Joseph Kilian

Pavel Juráček, Jan Schmidt, 1963

We are screening in Ponrepo

Wednesday 21. 5. 2025 20:30 DCP More about projection Koupit lístek
Subtitles English
English Friendly Yes!

The film, which, despite its medium-length, has been one of those Czech films that have had and have an excellent reputation at various foreign screenings and retrospectives for forty years, is “a Kafkaesque depiction of absurd situations related to the cult period, the absurdity of which we were not even aware of”. To explain the title: the figure to support is a stone being on whose shoulders rests a great weight. Here, specifically, the weight of fate, not allowing Mr K. to return in all fairness the borrowed house cat. The historical period in question has long since ended, but the search continues to this day.


+ short film
Takovéhle jaro snad ještě nebylo / This Kind of Spring Has Never Been Yet
directed by Tereza Kozáková / Czech Republic 2019 / 21 min. / DCP

Pavel Juráček is best known as a screenwriter and director. However, his own diaries have also been a fundamental part of his work, offering a detailed insight into his complicated personality and the times that surrounded and shaped him.

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Film at Filmový přehled

Summary

“In one word, describe the difference between man and animal.” “Reason?” “No! Discipline!” The allegorical motion picture, Joseph Kilian, rousingly exposes how human obsession with order leaves him sour and dull. The central character, a man who, having leased a feline companion for a single day, laboriously tries to return him the next to avoid a fine and in the process, experiences endless drama. The rental shop is nowhere to be found so the man, with the cat in his briefcase, treads through a labyrinth of hallways, waiting rooms and offices, finally growing accustomed to his burden. Joseph Kilian is a middle length film shot by the creators in perfect Kafkaesque style. Kafka has been back in fashion for some time in Czechoslovakia; it is of great significance that he has been reevaluated in his homeland […] Everything is narrated in an entertaining manner with humor that penetrates through the images. Postava k podpírání is one of the most successful films we have seen in some time. [“Křik”, “O něčem jiném”, “Postava k podpírání” in the Italian Press. Czechoslovakian Cinematographey in the Light of the Foreign Press.1964, no. 9, pg. 21.]
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Film data

About a film

Production year 1963
Countries Czechoslovakia
Categories film
Genres absurd, allegory
Form feature
Duration 38 min
Director Pavel Juráček, Jan Schmidt
Cast Karel Vašíček, Consuela Morávková, Ivan Růžička, Pavel Bártl, Jiří Stivín
Director of photography Jan Čuřík
Screenplay Pavel Juráček, Jan Schmidt
Editor Zdeněk Stehlík
Production designer Oldřich Bosák
Music Wiliam Bukový
Sound designer Adolf Nacházel, Bohumír Brunclík