For his full-length debut in 1979, director Tomáš Svoboda (1935–1981) made the then unique attempt to create an apolitical comedy of the absurd. Before his untimely death he also collaborated with Karel Steigerwald and David Jan Novotný in creating this light-hearted musical film’s script. The protagonists of the intentionally chaotic narrative are two stage actors who devise a work of their own about a mismatched couple, the vivacious butcher Šárka (played by Laďka Kozderková) and shy watchmaker Ctirad (Luděk Sobota). Their story, full of wanton twists and parodies, involves numerous sub-plots centred on the parents of the betrothed couple, a stolen harmonium and Ctirad’s professed vegetarianism. The film also features some bizarre cameo roles assigned to contemporary actors, singers and other famous faces (including police major Leoš Jirsák from the period’s Czech equivalent of Crimestoppers).
The actors in theatre don't like much the top scene in Othello. They decide together with the prompter to make their own work. The plot of the drama should start joyfully - with a wedding. So the actors start to look for a bride and a groom. They choose the butcher Šárka who loves music and the shy clockmaker Ctirad. They fall in love with each other at first sight and they write home about their planned wedding. Šárka sends her message in the rum bottle down the river and Ctirad via pigeon. The wedding is not an easy matter, the lovers do not have money. Šárka built a yacht for her dowry and Ctirad invested all his money in a clock collection. When Šárka's father Fišárek receives the letter, he sets out to Prague angrily and in a tiny pub he meets by accident Ctirad's mother. Ctirad wants to borrow money for the wedding from his mother, but in the end his mother borrows money from him for dinner. Šárka decides to sell the yacht, but the buyer is not interested anymore when he finds out the yacht is standing in the yard. The actors who intervene in the plot, steel a harmonium and foist it to Ctirad. He sells it to a fellow singer, who does not mind that the instrument is out of order. Ctirad helps people to carry away old junks on his push-cart. People pay him by vegetables and compotes. The butcher Šárka assumes that Ctirad is a vegetarian and she leaves him. The actors have to quickly intervene again. They prepare a situation according to a legend and Ctirad brings a porker to the tied up Šárka. The lovers fly in a balloon and fail to come on time to the town hall for their wedding. When the officer calls them, Ctirad's mother draws the widower Fišárek to the ceremony and so she gets married in stead of his daughter. The intent is completed although in quite a different way then the intention. The actors replace the coral sea in the theatre by colourful coral beads so that the viewers don't feel cheated.
řeznice Šárka Fišárková
hodinář Ctirad Blažek
herec
herec
herec
dramaturg v nápovědní budce
nápověda
vdovec Josef Fišárek, Šárčin otec
prodavačka Blažková, Ctiradova matka
babička Fišárková
učnice v řeznictví
muž s harmoniem
muž s harmoniem
zpěvačka
zahradník
úřednice na radnici
Havránek, Fišárkův kamarád
televizní režisér
oddávající úředník
učedník v hodinářství
průvodce cizinců
prodavač hudebních nástrojů
uhlíř
dopravní policista
babička-nevěsta
dědeček-ženich
on sám, major Leoš Jirsák z Federální kriminální ústředny
děda s trubkou
hráč na harmonium
babka citující Boženu Němcovou
dívka klepající na budku
klarinetista
Voice by Stanislav Fišer
dirigent
rázná žena
žokej
zájemkyně o káru
myslivec
myslivec
myslivec
myslivec
myslivec
myslivec
svatebčanka
svatebčanka
svatebčan
svatebčan
svatebčan
svatebčanka
svatebčanka
svatebčanka
svatebčan
svatebčan
svatebčanka
svatebčanka
svatebčan
svatebčanka
svatebčan
žena u káry
muž u káry
škrcená blondýna
bojovná žena
fotograf
fotograf
houslista v hokejové bráně
hostinský
host v hospodě
host v hospodě
host v hospodě
muzikant
muzikant
muzikant
muzikant
muzikant
muzikant
muzikant
žena ve frontě
žena ve frontě
starší pán
servírka
Barunka
zákazník
zákaznice
zákazník
zpěvák
zpěvačka
zákazník
zpěvačka
zpěvák
zpěvák
zpěvačka
zpěvák
žena ve frontě
muž ve frontě
hudební skupina
zpěvačka
zpěvačka
zpěvačka
žena s prádlem
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečník
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečník
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečník
tanečník
tanečník
tanečnice
startér závodu
člen skupiny Plavci
člen skupiny Plavci
člen skupiny Plavci
člen skupiny Plavci
člen skupiny Plavci
hlas myslivce
hlas prodavače balónků
Jiří Býček, Jaroslav Toms
Vladimír Kalina, Tomáš Svoboda, David Jan Novotný, Karel Steigerwald
Rudolf Beneš, Josef Calta
Daniela Dalecká, Karel Engel, Iva Fousková, Světlana Hovorková, Miroslav Jíra, Lubuše Kosová, Ivana Krausová, Ladislav Lahoda, Renáta Motlová, Jindřich Sejk, Jaroslav Tomsa, Blanka Vykydalová
Lev Veltrubský, Jarmila Hanykýřová
Alice Kracíková (klapka), Miloslav Mirvald (fotograf)
Gioacchino Rossini (Vilém Tell /předehra/), Bedřich Smetana (Má vlast /Vltava/), Bedřich Smetana (Prodaná nevěsta /předehra/)
FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček), Orchestr Václava Hybše
Song Composer tradicionál
Song Composer František Kmoch
Writer of Lyrics František Kmoch
Singer Naďa Urbánková
Song Composer Julius Kalaš
Writer of Lyrics Josef NeubergFrantišek Vlček
Singer Bohuslav Kupšovský
Song Composer Václav Hybš
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk Borovec
Singer Laďka Kozderková
Song Composer Václav Hybš
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk Borovec
Singer skupina Plavci
Song Composer Václav Hybš
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk Borovec
Singer Naďa Urbánková
Song Composer Václav Hybš
Writer of Lyrics Zdeněk Borovec
Singer Laďka Kozderková
Hodinářova svatební cesta korálovým mořem
Hodinářova svatební cesta korálovým mořem
The Clockmaker’s Honeymoon in the Coral Sea
Romance za milion
film
featuretheatrical distribution
slapstick
Czechoslovakia
1979
1979
literary Screenplay approved 26 March 1979
start of filming 4 May 1979
technical Screenplay approved 5 June 1979
end of filming 21 December 1979
projection approval 22 December 1979
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1986
premiere 15 August 1980 /suitable for youths/
Dramaturgická skupina Vladimíra Kaliny, Vladimír Kalina (vedoucí dramaturgické skupiny)
feature film
78 min
2 244 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech, Slovak
without subtitles
Czech