A Walk Worthwhile

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2009, 85 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Special Events

Synopsis

The famous stage production of A Walk Worthwhile by legendary writing duo Jiří Suchý & Jiří Šlitr was created for Semafor theatre in 1965. Several generations of audiences grew up on the original music of Jiří Šlitr, the poetic texts of Jiří Suchý and the entire Semafor ensemble. Miloš Forman and Ján Roháč shot A Walk Worthwhile in 1966 as a television film. The new premiere of the theatre production was held in Prague’s National Theatre in 2007, directed by Miloš Forman in association with his sons, director Petr Forman and stage designer Matěj Forman; and this also gave rise to a new film version of the exquisitely staged, comic jazz opera. Uli and Vanilka are getting a divorce. They are in the middle of sorting out snags in the divorce proceedings with the Advocate when the Postman brings two mysterious telegrams from Liverpool. Rich Auntie has decided to bequeath to Vanilka’s future child one million pounds. In the wake of this news, Vanilka, Uli, the Advocate, Auntie and the Postman engage in various wily amorous capers with the aim of securing this untold wealth for themselves. In the end, however, like Auntie and the kindly Postman, it all turns out to be just an illusion, a stage phantom.

About the director

Miloš Forman (1932, Čáslav, Czechoslovakia), graduated from Prague’s Film Academy in 1955, and he was at the forefront of the Czechoslovak New Wave. His films reveal a sense of ironic humour for the weaknesses and tribulations of ordinary people: Audition (1963), Black Peter (1963), Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Fireman’s Ball (1967). Since 1969 he has worked in the USA. There he has earned international acclaim for the films Taking Off (1971), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975, five Oscars), Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Amadeus (1984, eight Oscars), Valmont (1989), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996, Golden Bear at Berlin), Man on the Moon (1999), and Goya’s Ghosts (2006). He has received numerous honours, including the Czech State Medal of Merit, first grade (1995), a Czech Lion (1997), the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at Karlovy Vary (1997) and France’s Knight of the Legion of Honour (2004).