The girl on the broomstick
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The girl on the broomstick |
| Original title | Dívka na koštěti |
| Country of production | Czechoslovakia |
| original language | Czech |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 76 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK without age restriction |
| Rod | |
| Director | Václav Vorlíček |
| script |
Miloš Macourek , Václav Vorlíček, Hermína Franková |
| music | Angelo Michajlov |
| camera | Vladimír Novotný |
| cut | Miroslav Hájek |
| occupation | |
| |
The girl on a broomstick (alternative title: Saxana, the witch ) by director Václav Vorlíček is a Czechoslovak fairy tale film from 1972 .
action
The teenage witch Saxana goes to a witch school. However, she is not a particularly diligent student. During a class test, Saxana makes her arm very long, so she can take a cheat sheet from the next table. This is not unusual in a class where everyone can do witches. Unfortunately, the witch teacher also knows all the tricks, and that's how Saxana is caught. She should now recite some spells in front of the whole class . Since she has learned little, her transformations fail.
Saxana is brought to the director. As a punishment for her poor performance and attempting to cheat on her class work, she is being detained for 300 years. Saxana is not happy about that. The caretaker consoles her: 300 years isn't that long after all. But for humans, that's nine generations .
Saxana becomes curious about people. She asks the caretaker, seemingly casually, how one could get to the people. The caretaker Saxana carelessly shows the encyclopedia, which contains the required spell. With it, a witch or a wizard can transform themselves into an owl and thus enter the human world for 44 hours. Before the caretaker knows it, Saxana has already said the spell. When the caretaker reports this to the director, he has to go to the human world as a punishment to take care of Saxana during these 44 hours. Under no circumstances should Saxana take the brew of the "woman's ear", otherwise she could not go back.
Transformed into an owl , Saxana ends up in a human zoo, where she is shown to the zoo director, who takes the owl into his apartment. When Saxana is alone there with Honza, the zoo director's son, she changes back again. The boy is of course very surprised to suddenly find a pretty girl instead of an owl. After a few unsuccessful transformations, Honza takes Saxana to school the next morning in the shape of a chicken.
When the caretaker from the witchcraft school who followed her finds Saxana there, he warns her not to drink the brew from “Weiberohr” under any circumstances. Because then she would have to stay forever in the human world and lose her witchcraft. Of course, that's exactly what Saxana wanted to know, because she wants to stay with the people. The caretaker has become friends with his human "colleague" who cleans the school that Honza visits.
But where can you get a woman's ear? Three boys offer Saxana to get one if she can help them with their problems. They are supposed to be punished for doing bad pranks in school. Saxana then turns all teachers into rabbits . But now that they have got rid of their worries, the three boys no longer think about helping Saxana. Instead, they behave particularly mean to her, even try to have her admitted to psychiatry as crazy. This does not succeed, however, because Saxana can use her magical powers to escape the doctors.
And so it is the son of the zoo director who assists Saxana. After a chase on the broomstick, at the end of which the three villains receive their just punishment in the form of rabbit ears and all people transformed by Saxana have regained their old form, Saxana has little time left to be able to stay in the human world. But a teacher knows the solution: "Woman's pipe" is the popular name of the whorl sage . And it just so happens that the headmaster always has a pot of sage tea with him. She can barely drink the potion and Saxana becomes a person. Even the caretaker, who fell in love with his colleague, takes a sip and stays in the human world.
The loss of magical powers is associated with a moment of horror for everyone involved (including the audience) and a painful experience for Saxana. If she was able to jump out of the school window to catch the thermos flask before, another jump after her incarnation has unpleasant consequences. The film ends with a thoughtless jump, a leg in plaster , and the love between Saxana and Honza.
synchronization
The German dubbing , which can be seen today on television and on DVD, was created in the Bavaria Atelier in Munich ; at the same time, a separate version was produced in the GDR for cinema use in the ateliers of DEFA Studios for Synchronization , Berlin .
criticism
"A nice and cheerful children's film that, in addition to its tricks and gags, also deals with problems of human relationships."
continuation
The sequel Saxana a lexikon kouzel , also directed by Václav Vorlíček , was released in 2011.
Others
- The song played on the tape is called To už se nevrátí by Helena Vondráčková .
- The cars used by the young people on their escape are a 1931 Tatra 57 , a 1969 Ford 20M XL , a 1972 Fiat 500 F and a 1957 Škoda-LIAZ 706 RT truck. The police officers' motorcycles are BMW R 50/2 .
Web links
- The girl on the broomstick in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Progress Film-Verleih - The girl on the broomstick
- Photos of the film on ČSFD.cz
- Film photos on Ostfilm
DVD release
The film is available on DVD under the title Saxana - The Girl on the Broomstick .