"Loners" team back with new film comedy "One Hand Can't Clap"
Released three years ago, "Loners" ("Samotari") was a huge hit in the Czech Republic, particularly with the country's youth, who also bought the film's soundtrack in large numbers. The charismatic natural comic Jiri Machacek became a cult star for his portrayal of "Loners'" perpetually stoned Jakub. I asked him if the fame he experienced in the wake of the film's success had had a major impact on his life.
How do you feel, for example, when you go to the supermarket to buy toilet paper and people are looking at you?
"Nowadays I am used to it (laughs)."
Jiri Machacek used the popularity the film "Loners" brought him as a springboard for his rock group Mig 21, and they soon became a headlining band in the Czech Republic. However, acting still comes first for Machacek, who is a member of the renowned Sklep theatre. Isn't it a problem for the rest of the band when he tells them he'll be busy for the next six months making a film?
"I don't think so. I think that mostly in the band there are guys who are working on other projects; one is a film editor, one is a businessman, one is a composer. They are working on a lot of things, so they have to let me."
But getting back to acting, Jiri Machacek is back with a new film called "Jedna ruka netleska", or to give it its English title, "One Hand Can't Clap". He plays a loser called Standa who is released from prison only to hook up with Ondrej, who has even worse luck than Standa himself. Together the hapless duo are doomed to fail, and fail comically. As with "Loners", "One Hand Can't Clap" is directed by David Ondricek, whose cinematographer father Miroslav Ondricek has worked on Milos Forman's best loved films. Prior to the release of the new movie, there were stories in some Czech papers calling it "Loners II". I asked David Ondricek if such headlines were accurate.
"I don't think so; I think that this is an absolutely different movie. But maybe with a little bit similar style, and maybe film language, but with a different focus and different problems. I hope that it maybe could be a little bit the same in humour."
"It was definitely fifty-fifty. What was interesting was that I wrote the character of Standa, who is finally played in the film by Jiri. I think he is a very good comic who can make a lot of funny things and he can write a lot of funny things. And I think definitely in the future he has to write his own screenplay, something like an absolutely crazy comedy."
Jiri Machacek: "I don't think that I am able to see how much is my work in the script and how much is the work of the others. Because in the first phases we were working on the script together, somebody came with an idea for a scene, somebody came with a point of it and nobody knows whose the work is (laughs)."
Jiri Machacek isn't the only well known Czech actor in "One Hand Can't Clap". Ivan Trojan, who played the hapless Ondrej in "Loners", puts in an impressive comic turn in the new film, but the biggest name has to be Czech acting legend Jan Triska, who lived in the United States for many years and is an old friend of the former president, Vaclav Havel. Given Triska's high standing in the Czech film and theatre worlds, I was curious if director David Ondricek found it difficult to persuade him to appear in "One Hand Can't Clap".
"No, it was a piece of cake. I called him and I gave him the screenplay at 10 pm in a restaurant in Prague and he called me very early in the morning, about five o'clock because he goes jogging every day, and he said absolutely great, I'll take it."
Jan Triska plays the character Standa's father in the film and Jiri Machacek says he found working with an actor of Triska's stature a real honour.
"Jan Triska was always my model, together with Mr Pucholt and Mr Abraham, for example. These three actors are my models, so choosing Mr Triska to be my father in the film was very happy, and I think that it was my idea (laughs)."
"I think music is half of all the success of every movie. And I believe in Jan Muchow's music and I think it's very important."
Film-making is always referred to as a collaborative process, and I was curious at what point Jan Muchow, who leads the respected Czech band Ecstasy of St Theresa, had become involved in the making of "One Hand Can't Clap".
"With David it's like that he starts to send me all the written stuff he has, so basically from the start of the film I'm involved."
For some years now we have been hearing how the pop-song driven soundtrack made popular by the likes of "Pulp Fiction" has signalled the death of film scores. Jan Muchow says, however, that both can work side by side, and that the film itself can determine whether songs or score dominate.
"When we started to work on the film we thought it would be more of a score thing. But it's a comedy in the end so the instrumental score sounded too heavy for it, so more than half is songs and less than half is score."
Of course many listeners will be wondering when they will get a chance to see "One Hand Can't Clap". I asked the director what were his plans to show the film outside the Czech Republic.
"We had very big success in Poland and I hope that some Polish distributor will contact me and I we will have a premiere in Poland next year, and definitely we will have a premiere in the Slovak Republic. We are preparing for the Berlin film festival and I hope that we will find a distributor in Germany."
And David Ondricek told me it's only a question of time before the film reaches the English speaking world. In the meantime, you can check out the film's official website at www.jednarukanetleska.cz
