Juice Novel

Džusový román (Juicy Novel, 1984) was the feature-film debut of 33-year-old director Fero Feničo. The film is among those that came into conflict with regime authorities. It tells the story of a young rubber factory worker; its raw, provocative truth-telling nature is reminiscent of the 1960s Czechoslovak New Wave. Though filmed in 1984, it only premiered four years later in 1988. And only a year after that was its director able to realise his second feature-film Zvláštní bytosti (Strange Beings, 1990) – a parable about the fall from grace of a communist functionary. Unlike that latter stylised film, which was the director’s final dramatic feature, Juicy Novel demonstrates the traits of its author’s documentary roots. The protagonist of this tale is country girl Alena Horáková, who, along with friend Jituš, begins working in a rubber factory. Like her more audacious friend, the shy and timid Alena views marriage as the only way to escape the oppressive grind of the worker stereotype. But an encounter with good-looking egotistical sportsman Franta only brings about an unwanted pregnancy. Franta is married and a father-to-be, and so Alena opts for an abortion. Juicy Novel is something of a distant cousin to Miloš Forman’s Lásky jedné plavovlásky (Loves of a Blonde, 1965). But this story of the random encounters of a naive young girl, her travels to the big city, and ultimate disillusionment, also carries the extra component of an abortion. The film benefits from the cinematography of Jaroslav Brabec, who in 1984 also shot a very different story – the Zdeňek Troška costume romance drama Poklad hraběte Chamaré (The Treasure of Count Chamaré, 1984). Nineteen-year-old Alena Mihulová excels in the role of Alena; a year earlier the actress debuted in the Karel Kachyňa tragi-comedy Sestřičky (The Nurses, 1983). Jituš is portrayed by non-professional actress Laura Kurovská, and overdubbed by Zuzana Bydžovská. The film’s authenticity also benefits from Fenič’s decision to cast several other gifted, but lesser-known, actors in various roles.