CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech film director Jiri Menzel adapts the Bohumil Hrabal novel "How I served the English King".

Record ID: 776390

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech film director Jiri Menzel adapts the Bohumil Hrabal novel "How I served the English King".
  • Date: 14th June 2006
  • Summary: CAMERA; VARIOUS OF PREPARATION OF SET; SCREEN, PULL OUT TO ASSISTANTS PREPARING THE SET; ACTOR HAVING HIS HAIR DONE; JIRI MENZEL SPEAKING WITH CREW; ACTRESS HAVING MAKE-UP DONE; CREW WITH CAMERA; VARIOUS OF ACTRESS GETTING ONTO TABLE AND TAP DANCING; MENZEL ON SET (12 SHOTS) WIDE SHOT SLAPY CASTLE
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Reuters ID: LVA60SJS6YZZ6ZNOGRRUTS6ESO1J
  • Story Text: Shooting is underway on Czech film director Jiri Menzel's latest project - "I served the King of England". It is his first feature film after a break of 14 years.
    The film is based on a novel of Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. It is a romantic and bitter story of a poor boy Jan Dite (Dee-tie), starting his career during the so called "first republic" era (1918-1939) as a sausage seller. The 'American dream' was still possible at that time: Dite becomes a waiter and serves to statesmen and celebrities - and also to the king of England.
    Later all his dreams come true. He makes money, builds up a big international hotel and becomes a top hotel owner. In the occupation of Czechoslovakia during WW2 he plays host to top Germans. When communists come into power, Jan Dite's hotel is communised and he is jailed.
    The novel was prohibited during the communist era and was published only abroad and in 'samizdat' (illegal printing) copies in communist Czechoslovakia. It is filmed now, after the death of its writer Bohumil Hrabal in 1997, after many rights discrepancies and search for the right director.
    Film director Jiri Menzel has made several of Hrabal's novels into films. He started his career with "Closely watched trains" in 1966 which became an Academy Award winner for the best non-English speaking film. Another film adapted from a Hrabal novel was "Larks on a String", made Menzel in 1969. It was about 're-education' of intelligence in communism. This film was banned, and then re-released just after the fall of communism in 1990.
    Jiri Menzel remembers the cooperation with Bohumil Hrabal very well, saying they discussed a lot, and he was a man without vanity, who didn't stand on any single word.
    "I did pondered over the screenplay for more than one year and I always 'consulted' with him, I tried to understand, what he would do, when he would be a filmmaker and not a writer. How he would think," Menzel said.
    Menzil is using mainly Czech and Slovak actors. Young Jan Dite is played by Ivan Barnev from Bulgaria. German actress Julia Jentsch plays his partner Liza.
    Ivan Barnev appreciates the cooperation on the film with Jiri Menzel.
    "I wanted to do that, [for] a long time ago [sic], play a movie like this, directed by Jiri Menzel because we did it before, but in theatre, we worked together," he said.
    Popular Czech actor Petr Ctvrtnicek had to change his image a little bit.
    "I put on eight kilogrammes in weight. Dustin Hofmann would do it the same way. I was preparing for this character very nicely and consistently. Now I have 80 kilogrammes and will hold it for all the filming days. And then I will lose it slowly," he said.
    Jiri Menzel gives most of the credit to the actors: "I think we got the right actors. They are responsible of the quality in the film, and I don't want to take it away from them," he said.
    For several days the romantic castle of Slapy was used as the set, for several scenes at Hotel Tichota, where Dite used to serve as a waiter.
    "I served the King of England" is now being filmed in different places in the Czech Republic. With the budget of 85 million crowns (about 3 million Euros) it will become the most expensive Czech production.
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