Iva Janzurová Movies
- 2008
This madcap, offbeat comedy - a satirical stab at the advertising industry - stars Vaclav Vydra as Ivan Mráz, proprietor of the Mráz Media Agency. In dire need of new employees, Ivan brings in some outsiders to staff the company. The problem is that they have absolutely no idea of how the advertising and marketing industries function - setting the stage for an outrageous fish-out-of-water scenario and a series of disasters once work begins. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Zadrazil, Vaclav Vydra, (more)
- 2003
A good-hearted prince from another kingdom wanders into a nearby realm that has been overtaken by dark forces in Czech director Roman Vavra's 2003 family-oriented fairy tale Cert Vi Proc (The Devil Knows Why). The realm of King Dobromil has descended into evil after the formerly good king makes a pact with Satan, which essentially transfers power to one of the king's ministers, a particularly diabolical man who proceeds to milk the kingdom's worth for his own personal gain. As the kingdom's populace begins to despair, hope returns to the countryside upon the arrival of a wandering knight named Philip. Actually a prince in disguise, Philip fulfills a somewhat distrusted prophecy and takes it upon himself to rescue King Dobromil and his kingdom from the Devil, while earning the respect and admiration of the king's daughter in the process. The fourth film from Vavra, The Devil Knows Why was selected as a participant in the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tatiana Pauhofova, Iva Janzurová, (more)
- 2002
Alice Nellis' Výlet (Some Secrets) is about a family on a mission to scatter ashes. Iva Janzurová plays a widow with a pair of unhappy daughters. Zuzana (Theodora Remundová) is cheating on her husband, Pavel (Igor Bares), and Ilona (Sabina Remundova) is also in an unfulfilling marriage, but is saddled with son Leon (Jakub Chrbolka) and a new baby on the way. They all live with the dead man's mother (Nada Kotrsová) who convinces everybody to scatter her son's ashes in Slovakia. While on the road, the group confronts their various issues with each other, and an interesting new romance begins. Some Secrets was an award winner at the San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iva Janzurová, Theodora Remundová, (more)
- 2000
It's election day in a small town in rural Czechoslovakia, and Helena (Theodora Remundova) is excited to be part of democracy in action. Unfortunately, she seems to be the only one who feels that way. Helena is helping to man the local polling station with her daughter Jana (Iva Janzurova), who is just home from college -- but Jana is a lot more concerned with her failing romance with one of her instructors than the outcome of the election. Meanwhile, Jenda (Leos Sucharipa), Helena's husband, is recovering from a stroke and wishes Helena could stay with him at home. As the few locals who can be bothered to vote stroll through, a bottle of booze materializes, and soon Helena and the rest of the staff are sharing their feelings on the onset of democracy in their nation. Enebene was the first dramatic feature for director Alice Nellis, who previously distinguished herself in documentaries. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iva Janzurová, Leos Sucharipa, (more)
- 1999
- NR
In this three-part comedy-drama from the Czech Republic, a field of rye is witness to transitional moments in the lives of several people. In the first segment, two students spent the night in the field, hoping to spot UFOs as common objects (insects, beer bottles, rye stalks) take on an unexpected significance. In the second episode, four schoolboys find their hiding spot in the rye field is unexpectedly occupied by a girl who has been the subject of their youthful infatuations. The final story concerns an elderly couple who have just gotten married and are having a bit of trouble with their wedding night. Co Chytnes V Zite (aka In the Rye) was the debut feature from director and co-screenwriter Roman Vavra; the first part of the film was originally produced as his graduation project in film school. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrea Eisnerova, Ladislav Frej, (more)
- 1995
This Czech-French drama examines the exquisitely tormented psyche of a young Czech in love. It is set in 1984 and 1994 respectively. Andrej is only twenty one and is in love with two women. He has been cruel to Eva, the first. The second is an achingly beautiful redhead, Krystina. Because he is also faced with a mandatory stint in the Czech military, Andrej begins drinking heavily. While he is in the army, Krystina pressures him to escape to save her from her beastly penthouse lover. The military life is terrible. That compounded with Krystina's insistance causes the indecisive Andrej to break down. In turmoil, the young man scales a dark smokestack uncaring of the winter cold around him. For hours he clings to a ladder paralyzed by vertigo, but unable to decide. Around him the snow continues to fall, and the wind to blow. The story then jumps forward to 1994. Andrej has just left the asylum and now lives in a quiet rural home. All is well, but is it really? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
This Czech romantic comedy was withheld from release for almost ten years, perhaps because it paints the life of working people in an unflattering light, or perhaps because it accurately shows the public buildings and apartments in working-class sections of town in their genuine, ramshackle condition. In the story, Vinco (Milan Jelic) and Pista (Roman Klosowski) are longtime friends and drinking buddies. Both of them are likeable but very flawed characters - hardly anyone's idea of romantic heros. One day the inveterate ladies man Vinco passes out after turning on the gas to make some coffee, and dies. It happens that one of his girlfriends was pregnant at the time he died, and Pista takes it into his head to sober up and look after the woman and child in his friend's memory. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roman Klosowski, Iva Janzurová, (more)
- 1972
In turn-of-the-century Czechoslovakia, two sisters are rivals for an inheritance. One is oblivious to the contest, the other is quite mad but very determined. When the insane one tries to test the poison she means to kill her sister with, she accidentally kills Morgiana, her pet cat. This motivates her to fake a suicide so that she can be put away in a madhouse. However, accidents conspire to make her faked suicide a real one. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This dark Czech comedy/fantasy (originally titled Pane vy Jste Vdova) stars Iva Janzurova in three roles, playing an actress, a murderer and a middle-aged lady. The actress and murderer, together with a European king, are on the waiting list for artificial limbs. The doctors in charge fix them up with portions of the anatomies of living human beings--well, they were living, until the doctors carved them up. The middle-aged lady, in fact, is comprised completely of spare body parts. For reasons best known to the screenwriter, this grisly farce ends with a fireworks display. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This Czechoslovak film re-creates the latter days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Set in a small Czech town in the 1890s, in telling detail, the film shows us the deteriorating community and private life of Stepa (Iva Janzurova). Stepa has syphilis, an incurable, terminal disease. The penultimate indignity the disease heaps upon him is madness. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
This futuristic science fiction comedy features an atomic bomb blast that causes women to grow beards and lose the ability to have children. A summit meeting is held at the United Nations, with the proposed solution of building a time machine. The decision is made to travel back in time and murder Einstein, with the hopeful result being that without the noted mathematician's research there will be no atomic bombs. A team of scientists travel back to the early part of the 20th century. They are able to find Einstein, but a female scientist falls in love with him. One scientists ceases to exist because his father is killed due to the invasion of the futuristic survivalists. A second journey back through time converts Einstein into a violinist. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jiri Sovak, Jana Brejchova, (more)
- 1969
A medieval nobleman stays away from the fighting that has plagued his country for 30 years. Content to stay with his servant in his crumbling castle, he offers protection for the peasants outside the castle walls. A fellow nobleman comes to visit and talks his friend into taking up his sword for the cause. After he trains his men, the war finally comes to an end. The restless knight still takes off to fight for the mythical concepts of honor and glory. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolf Hrusínsky, Blanka Bohdanova, (more)
- 1968
The Castle (Das Schloss) is as good an adaptation of the inscrutable Franz Kafka as any. Maximillian Schell plays Kafka's ubiquitous protagonist "K", a surveyor who is hired by the residents of a remote castle. Once he arrives within the domain of the castle's owners, K finds there is no work for him. His efforts to contact those inside the castle are thwarted by the mysteriously obstructive villagers. In keeping with the fact that the novel was unfinished, the film has been released with two different endings: non-adherents of Kafka might argue that it could use two different beginnings and middles as well. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maximilian Schell, Cordula Trantow, (more)
- 1966
A woman seeks revenge when her husband is shot by Nazis for stealing a bag of cement in this grim war drama. Two German soldiers confiscate her horse and cart, and the woman goes along for the ride and tells the duo she will kill them. The older soldier is dying from war wounds while the second is a young Austrian who only wants to go home. She furtively drops a compass, weapons, and other items from the wagon until she is caught and kicked off the cart, but stubbornly, she follows the wagon trail and finds the wounded soldier dead and the young recruit asleep. She stops before killing the young man when he shows her pictures of his family back home. When the two embrace, they are distracted long enough for partisans to rape the woman and kill the soldier. Two versions exist, one 75 minutes, the other 115 minutes long. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iva Janzurová, Jaromir Hanzlik, (more)
- 1965
Olda Zdenek Lsiburek is a young Moravian boy subjected to beatings at home from his heartless father and taunts from other children because of his short stature. The boy's mother is his only protector while the father is more concerned with having his horse confiscated by the army. Olda is ordered by his father to take the horse into the woods to hide it from the troops, but the Nazis capture the animal. Olda risks his life by sneaking into a Russian Army camp to steal a horse rather than face the punishment from his father. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gustav Valach, Iva Janzurová, (more)
When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, the first thing to happen was the disaffection of all the Jews in professional positions. No longer able to practice medicine, a Jewish physician begins working in a warehouse, biding his time until the war is over. A fellow tenant appeals to the physician to help a political fugitive who has been shot. Forced into a moral conflict, the physician takes the unselfish road and treats the injured man. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates the sacrifice he has made and the movie depicts the Catch-22 of doing what you have to do and still suffering for it. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miroslav Machacek, Jiri Adamira, (more)
