Good Light

In the 1980s, collaboration between the director Karel Kachyňa and the actor Karel Heřmánek produced two socially critical films: the psychological drama Dobré světlo (Good Light) and the tragicomedy Kam, pánové, kam jdete? (...And What Now, Gentlemen?, 1987). (Heřmánek, of course, also featured in the director’s adaptation of the Ota Pavel book Smrt krásných srnců [Forbidden Dreams, 1986].) In Good Light, Kachyňa once again teamed up with the scriptwriter Karel Čabrádek, with whom he first collaborated in the late 1970s on the poetic drama Čekání na déšť (Waiting for the Rain). In a number of common TV movies and feature films, the story of a photographer battling small-town limitations plays an important role: it combines a topical social theme with a favourite Kachyňa story of an individual seeking his own path in life. The protagonist Viktor Průcha leads the life of a successful man in his middle years. On his fortieth birthday, however, a midlife crisis sets in, which forces Viktor to put an end to the hypocrisy and compromises that pervade his work as a municipal architect and his conflict-ridden life with his wife Soňa. He wants to find a new life via his longstanding hobby – photography. With a young Roma girl, Aranka, the genre of the artistic nude re-enters Viktor’s life. The resulting exhibition, however, outrages the hero’s fellow small-town citizens to such an extent that they try to set the police on the freethinking artist… Besides the conventional dentist Soňa (Jana Šulcová) and the shy, sensuous Aranka (Anna Tomsová), there is another woman in the protagonist’s life – Majka, a woman around his own age who tries to change from being his long-term friend into an understanding lover. The three female characters thus embody the different paths in life that Viktor Průcha can choose. But, of course, the only right way is the one that the hero embarks on alone… In 1986, Good Light was an interesting addition to the rising wave of social criticism. The film also stands out for its time thanks to its daring nude scenes, which the censors back then tolerated because of the overall artistic style of the movie.