HAPPY END

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Miloš Macourek, Oldřich Lipský. Fotografia / Photography: Vladimír Novotný. Montaggio / Editing: Miroslav Hájek. Musica / Music: Vlastimil Hála. Suono / Sound: Vlastimil Hála. Scenografia / Art Director: Karel Škvor, Karel Lukáš. Costumi / Costume Designer: František Zapletal, Eva Lackingerová. Interpreti / Cast: Vladimír Menšík, Jaroslava Obermaierová, Josef Abrhám, Bohuš Záhorský, Stella Zázvorková, Jiří Steimar. Produzione / Produced by: Filmové studio Barrandov.

The first collaboration between Oldřich Lipský and the screenwriter Miloš Macourek became a comedy experimenting with narrative chronology. The story goes backwards so that the protagonist – the butcher Bedřich Frydrych – comes to life after he has been condemned and executed for the murder of his unfaithful wife…What remains remarkable about Happy End, however, is the basic idea of working backwards so that the audience comes away with something that is the exact opposite of the original meaning: a dismembered wife is “assembled,” death appears as a birth…First and foremost, however, the tragic – and banal – story of a cuckolded husband-murderer changes into an extraordinary comedy with a happy ending. The internal order of the narrative is maintained by Bedřich’s naïve commentary, which confirms the naturalness and correctness of events on the screen. Part of the elaborate visual qualities of Happy End owe a lot to the important works of the legendary cameraman and special effects expert Vladimír Novotný.

Oldřich Lipský
Popular director and screenwriter, brother of actor Lubomír Lipský, Oldřich Lipský was born in 1924 in Pelhřimov, Czechoslovakia. After studying philosophy in Prague, he worked as an actor and director in the theatre, then switched to the film industry in the 1950s. He worked with Barrandov Studios, the largest in the Czech Republic and among the most important in Europe. He died in Prague in 1986.

filmografia scelta / selected filmography
1950 Slepice a kostelník (The Hen and the Sexton) (diretto con / directed with: Jan Strejček) 1955 Vzorný kinematograf Haška Jaroslava (Jaroslav Hašek’s Exemplary Cinematograph) 1962 Muž z prvního století 1964 Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera (Lemonade Joe); Premi / Awards: San Sebastian FF – Conchiglia d’argento / Silver Seashell 1967 Happy End 1970 Zabil jsem Einsteina, panové 1976 Cirkus v cirkuse (Avventura al circo di Mosca) 1978 Adéla jeste nevečeřela