Thirty Maidens and Pythagoras

Pavel Hobl, whose films include Máte doma lva? (Do You Keep a Lion at Home?, 1963) and Ztracená tvář (The Lost Face, 1965) concluded his directorial career with this musical comedy. It tells the story of how to present the magical world of mathematics to pupils. Thirty female students in a second-year grammar school are resisting the efforts of old professor Macháček to teach them Pythagoras’ theorem. But then, via a collective classroom vision, the young, good-looking teacher Ludolf appears and decides to put the complicated maths equation to music. Thanks to Ludolf, for the students a hitherto dull class transforms into an hour full of music and song. This 1973 film sees Jiří Menzel starring as the imaginary teacher (his song performances are over-dubbed by Achilles Michailidis). Many charming young actresses appear in the roles of the female students, including Jaroslava Schallerová, Lenka Filipová, and Dagmar Patrasová. Screenwriter Zdeněk Svěrák has a cameo in the film as a teacher seen in the staffroom.