Clockmaker’s Honeymoon in the Coral Sea

For his full-length debut in 1979, director Tomáš Svoboda (1935–1981) made the then unique attempt to create an apolitical comedy of the absurd. Before his untimely death he also collaborated with Karel Steigerwald and David Jan Novotný in creating this light-hearted musical film’s script. The protagonists of the intentionally chaotic narrative are two stage actors who devise a work of their own about a mismatched couple, the vivacious butcher Šárka (played by Laďka Kozderková) and shy watchmaker Ctirad (Luděk Sobota). Their story, full of wanton twists and parodies, involves numerous sub-plots centred on the parents of the betrothed couple, a stolen harmonium and Ctirad’s professed vegetarianism. The film also features some bizarre cameo roles assigned to contemporary actors, singers and other famous faces (including police major Leoš Jirsák from the period’s Czech equivalent of Crimestoppers).