Lady of the Lines

Director Ladislav Rychman is one of those Czech filmmakers who tried in the 1960s to create homemade variations of certain genres: besides detective stories (Zločin v dívčí škole [Crime at the Girls’ School, 1965], Šest černých dívek aneb Proč zmizel Zajíc? [Six Black-Haired Girls]), he also made musicals. In addition to the phenomenal Starci na chmelu (Hop-Pickers, 1964), with screenwriter Vratislav Blažek he also had a hand in making Dáma na kolejích (The Lady of the Lines, 1966), and later a hard-line-socialist-era version of Strakonický dudák (The Strakonice Bagpiper) called Hvězda padá vzhůru (A Star Is Falling Upwards, 1974). Like the story of high-school kids doing temporary holiday work gathering hops, Lady on the Tracks also features songs by Jiří Bažant, Vlastimil Hála, and Jiří Malásek. Two years after their generational story of youthful rebellion, the same authorial team told the story of the Prague tram driver, Marie Kučerová, who finds out her that husband has been unfaithful. Rather than being a musical, however, it is an intimate comedy of relationships interspersed with songs. But the audacious revenge unleashed against the unfaithful Václav eventually just turns out to be the dream of a helpless woman who has been cornered… The bitterly comic The Lady of the Lines is therefore intended for a different audience than Hop-Pickers whose age is closer to that of the authors. It uses a different kind of music and focuses primarily on the main heroine. Nonetheless, this film also tries to grasp hold of a topical subject using a specific genre. Marie’s desires to show her husband that she is equal to him and the fight she wages – albeit in a dream – uses the theme of feminism, which seemed very unusual in Czech films of that time. Vratislav Blažek’s lyrics have an ironic bent, which together with the idealised reality of Marie’s dream, represents a subtle contrast with the harsh facts of everyday life. The songs from The Lady of the Lines also did not become hits because the presence of Jiřina Bohdalová and Radoslav Brzobohatý in the lead roles meant that allowances had to be made for their limited singing ability. Nonetheless, the duo gave a brilliant account of themselves in terms of their acting. The two actors, who got married in 1970 (and who divorced 12 years later), also played together in other films, starting with Martin Frič’s drama Hvězda zvaná Pelyněk (The Star Called Wormwood, 1964) and ending with the tragicomedy Vrásky z lásky (Oldies But Goldies, 2012).