The Magic Cupboard

Country

Czechoslovakia, Italy

Copyright

1987

Production year

1987

Runtime

20 min

Category

film

Genre

étude

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent filmshort

Original title

Kouzelná skříň

Czech title

Kouzelná skříň

English title

The Magic Cupboard

Co-production title

Armádio magico

Synopsis

Karolina, a student at the FAMU film school, must soon deliver a script, but the fairhaired girl has no inspiration. She gets inspired by an old cabinet in the room and pictures from the last holiday, on which she was with her friend – the fashion photographer, Federik. The cabinet could be a magic box and it could bring one without visa or passport to anywhere. Federico would get into in Italy and, in a moment, he would leave the box in the garden of a house in Lesser Town in Prague. Then he would walk with Karolina through Prague. He would definitely see dancing girls there, where tourists are strolling. He is, as all Italians, a light-headed women-lover and artist. Karolina leaves for Carlsbad to the international student film festival called CILECT. Its eighth year is just running at the Thermal hotel. Federico finds her there again. In return, he invites Karolina to Italy. They enjoy walks in Venice and Rome. They also visit a film studio together, where they say hello to the famous actor, Alberto Sordi. Karolina hands over the first version of her script and her teacher warns her about the fast approaching "final" deadline. In Italy, Federico escapes from two men looking like mafia. Thanks to the spell, he transmits himself to the Prague outskirts. But the empty cabinet is destroyed by a bulldozer. Karolina invites him to the Strahov stadium, where Federico can admire thousands of beautiful women performing exercises at the national gymnastics festival Spartakiad.

Cast

Karolina Frýdecká

studentka FAMU Karolina

Renato Volterra

Roberto

Alberto Sordi

on sám, italský herec

Miloš Pokorný

on sám, profesor FAMU

Carlo Verdone

on sám, italský scenárista a režisér

Crew and creators

Director of Photography

Martin Kubala, Claudio Puliatti

Set Designer

Angela Anichini, Alena Nosková

Sound Designer

Josef Hubka

Production Manager

Martin Štěpánek, Jaki Rener

Unit Production Manager

Martin Zaradička

Cooperation

Francesca Aurigemma, Barbara Bellini, Luca Luttazzi, Jakub Mejdřický, obyvatelé Arce, Itálie, obyvatelé Fontana Liri, Itálie, Marina Proto, Vasil Stanko, Jindra Trepková, Carlo Ventura

Music

Music Composed by

Gianni Testa

Production info

Original Title

Kouzelná skříň

Czech Title

Kouzelná skříň

English Title

The Magic Cupboard

Co-production Title

Armádio magico

Category

film

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent film

Genre

étude

Student film

Origin country

Czechoslovakia, Italy

Copyright

1987

Production Year

1987

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

20 min

Original length in metres

220 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech, Italian

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech, Italian