This is the only film about the unfortunately somewhat unrecognized universal genius Jára Cimrman, the greatest Czech meme invented by the famous Smoljak/Svěrák duo from the time before memes became popular on the Internet. Jára Cimrman is an unrecognized genius whose achievements are unknown today, but he is also a Czech national hero who could have changed the history of Austria-Hungary. He was skilled in all the arts, but either the authorities hindered him or the public spurned his work. He made numerous inventions without ever receiving a patent for them. There are countless anecdotes about him, he left his mark all over the Czech Republic and he is probably one of the country's best-known personalities.

The film consists of several "reconstructed" episodes from his life, which are set in the context of a trip to his small room in the village of Liptákov. The individual chapters usually open up a completely new perspective on previously unknown "aspects" of the master's life and work. We experience him as a teenager (sic!), as an inspirer of great contemporaries, as an inventor, painter and playwright and as an anti-monarchical tutor to the children of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

If you really want to understand the Czech Republic, you can't get past Jára Cimrman. But beware: if you take the first step into the Jára Cimrman cosmos here, you may never find your way out again. Addictive potential!

This great film also stars some of Czechoslovakia's most popular actors and actresses, including Zdeněk Svěrák, Libuše Šafránková and Josef Abrhám.

 

This film will be shown as part of the "Czech Film Wednesday" series, as always in the original version with German subtitles.

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Demand is already very high several weeks in advance.That is why we are showing the film twice, but not at the same time, but one after the other at 6pm and 8pm.

Tickets for 6 pm

There are also a few tickets left for 8 pm in the front row.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Jára Cimrman is a universal genius invented by Zdeněk Svěrák in 1966 as part of a radio program. Svěrák later ran the Jára Cimrman Theater (which still exists) together with Ladislav Smoljak, where they performed new plays about this hero. Jára Cimrman traveled widely (which is why there are many places in the Czech Republic where his presence is immortalized with plaques) and made more or less absurd discoveries all over the world, none of which have received the recognition they deserve. Under socialism, he was a way of making fun of social conditions in a subtle way, perhaps making them more bearable. The character is probably the most famous "man" in the Czech Republic (or second only to Karel Gott), and in a poll of the most important Czechs of all time, he even threatened to win. So you could say that Jára Cimrman is something absolutely typically Czech and unique in the world (at least as far as we know).

There are three films from the Jára Cimrman universe, but only in this one does he appear as the character himself, played of course by Zdeněk Svěrák. You shouldn't expect to understand Jára Cimrman or the "Czech soul" after watching this movie, but it does help a little. It will probably take a long time to understand the phenomenon, as it has become very widespread. Many Czechs are creating their own examples of Cimrman's work, e.g. in our region the second lowest Jára Cimrman lookout tower near Úštěk.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)

Czechoslovakia, 1983, 81 min, OmU

Director: Ladislav Smoljak
Screenplay: Ladislav Smoljak, Zdeněk Svěrák

The actors play: Zdeněk Svěrák, Valerie Kaplanová, Josef Abrhám, Libuše Šafránková, Marie Drahokoupilová, Vladimír Svitáček, Jaroslav Vozáb, Petr Kostka, Míla Myslíková

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)