Summary
Vladimír Páral’s 1980 novel inspired Vladimír Drha’s movie The Torment of Imagery that premièred after the November 1989 Velvet Revolution. The film tells the story of freshly graduated chemistry engineer Marek Paar. His ideas clash with hard reality when he takes his first job, at a textile factory in Liberec. Marek discovers he doesn’t know how to do anything and he doesn’t even need to. A parallel with the ambitious Julian Sorel from Stendhal’s historical psychological novel The Red and The Black, means our protagonist must converge with his boss Zina, who represents his Mrs de Rênal, and the naive Janička, who is his Mathilde de la Mole (the marquis’s bored daughter in the novel). Drha entrusted the main role to Jiří Pomeje. The part of Zita was taken by Dáša Bláhová, who, after returning from her emigration to Australia, agreed to film some daring, erotic scenes. A peculiar comment on Drha’s somewhat high-handed flick is Tomáš Vorel’s musical comedy Kouř (Smoke, 1991).
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