Jára Cimrman lezící, spící (1983)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Ladislav Smoljak

Writers:

Ladislav Smoljak (story) and
Zdenek Sverák (story) ...

Release Date:

27 September 1984 (Hungary)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy

Cast

Zdenek Sverák	...	Jára da Cimrman (as Zdenek Sverák and Collective)
Valérie Kaplanová	...	Museum janitor
Petr Cepek	...	Archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Este / Nývlt
Josef Abrhám	...	Theatrical researcher
Libuse Safránková	...	Alzbeta
Ladislav Frej	...	Marold, painter
Jirí Zahajský	...	Dr. Emil Holub, traveller
Marie Drahokoupilová	...	Courier of tour
Míla Myslíková	...	Headmistress
Jaroslav Vozáb	...	translator
Vladimír Svitácek	...	Professor Kingsley
Milena Dvorská	...	Duchess d'Este
Jirí Kostka	...	Emperor Franz Joseph I / Macháne
Petr Kostka	...	Mánes, painter
Pavel Vondruska	...	Johann Strauss

Also Known As:

Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping (International: English title)

Runtime:

Czech Republic:81 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Color:

Black and White | Color

Company:

Filmové Studio Barrandov

The biography of Jára da Cimrman, a fictive Czech genius

This movie is a result of a mystification, which has been lasting since 1967 and still is alive. It is almost impossible to explain to a foreigner, but I shall try. A group of artists invented the personality of Jára da Cimrman in the late 60ies. Cimrman is a fictive personality, a universal genius, who was active in all branches of science and art in the times before the First World War. Unfortunately, his attempts were not successful. There is a specialized theater developing this idea in quasi-scientific seminars and theatre plays. You may wonder, how such an idea can survive more than 30 years. So do I.

Zdenìk Svìrák and Ladislav Smojlak, the two directors and main actors behind Cimrman, have become very popular through the years. They both have other artistic projects outside the Cimrman theatre; Zdenìk Svìrák wrote the screen-play and starred in `Kolja', the Oscar (1997) movie directed by his son, Jan Svìrák. Although he always denies such ideas, Zdenìk Svìrák would is widely accepted as a candidate for the Czech president to follow Václav Havel.

`Cimrman lezící a spící (Cimrman laying and sleeping)' consists mainly from independent sketches, where Cimrman meets various personalities of his times and advises them: he tells A. P. Cechov to call his novel `Three sisters' instead of `Two sisters', he advises Gustav Eiffel in conceiving the Eiffel Tower etc. In this respect, `Forest Gump' was in the Czech Republic mentioned as the American form of Cimrman.