Jan Konstantin Meritorious Artist
Category
filmGenre
biographyTypology
documentarynon-theatrical distributionstudent filmshortOriginal title
Jan Konstantin zasloužilý umělecCzech title
Jan Konstantin zasloužilý umělecEnglish title
Jan Konstantin Meritorious ArtistSummary
The portrait of the National Theatre opera singer Jan Konstantin Meritorious Artist by Evald Schorm has two parts. The first part shows a footage of his singing activities at the National Theatre and during a trip to Moscow. In the second part we can see images of his active recreation at his cottage in nature in Hojsova Stráž, carving wood and doing similar activities. In this setting and in Konstantin's statements, Schorm attempts to show the interconnectedness and equivalence of manual labour and artistic creation when they are done from the same personal passion for their meaning, in an honest and sincere way. The documentary is Schorm's first attempt as a filmmaker to come to terms with his subject matter through the expressive means of opera, theatre, and classical music, which would become very important in his later work. These topics together with the theme of manual and intellectual labour form a certain continuous line of his work.
Synopsis
The singer Jan Konstantin goes to the National Theatre to perform in the opera Her Stepdaughter. At the cottage, he carves figures out of wood and talks about the inspiration that manual work provides him for his theatrical roles. He takes stock of the varied number of roles he has embodied in forty-two years at the Prague National Theatre Opera. This is followed by an account of a trip to Moscow with the National Theatre's production of The Devil and Kate, which was a success there. In 1947 Konstantin bought a cottage in Hojsova Stráž, where he spends every summer theatre holiday. He fell in love with the local landscape, has a workshop there and creates and repairs everything himself. He considers staying here and hiding from the world to be the most beautiful moments ever. He feels like the aging gamekeeper in the forest in Janáček's The Fox and the Hound. We watch Konstantin's performance in Her Stepdaughter and glimpses backstage. Konstantin doesn't like thanking the audience, he doesn't understand the concept. Konstantin's walk through the countryside is accompanied by the aria of the aging gamekeeper from the forest from the opera The Cunning Little Vixen.
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Commentary
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Director
Screenstory
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Production info
Original Title
Jan Konstantin zasloužilý umělec
Czech Title
Jan Konstantin zasloužilý umělec
English Title
Jan Konstantin Meritorious Artist
Category
film
Typology
documentarynon-theatrical distributionstudent film
Genre
biography
Student film
Origin country
Czechoslovakia
Copyright
1964
Production Year
1964
Production
Copyright Holders
Technical info
Duration typology
short film
Duration in minutes
11 min
Original length in metres
305 meters
Distribution carrier
35mm
Aspect ratio
1:1,37
Colour
black & white
Sound
sound
Sound system/format
mono
Versions
Czech
Dialogue languages
Czech, commentary
Subtitles languages
without subtitles
Opening/End credits languages
Czech
