Singing Film

Vladimír Sís is among the filmmakers who in the 1960s incorporated the montage phenomenon into Czech cinematography. While the features Král komiků (King of Comedians, 1963) and Sólo pro Jaroslava Marvana (Solo for Jaroslav Marvan, 1971) inclined towards the documentary genre, Hudba kolonád (Music in Colonnades, 1975) and Blues for EFB (Blues for EFB, 1980) combined the classical genre with a heavy staged framework. In Zpívající film (1972), for example, the singer Waldemar Matuška tries to find the lost song of an unhappy singer (Helena Vondráčková) and thus ventures into the world of Czech musicals… In this montage feature, Sís uses film clips from 1931 (On a jeho sestra – Him and His Sister) up to 1970 (Ďábelské líbánky – Devilish Honeymoon). In the feature, built also on the popularity of the Matuška–Vondráčková duo, the quality of the older Czech productions stands out due to the expert craftsmanship of their creators and actors, and the singing of those in the leading roles.