Angel Devil

The director Václav Matějka also complied with contemporary notions of genre entertainment intended for the broadest possible audience in the 1980s. In 1983, he made Anděl s ďáblem v těle (Angel Devil), an erotic comedy set in a brothel in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Because this impressive film was a hit with the public, he shot a sequel entitled Anděl svádí ďábla (Angel Seduces Devil) five years later. The film, whose screenplay was co-written by Drahoslav Makovička, evokes the atmosphere of an upscale bordello with a clientele from the highest social circles. Renáta, whose angelic face hides a dark, greedily scheming soul, becomes the new girl at the Riviéra. In an environment that takes kindly to various machinations and swindles, thanks to her marriage to a naïve millionaire, she manages to take over the business, which had been run until then by an energetic and classy Madam. Audiences were drawn to the film, not just by the attractive milieu and titillating situations (which managed not to fall foul of the censors of that time). They also liked its “critical” vision of the First Republic, where politicians and industrialists decided on state affairs and on lucrative contracts in a brothel. In terms of audiences, the film’s nostalgic retro feel gained a new lease of life after 1989, when subjects such as abusing parliamentary immunity, corruption, party intrigues and skirmishes, and cronyism became topical subjects. More than just being a retroactively viewed political satire, however, Angel Devil also bears witness to the efforts of cinema during the “normalisation” era of Soviet entrenchment after the Warsaw Pact invasion to entertain viewers with well-crafted genre spectacles, using not only elegant costumes and décor, period details, and musical numbers, but also making use of an attractive cast. The standout performances come from the Slovak actress Zdena Studénková in the role of the beautiful and cunning Renáta, as well as from her compatriot Božidara Turzonovová as the Madam.