Faithless Games

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2003, 93 min
Section: Czech Films

Synopsis

The theme of stagnant, interpersonal, and above all amorous relationships characteristic of animated films by Michaela Pavlátová has also penetrated her feature film directing debut. Unlike the highly-awarded animated work, for which expressive drawing and grotesque abbreviation are characteristic, it is a gently humorous psychological story about the emotional searching of a young married couple. Slovak composer Peter and Czech pianist Eva live in a village on the Slovak-Hungarian frontier, but instead of a country idyll they are living through an emotional crisis. Whilst her husband realises himself in his own work, Eva feels abandoned and professionally unused. Nor does she find an outlet in flight into an amorous relationship with the worldly cellist Andrej. Peter understands that his wife is drawing apart from him, and tries to protect himself against a break-up. However, to put a marriage together again is work for two – and maybe even for their divorced neighbour Márie and her twelve-year-old daughter Janka, who by observing her surroundings acquires very special ideas about relationships between men and women.

About the director

Michaela Pavlátová (b. 1961, Prague) graduated from the Technical Secondary School of Art and worked in the studio Bratři v triku. After enrolling in the School of Applied Arts in Prague she became the creator of original short animated films which won a number of international awards. Her film Words, Words, Words (Řeči, řeči, řeči, 1991) was nominated for an Oscar and won awards at international film festivals in Leipzig, Valladolid and Montreal; Repete (1995) won the Golden Bear in its category at Berlin and awards at Annecy, Leipzig, Hiroshima, Rio de Janeiro and Stuttgart.  …For Ever and Ever (…až na věky) gained awards at festivals in Tampere and Viareggio. In the mid-1990s she began to work with the documentary maker Pavel Koutecký. She is the creator of a number of advertisements, spends time in free printmaking and illustrations, and teaches. From 1999-2000 she worked for the animation studio Wild Bran in San Francisco. On occasion she is an actress (the story Colours in the film The Prague Five(Pražská pětka, 1988), Buttoners (Knoflíkáři, 1997), Seducer (Musím tě svést, 2002). She participated in the feature film Prague Stories (Praha očima…, 1999) with the segment Absolute Love (Absolutní láska).