Filled with quotable scenes and biting vulgarities, The Inheritance is not just a comedy; it is above all a visionary morality tale of how money changes people and society. The best work of Věra Chytilová’s post-1989 career was remarkably ahead of its time: this tale of lowly, nouveau riche Bohuš (Boleslav Polívka) predicted much of the parasitic behaviour that cropped up after the fall of communism.
“A new era! The guest throws the waiter out!” roars the angry server at an unruly patron, who, it has just been revealed, is the restaurant’s new owner: an essentially kind-hearted fellow named Bohuš (Boleslav Polívka) who has been corrupted by sudden wealth. It was indeed a new era, one in which society, blinded by its newly acquired freedom, overlooked the rampant arrogance of the powerful, the haughtiness of the rich, the worship of luxury, and xenophobia. Chytilová’s comedy is filled with quotable scenes, but it functions primarily as a visionary morality tale on the power of money to change people and society. Time has shown us that the stylized, vulgarity-laden script, which Polívka and Chytilová wrote specifically for the actor, was a prophecy that was remarkably prescient.
Martin Horyna
118 min / Color, DCP
Director Věra Chytilová
/ Screenplay Boleslav Polívka, Věra Chytilová
/ Dir. of Photography Ervín Sanders
/ Music Jiří Bulis
/ Editor Jan Mattlach
/ Art Director Zbyněk Hloch
/ Producer Jiří Ježek
/ Production Space films, Polytechna
/ Cast Boleslav Polívka, Miroslav Donutil, Anna Pantůčková, Jozef Kroner, Dagmar Havlová
/ Sales Space Films
Věra Chytilová (1929, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia – 2014, Prague). Selected filmography: Something Different (1963), Pearls of the Deep (1965), Daisies (1966), Fruit of Paradise (1969), The Apple Game (1976), Prefab Story (1979), Calamity (1980), Faun’s Very Late Afternoon (1983), Snowball Reaction (1988), The Inheritance (1992)
Space Films
Lodecká 4, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 257 535 107
Fax: +420 257 535 108
E-mail: [email protected]
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