietl opus ill-suited to a small screen adaptation. In this satirical comedy, director Zdeněk Podskalský accommodated Dietl’s emphatic wish to pursue a more experimental form of storytelling. A group of friends from varying backgrounds are joined together through common experiences; the film playfully combines elements of silent film slapstick, civilism, and a piece of political agitprop. Josef Bek and Lubomír Lipský – actors with highly contrasting backgrounds – star as an honest inventor and a cunning crook.
Josef Košťál tells his fellow prisoners about the events that led to his sentence. He has been a friend with František Koloušek since their early childhood. Despite growing up in identical circumstances, one is fated to become a talented inventor and other a villain. When they were young, they were punished many times for František's inventions, which they together were making "alive", was only considered as a wrongdoing. As young men, they found themselves positions at an office where they spent several idle years thanks to an invention able to imitate work. After they were exposed, František left to study and Josef became the head of a department and later on director of a small factory. Fifteen years later, they met again. František took up work in the development unit of Josef's factory. He immediately discovered that Josef and the entire factory management claimed to have developed an automatic machine for which they intended to take financial reward and honours. In reality, there were people hidden in the machine. He was shocked but nonetheless constructed a genuine, operational machine to help his friend. At the ceremonial launch, the machine, never tested, failed and began to burn. The management accused Koloušek, but Košťál also went to prison because of broken fire safety equipment. After they are released from prison, the two friends meet again and together head towards a new beginning in life.
vězeň Josef Košťál/Josefův otec
Ing. František Koloušek/Františkův otec
hlavní inženýr Sojka
ekonomický náměstek Hais
písařka Dáša, později Josefova žena
vězeň Cmíral
Voice by Vlastimil Brodský
vězeň Dáreček
Voice by Josef Hlinomaz
vězeň Karlík
vedoucí úřadu Eichler
náměstek z kraje
úředník z kraje
Josef Košťál jako dítě
František Koloušek jako dítě
sekretářka Zdenička
pan řídící
svačinářka
dívka u stroje
prokurátor
velitel věznice
reportér rozhlasu
mikrofonista
ředitel Vorlíček
mistr v továrně
starý dělník
Josefova matka
Františkova matka
Houšková, předsedkyně svazu žen
ministerská úřednice
ministerský úředník
ministerský úředník
ministerský úředník
ministerský úředník
předseda dílenského výboru
učitel
dědeček
babička s kozou
vrátný
dědeček v okně
uklízečka
panička, Josefova milenka
vedoucí oddělení
dozorce
dělník
úředník
úředník
úředník
úředník
tančící dívka
Petr Ruttner, Jindřich Mastik
Jiří Čermák, Bedřich Čermák, František Straka
František Černý, Bohumír Brunclík (zvukové efekty)
Jiří Zika, Jaromír Lukáš, Jan Šubrt
Ctibor Jeřábek
Emanuela Peterová (klapka), Karel Šebík (fotograf)
Orchestr Karla Vlacha (Music Conducted by Karel Vlach), FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček)
Song Composer lidová píseň
Writer of Lyrics lidová píseň
Singer Josef BekLubomír Lipský
Singer sbor
Song Composer Karel Hašler
Writer of Lyrics Karel Hašler
Singer mužský hlas
Song Composer Evžen Illín
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav DietlZdeněk Podskalský
Singer Josef BekLubomír Lipský
Song Composer Evžen Illín
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav DietlZdeněk Podskalský
Singer sbor
Song Composer Evžen Illín
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk PodskalskýJaroslav Dietl
Singer Jiřina JiráskováLubomír Lipský
Song Composer Evžen Illín
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav DietlZdeněk Podskalský
Singer Lubomír Lipský
Song Composer Evžen Illín
Writer of Lyrics Jaroslav DietlZdeněk Podskalský
Singer dětský sborJosef Bek
Einstein kontra Babinský
Einstein kontra Babinský
Einstein contra Babinský
film
featuretheatrical distribution
comedy, satire
Czechoslovakia
1963
1963
literary Screenplay approved 14 January 1963
technical Screenplay approved 12 April 1963
start of filming 9 July 1963
end of filming 11 November 1963
projection approval 12/1963
withdrawal from distribution 1 September 1974
preview 22 May 1964 (kino Sevastopol /½ týdne/, Praha)
premiere 25 May 1964 /unsuitable for youths/ (kina Lucerna /5½ týdne/, Mír /1 týden od 5. 6./, Flora /1 týden od 12. 6./, Oko /1 týden od 19. 6./ a Arbes /1 týden od 26. 6./, Praha)
premiere 5 June 1964 /unsuitable for youths/ (celostátní)
Tvůrčí skupina Švabík – Procházka, Jan Procházka (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny), Erich Švabík (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
85 min
2 434 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
black & white
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech