Charlatan (film)

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Movie
German title Charlatan
Original title Charlatan, also Šarlatán
Country of production Czech Republic , Ireland , Slovakia , Poland
original language Czech
Publishing year 2020
length 118 minutes
Rod
Director Agnieszka Holland
script Marek Epstein
production Sarka Cimbalova ,
Kevan Van Thompson
music Antoni Łazarkiewicz
camera Martin Štrba
cut Pavel Hrdlička
occupation

Charlatan (also Šarlatán in Czech ) is a historical film drama by Agnieszka Holland , which premiered in February 2020 as part of the Berlin Film Festival . The biography tells of the Czech healer Jan Mikolášek , who is played by Ivan Trojan as an adult and his son Josef as the younger version.

action

The healer Jan Mikolášek lived in Czechoslovakia in the totalitarian 1950s . He is a man with extraordinary abilities, which is why long lines form every day from his house, a villa in Jenštejn . The people who want to be treated by him must bring a clear bottle with their urine. The healer examines this with the help of a lamp, dictates the diagnoses and a special treatment plan for each patient to his assistant František. But he can't help everyone. He sends people who have been diagnosed with cancer to see a specialist. Mikolášek has a certificate as an expert in medicinal plants, but he doesn't like being approached as a doctor. Without being able to pursue his calling to treat as many patients as possible every day, he quickly becomes irritated.

He treats wounds with chamomile poultices, and prescribes one of his four special herbal mixtures for his patients, sometimes a parsley brew or simply vitamins or sunlight. Every now and then he gives his patients money for a vacation by the sea or in the mountains. He is convinced that the belief that makes up half of the healing success. Mikolášek is very close to nature and also a believer. He had a cross erected in his garden, in front of which he prays every day, kneeling on pointed stones that he has placed there.

His employees ask him why he is not retiring now that a new political wind is blowing in the country, but he does not want to stop using his knowledge and his healing hands for the benefit of the patients. The city already has ideas about what could happen to the house. They would like to set up a kindergarten there. The newspapers write badly about him. They tell of a charlatan who got rich with his healing arts and would like to see him in prison.

One day he receives a visit from Mrazek, an employee of the ministry, who thanks him for saving his life once. He warns him that the State Security is investigating him, but Mikolášek trusts his good relationships to the top, because after all, President Antonín Zápotocký, who recently died, was one of his patients.

Mikolášek keeps telling his assistant about when he served as a soldier and tried to take his own life. After the war he had worked in his father's nursery again and, knowing herbalism as he was, he was able to save his sister Johanka from having a leg amputated. Ms. Muhlbacherová, a healer from his village, had taught him how to judge urine based on its coloration and cloudiness, the foreign bodies / particles in it and the sediment and what herbal treatments can be derived from it. Muhlbacherová had learned this from her husband. It was she who taught young Jan how to pray, and he was able to stay with her when he left his family to follow his calling. He stayed with her for a year and a half until her death.

One night when the State Security broke into his villa, Mikolášek and his assistant were arrested. He was treated extremely brutally and the documents were also confiscated. While in custody, Mikolášek was told that he had no rights and did not call his lawyer Finsch, whom he had known for many years, to see him, but instead put criminal defense lawyer Jan Zlatovanek at his side. He refuses until he tells him that the prosecutor is demanding the death penalty. He had poisoned Comrade Strohal, a long-serving member of the Communist Party who visited him as a patient, with his herbs. Strychnine was found in these, just like in his house. He is therefore to be charged with murder. It also examines Mikolášek's relationship with his previous patients, including Nazi greats like Bormann.

When his lawyer asked him about the rumors about his homosexuality and his relationship with František, he said no. František became Mikolášek's right-hand man after he was looking for an assistant who promised him his loyalty. From then on they also shared the bed. He also got to know his mother and wife. Mikolášek himself was also married to a woman, but the marriage was not a happy one. He paid František's driver's license and bought them a car so that they could also visit the patients at home. Together they not only survived the occupation of their country, but also the tribulation of the Gestapo. Once, Mikolášek had to prove his urine assessment skills in front of a Nazi committee, and he mastered this task with flying colors.

When Zlatovanek finds out that there was never a patient named Strohal whom Mikolášek could have treated or even poisoned, and informed him about it, his client draws hope. The lawyer has to disappoint him because he believes the verdict on her has already been passed. On the day of the trial, František wants to defend himself, but doesn't say a word at first. After the interviewed Mikolášek puts the blame on his assistant, who was responsible for the herbal mixes, he does not deny and confesses the act against better knowledge. When František's mother is completely upset in the courtroom, the hearing is interrupted.

Biographical

Ivan Trojan plays Jan Mikolášek in the film

The film tells about the Czech healer Jan Mikolášek , who is said to have helped thousands of people from all walks of life, including the most important figures in political and cultural life. Mikolášek came from a horticultural family. During a stay in Austria a gypsy had prophesied his suitability as a healer. Mikolášek saw his ability to heal as a “gift from God”. His motto in life was: “Nature can work miracles through medicinal herbs, but that is only half the cure. The other half is the belief in healing. ”Crowds waited patiently for an examination in front of his practice in Bědovice near Třebechovice pod Orebem , later in Hradečno near Kladno and his villa in Jenštejn , where a gilded statue of the healer Josefa Mühlbacherová greeted the newcomers. His patients included the Ringhoffer family of manufacturers , the painter Max Švabinský and the later President Antonín Zápotocký , who suffered from gangrene on his leg after his imprisonment in a concentration camp and whom he was able to save from an amputation. After the president's death there was a show trial of Mikolášek.

production

Charlatan is produced by Marlene Film Production. Directed by Agnieszka Holland , the script was written by Marek Epstein . The film tells a slightly fictionalized story of Mikolášek. That Mikolášek had a relationship with his assistant has remained a rumor to this day. In the autobiography that the healer published shortly before his death, he presented himself as a kind and generous contemporary in a rather one-dimensional manner. The scene in court in which he defends himself against accusations of poisoning patients was taken from his autobiography, according to Holland. When asked whether she thinks that a film that also addresses homosexuality would be accepted in her home country, Poland , the director said: “There are terrifying statements from some politicians and representatives of the Church, there are rural regions where the Discourse is turned back into a fanatical anti-LGBT stance. The ruling PiS party creates enemy images. I see parallels to Polish anti-Semitism before the Second World War. "

The shooting was in April 2019 in the former prison in Mladá Boleslav started

The role of Jan Mikolášek was cast with Ivan Trojan , while his son Josef plays this in his younger version. Joachim Paul Assböck plays the Gestapo man Fritz Kiesewetter, Jaroslava Pokorná took over the role of Ms. Muhlbacherová. Václav Kopta , Jan Budař , Jan Vlasák , Pavlína Štorková and Miroslav Hanuš can also be seen in other roles .

Filming began in early April 2019 in the former Mladá Boleslav prison in Central Bohemia, which is connected to the District Court building and ended after 36 days of shooting in early July 2019.

The first screening of the film took place on February 27, 2020 as part of the Berlin Film Festival in the Berlinale Special. It was also shown as part of the Teddy Awards , a separate competition. The film was due to be released in Czech cinemas by CinemArt on March 26, 2020, but the start was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and postponed to August 20, 2020. Charlatan was also in a selection of films to be shown at the Telluride Film Festival . Films Boutique is responsible for worldwide sales. The cinema release in Germany is planned for January 14, 2021.

reception

Reviews

Juraj Loj plays František Palko

Marta Bałaga writes in the online cinema magazine Cineuropa that even if Charlatan is more reserved than Agnieszka Holland's previous film Mr. Jones , she still proves that she has more film knowledge in her little finger than others in the whole body. It delivers a gripping narrative in which the remarkable chemistry between Ivan Trojan and Juraj Loj in the roles of Jan Mikolášek and his assistant and lover František stands out. This chemistry turns out to be crucial in the end, as the film only slowly turns into a real love story.

The Hollywood Reporter's Deborah Young notes that Holland is finding a new way of telling the Eastern European Cold War years. Her cameraman Martin Štrba artistically doses the color in the film when he returns from the heavily desaturated scenes of the healer's bourgeois environment and the black and white newsreels of the Stalinist era to apolitical scenes with splashes of color. The use of historical recordings by Antonín Dvořák and other Czech composers in the film was also just right, says Young.

Awards

Berlin International Film Festival 2020

In addition, Charlatan is in the preselection for the European Film Award 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Charlatan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Markéta Kachlíková: Two films with Czech participation at the Berlinale. In: radio.cz, January 17, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Agnieszka Holland dotočila film Šarlatán s Ivanem Trojanem. In: literarky.cz, July 10, 2019. (Czech)
  3. ↑ a b c d Lenka Hloušková: Trpký osud slavného českého léčitele. In: novinky.cz, August 14, 2019. (Czech)
  4. ↑ a b c d Agnieszka Hollandová není žádný šarlatán. Začala natáčet chystaný film o českém léčiteli. In: ceskatelevize.cz, April 2, 2019. (Czech)
  5. ↑ a b c d Agnieszka Holland dotočila Šarlatána s Ivanem Trojanem. In: totalfilm.cz, July 10, 2019. (Czech)
  6. ↑ Peter Bradshaw: Charlatan review - a fascinating, frustrating tale of bottled-up emotion. In: The Guardian, February 27, 2020.
  7. ↑ Claudia Lenssen. Agnieszka Holland on the PiS: “The party creates enemy images”. In: Der Tagesspiegel, February 28, 2020.
  8. ↑ feature film. In: teddyaward.tv. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  9. ↑ Mimořádně nadaný léčitel v podání Ivana Trojana Miri na festival Berlinale. In: kinobox.cz, January 15, 2020. (Czech)
  10. ↑ Hans-Jörg Schmidt: Coronavirus is spreading: the Czech Republic is closing schools and universities - vacationers in Italy should travel home. In: Der Tagesspiegel, March 11, 2020.
  11. ↑ https://www.screendaily.com/news/films-boutique-closes-deals-for-agnieszka-hollands-charlatan-exclusive/5150856.article
  12. ↑ Ryan Lattanzio: Telluride Film Festival Reveals 2020 Selections: 'Ammonite', 'Nomadland', Werner Herzog, and More. In: indiewire.com, August 3, 2020.
  13. ↑ http://www.insidekino.com/DStarts/DStartplan.htm
  14. ↑ Marta Balaga: Review: Charlatan. In: cineuropa.org, February 28, 2020.
  15. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/charlatan-1279910
  16. ↑ EFA 2020 | EFA Feature Film Selection | Part 1 . In: europeanfilmawards.eu, August 18, 2020 (accessed on August 18, 2020).