Summary
In 1982 director Dušan Klein and screenwriter Ladislav Pecháček launched a highly successful comedy series based on the latter’s novel Amateurs. After the success of Jak svět přichází o básníky (How the World Loses Poets) (1982) they returned to their idealistic hero Štěpán two years later with Jak básníci přicházejí o iluze (How Poets Lose Their Illusions). After another follow-up in the form of Jak básníkům chutná život (How the Poets Enjoy Life) (1987) the series was interrupted by the emigration of lead actor Pavel Kříž. However, following a change of political system the creators added two more parts to the original trilogy – Konec básníků v Čechách (The End of Poets in Bohemia) (1993) and Jak básníci neztrácejí naději (Poets Never Lose Hope) (2004). Thus arose a unique series of movies following one fictitious character over more than 20 years against the backdrop of changing political reality. The “Poets pentalogy” is also a record of the acting, physical and human transformation of Kříž – originally an amateur theatre actor, his life was transformed by Klein’s offer of a part in the first Poets picture. While Kříž focused on his dreamt-of field – medicine – during his Canadian exile, his filmography features dozens of others films and series. The eternally wide-eyed Šimon Šafránek, who the first part captures graduating from secondary school and enrolling in medicine and the last depicts as a hospital director, is a kind of shadow figure in his own peripatetic life… As well as a “poetic dolt” Klein’s and Pecháček’s hero is characterised by his relationships with his worry-worn mother (Míla Myslíková), friend Kendy (David Matásek) and attractive girlfriends, whose number grows with every film. Šimon’s efforts to win over the alluring Borůvka (Miroslava Šafránková) devolve in part from an experimental, amateur production of Tyl’s Wood Nymph, which the hero and Kendy are working on. The TV even displays interest in the production. However, Štěpán is more interested in losing his virginity than in media fame.
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