Summary
During the period of normalisation, Juraj Herz wanted to avoid making political films. Thus
he welcomed the offer he received in the late 1970s from Ota Hofman’s creative dramaturgy
group, which specialised in productions for children and young people. Originally, he was
only meant to film an adaptation of the classic fairytale, Beauty and the Beast for them.
However, the old castle’s sets for its film adaptation, renamed The Virgin and the Monster in
Czech, were so expensive that Herz, under pressure from Barrandov Studios, was required to make another film. This is how The Ninth Heart came into being. The protagonist in this
horror-laden story with captivating visuals is wandering student Martin. He decides to free
Princess Adriena, imprisoned by the sorceror Aldobrandini. But Martin’s true love is the
puppeteer Tonička, whom he meets amongst the travelling performers. Both fairytales were
created in parallel, and had more or less identical crews (cinematographer Jiří Macháně,
architect Vladimír Labský, costume designer Irena Greifová). The exception was the
production designers. While the painter Josef Vyleťal worked on Beauty and the Beast, The
Ninth Heart owes its original fairground stylisation to Eva and Jan Švankmajer. The two
films also had entirely different casts. Herz required a fresh young face for the male lead in
Ninth Heart, and this led to his discovery of Ondřej Pavelka. Similarly, the Slovak actress
who played Tonička, Anna Maľová, would also later become famous.
