Summary
A variety of genres were visited in the early days of Jiří Svoboda’s directing career. Alongside psychological dramas such as Zrcadlo pro Kristýnu (The Mirror for Christine, 1975) and Oddechový čas (Time for a Breather, 1977) and the historical drama Dům na Poříčí (The House in Na Poříčí Street, 1978) he also made Modrá planeta (The Blue Planet, 1979) about a young engineer named Pavlík who dreams of becoming a cosmonaut. However, rather than our fictitious hero, it is the actual Vladimír Remek – in real life, Czechoslovakia’s first cosmonaut – who heads for the stars at the end of the movie… This naively conceived film – Barrandov film studios' contribution to the celebrations of Czechoslovak cooperation in the Soviet space programme – stands out mainly for its cast which included Radoslav Brzobohatý, Jiří Kodet and Evelyna Steimarová. The leading role was played by Jiří Menzel, who in his capacity as a film director was then preparing to adapt a number of works by Bohumil Hrabal including Postřižiny (Cutting It Short, 1980), Krasosmutnění (Beautiful Sadness, 1982, TV film) and Slavnosti sněženek (A Feast of Snowdrops, 1983).
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