AUTUMN SPRING
(Babí Léto)
with
Vlastimil Brodsky
directed by
Vladimír Michálek
SALES AND PRESS CONTACT:
NEIL FRIEDMAN
MENEMSHA FILMS
213 Rose Avenue, SECOND FLOOR
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90066, USA
TEL: (310) 452-1775
E-MAIL: neilf@menemshafilms.com
AWARDS
Winner of 4 2001 Czech Lion Awards:
Vlastimil Brodsky – Best Lead Actor
Stella Zázvorková – Best Lead Actress
Stanislav Zindulka – Best Supporting Actor
Jirí Hubac – Best Screenplay
Grand Prize Audience Award at the 2002 Cleveland International Film Festival
Variety Choice Award at the 2002 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Lifetime Achievement Award and Tribute to Vlastimil Brodsky at the
2002Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Nominated for European Film Award for 2002 Best European Film
Audience Choice Award at the 2002 St. Louis International Film Festival
Best Foreign Language Film at the 2003 USA Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen
Best of Fest (Audience Award for Best Film) at the 2003 Sedona Film Festival
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CAST
Frantisek “Fanda” Hána
Emílie Hánová
Eda
Jára, the son
Erna
Dr. Rysavy
Maruska Grulichová
Vondrácek
Estate agent
Judge
VLASTIMIL BRODSKY
STELLA ZÁZVORKOVÁ
STANISLAV ZINDULKA
ONDREJ VETCHY
ZUZANA FIALOVÁ
JURAI JOHANIDES
ZITA KABÁTOVÁ
LUBOMÍR KOSTELKA
JIRI LÁBUS
KATERINA PINDEJOVÁ
CREW
Director
Writer
Producers
Director of Photography
Art Designer
Editor
Sound
Music
VLADIMÍR MICHÁLEK
JIRÍ HUBAC
JAROSLAV KUCERA
JIRÍ BARTOSKA
JAROSLAV BOUCEK
MARTIN STRBA
JIRI STERNWALD
JIRÍ BROZEK
RADIM HALDÍK JR.
MICHAL LORENC
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SYNOPSIS
A wry, bittersweet comedy in the classic Czech tradition, Vladimir Michalek’s
AUTUMN SPRING stars the great Vlastimil Brodsky (CLOSELY WATCHED
TRAINS, JACOB THE LIAR) as Fanda, an old man who refuses to grow up. Despite
pleas from his exasperated wife Emilie (Stella Zazvorkova) and son Jara (Ondrej
Vetchy), who want him to make some serious decisions about the future, Fanda ignores
their nagging and spends his days seeking amusement and adventure. Aided and abetted
by his longtime pal and former theatre colleague Eda (Stanislav Zindulka), Fanda keeps
his acting skills sharpened by pretending to be a host of fascinating characters. One day
he is a retired opera star in the market for an opulent country estate, next a ticket
inspector on the Prague subway. Although Fanda bickers constantly with his wife, their
bond is palpable – even if life with Fanda is frustrating, deep down Emilie also knows
that at least it is never boring. But when Fanda fakes his own death, terrifying his family,
Emilie decides she’s had enough and files for divorce. The couple soon realizes,
however, that maybe Fanda is right – instead of old age being a time to take on worries,
perhaps it is the time to shed them and live each day to the fullest.
With AUTUMN SPRING, Vladimir Michalek has created a delightfully subtle, moving
comedy about age, marriage, friendship and the art of living. And with some 125 years
of screen experience between them, Vlastimil Brodsky, Stella Zazvorkova and Stanlislav
Zindulka give the performances of their lifetimes – filled to the brim with sly humor and
grace.
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
If Vlastimil Brodsky seems so utterly perfect in the role of Fanda, it is because the role
was written expressly for him by screenwriter Jiri Hubac, Brodsky’s long-time friend.
Together with director Vladimir Michalek, the three men went through Brodsky’s life to
create the rich character of Fanda, and his story. Says Michalek, “We were very careful
about sentimentalizing the story, that was forbidden. Brodsky lived in the same
neighborhood as I do and before production we spent six splendid months together,
talking and reviewing his life. He was full of energy and wonderful and I realized what a
really noble man he was.”
Brodsky had suffered a small stroke eight months before production began but was in
good health during the making of the film. He was thrilled to be working with his great
friend Stella Zazvorkova. As Michalek says, “Stella is one of the leading theatrical
actresses here. An interesting story -- she and Brodsky met one day in 1936, on the
bridge crossing the Prague River Vltara. They were both very young and didn’t know
each other but each remembered it as a sort of ‘love at first sight.’ It was the beginning
of a 55-year long friendship. They were never lovers but they loved each other a lot and
you can see it so clearly in the film.”
Sadly, Brodsky’s health deteriorated after the film was completed. But the success of the
film brightened his final days. As Michalek recalled, “After the film opened here it was
very well received and we won several awards and Brodsky called often and you could
see his smile through the phone. He asked about going to America. The last time I spoke
to him was two days before his suicide and I could sense something was happening.
After he died, a lot of people were mourning but not I because I knew what a noble man
he was and that he didn’t want to wind up like Eda in AUTUMN SPRING.”
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Although it proved to be Brodsky’s final film, AUTUMN SPRING remains uplifting,
full of life and mischief and humor. As Michalek says, “It’s very simple film – it’s about
love and friendship at all ages. People forget to enjoy the tiny simple joys of everyday
life – the film reminds us to seize the day.”
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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Vladimír Michálek (Director)
Vladimir Michalek was born in 1956 in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic. After
graduating from FAMU (the Czech Film and TV Academy), Michalek worked as an
assistant director to many foreign directors including Margarethe von Trotta (ROSA
LUXEMBOURG), Bernhard Wicky (THE SPIDER’S WEB I and II), Reinhard Hauff
(THE BLUE EYE), Andrew Birkin (THE BURNING SECRET) and Ted Kotcheff (THE
SHOOTER). His feature films as a director include ANGEL EXIT (2000), which earned
two Czech Lion Awards; PRAGUE STORIES (1999); SEKAL HAS TO DIE (1997), the
1997 Czech nominee for the Academy Award, winner of the Critics’ Choice Award at the
1998 Los Angeles International Film Festival and the winner of ten Czech Lion awards;
FORGOTTEN LIGHT (1996); and AMERIKA (1994), based on Franz Kafka´s story.
Michalek’s documentary films include IN THE TEMPLE OF NATURE, THE PAINFUL
SILENCE, BARRANDOV, THE JUNKIES, OH MR. ANDERSON, and BLACK
ANGELS (a music video for the rock group LUCIE). His screenwriting credits include
the screenplays for ANGEL EXIT and AMERICA. Michalek’s most recent film was
TMA (2002), starring Adrian Dunbar and Amanda Plummer.
Jirí Hubac (Screenwriter)
Jiri Hubac was born in the Czech Republic in 1929. One of the most significant
contemporary Czech dramatists and screenwriters, Hubac worked as head script editor
for drama broadcasts on Czechoslovak television. After the Russian invasion of the
Czech Republic in 1968, Hubac was forced to leave television and has since worked
exclusively as a screenwriter for film and as a dramatist. He wrote the screenplays for
Martin Minac’s ALL MY LOVED ONES, Jaromil Jire’s DANCE TEACHER (1995),
and Karel Kachya’s FANY (1995), each of which were nominated for a Czech Lion
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Screenplay Award from the Czech Film and Television Academy. He has also written
many plays for the
Vinohrady Theatre, the National Theatre and the Ta Fantastika Theatre.
Martin Strba (Director of Photography)
Martin Strba was born in 1961 in the Czech Republic. He is a graduate of the Secondary
School of the Applied Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia, and has a degree from the Film
Academy, FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic. The winner of many awards, Strba’s credits
include Vladimir Michalek’s ANGEL EXIT, PRAGUE STORIES and SEKAL HAS TO
DIE and Martin Yulik’s EVERYTHING I LIKE, ORBIS PICTUS and KRAJINKA.
Michal Lorenz (Music Composer)
Michal Lorenz is an award-winning composer who has scored dozens of European films
including several films by Filip Bajon (PENSION SONNENCHINE, SAUNA, IT IS
BETTER TO BE BEAUTIFUL AND RICH. PRZEDWIOSNIE), Barbara Sass (AN
IMMORTAL STORY, TEMPTATION) as well as Vladimir Michalek’s SEKAL HAS
TO DIE and Bob Rafelson’s BLOOD AND WINE.
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ABOUT THE CAST
Vlastimil Brodsky (Fanda)
The late Vlastimil Brodsky was widely hailed as one of the greatest and most beloved
Czech actors of his time. Born in Hrusovany, Czechoslovakia, in 1920, Brodsky was
schooled in the art of acting by the influential Czech stage thespian E.F. Burian before
joining the Vinohrady Theater in 1948. Though he had been appearing in films for over a
decade, Brodsky's big break came with his role in the 1956 film HOTEL POKROK.
From the mid-1960s until the Soviet invasion of August 1968, Czech New Wave films
dominated the international festival circuit and among the actors most often seen in these
films was Vlastimil Brodsky, With his career quickly gaining momentum, the dedicated
actor forged close working relationships with the greatest directors of the celebrated
Czech New Wave including Jiri Menzel (CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, 1966;
CAPRICIOUS SUMMER, 1968) and Vojtech Jasny (CASSANDRA THE CAT, 1963.)
He also starred in Jasny's 1968 film ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN. A critique of
Stalinist abuses, it was banned soon after winning the director's prize at Cannes.
Brodsky, by then in his mid-40s, was already a well-known stage actor. After 1968, with
Jasny in exile and Menzel silenced, Brodsky worked in television and on stage, returning
to win the Best Actor Award at Berlin in 1975 for his performance in the title role of
JACOB THE LIAR, an East German film directed by Frank Beyer. Set in a Jewish
ghetto in Poland in 1943, it told of how meek Jacob gains a false reputation as a hero of
the underground, trapped in a cumulative series of lies. During his last years, Brodsky
worked a great deal in television, with occasional appearances in films. The subject of a
1990’s documentary, Brodsky’s final role in AUTUMN SPRING (2002) found the actor
the recipient of the Czech Lion for Best Actor. Though he was scheduled to receive a
lifetime achievement award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2002, the tragic suicide
of the actor in May 2002 would find this award handed out posthumously. Having
suffered a debilitating stroke the previous year, the actor took his own life. He was 81
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Stella Zazvorkova (Fanda’s wife, Emilie)
Stella Zazvorkova has been acting in Czech films and television shows for over forty
years. She won her first Czech Lion Award in 2002 as Best Actress for AUTUMN
SPRING. Her many films include the 1996 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign
Language film, KOLYA, for which she was nominated for a Czech Lion for Best
Supporting Actress; and Jiri Menzel’s LARKS ON A STRING and THE END OF OLD
TIMES.
Stanislav Zindulka (Fanda’s friend, Eda)
A veteran of dozens of Czech films and television series, Stanislav Zindulka won the
2002 Czech Lion Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Eda, Fanda’s
best friend, in AUTUMN SPRING. His many other films include HANELE, PASAZ,
BOOMERANG and many others.
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