Jiřina Švorcová

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Jiřina Švorcová (2006)

Jiřina Švorcová (born May 25, 1928 in Kociánovice , today Hradec Králové -Slezské Předměstí; † August 8, 2011 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak actress .

Life

Švorcová came from a working class and peasant family. After the father's death, the family moved to Prague. Švorcová initially studied to work as a teacher , but then enrolled, following the example of her brother, the Czech actor Václav Švorc (* 1919), for an acting course. She graduated from the Faculty of Drama of the Academy of Performing Arts (Divadelní fakulta Akademie múzických umění) in Prague. In 1950 she completed her training with an acting diploma.

Švorcová began her career as a theater actress . In the 1950/51 season she was engaged at the Hradec Králové City Theater. In 1951 she became a member of the Theater in the Vineyards (Divadlo na Vinohradech) in Královské Vinohrady . There she remained a permanent member of the ensemble until 1990, when she retired from the stage. Švorcová initially played the role of the youthful heroine and youthful lover; later there were dramatic roles in the subject of the heroine. She played wives, mothers and later the strange old woman on stage. She took on character roles early on.

Her stage roles included: Princess Eboli in Don Carlos (1955), the title role in a stage version by Anna Karenina (1963), Fanka in The Robber by Karel Čapek (1972), Emilia Marty in Čapek's The Makropulos Case ( Věc Makropulos , 1976), Olga in Three Sisters (1979), the title role in Mother Courage and Her Children (1984), Essie in O Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neill ( Ach ta léta bláznivá , 1986) and Melánie in the world premiere of the play Hlasy Ptáků by Josef Topol (1989).

In 1950 she made her debut in Czech cinema . She played the role of tractor driver Vlasta Tomešová in the romantic comedy The Road to Happiness (1951). She took on several leading roles in Czech films and developed into a good character actress . Overall, however, your film appearances were rather sporadic; she only stood in front of the camera at long intervals. Mostly she embodied the role type of the self-confident, modern and integrated into the communist society young woman.

Important film roles were the shock brigadier Marie in the film About Us Meetings (1953), the daughter and worker Tonicka in the drama Pricházejí z tmy (1954), the saleswoman Marie Rysová in the crime film King of the Bohemian Forest (1959), the doctor Marie in the agent film Smyk (1961) by Zbyněk Brynych , Magda Muzikárová, the agricultural assistant (zemědělská instruktorka) and childhood sweetheart of a veterinarian, in the film drama Fesseln (1961) and the writer Božena Němcová in the biography Horoucí srd .

Her best-known role on Czech television was the role of saleswoman Anna Holubová in the television series The Woman Behind the Counter (1978). Švorcová played the main role in the series, a saleswoman in a grocery store with full shelves, a beautiful communist idyll after the crackdown on the Prague Spring . Švorcová drew her role in the spirit of communist propaganda.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Švorcová was president of the Association of Performing Artists in Czechoslovakia several times, in 1976 she was elected to the Central Committee of the CPC , and in 1977 she campaigned for the so-called Anticharta . In 1989, after the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia, Švorcová retired from acting as an actress. At the Divadlo na Vinohradech, too, it was signaled to her that she was no longer wanted there because of her communist past. In 2000 she published her memoirs under the title Býti Švorcovou .

Awards and honors

Švorcová received numerous state awards and medals. She was the recipient of the Klement Gottwald State Prize (1980). In 1970 she was awarded the Order of Labor ( Řád práce ). In 1978 she received the Order of Victorious February ( Řád Vítězného února ). In 1984 she became the national artist of Czechoslovakia. In 1975 she received the Artist Prize of the Czech State Radio.

Political commitment

Švorcová was a staunch communist. In 1976 she became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . Her public speech in 1977 caused a sensation, in which she called the signatories of Charter 77 , including authors such as Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout , “ renegades and traitors”. In an interview in 2010, Švorcová reiterated her position at the time. She still believes today that what people like Havel and Kohout did back then was wrong.

Even shortly before the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, she continued to advocate censorship , the suppression of politically dissenting artists and artists and their deportation and departure. Even after the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, she did not give up her loyalty to the communist regime. Švorcová became the figurehead and “mascot” of ultra-communist circles. She continued to attend party events and recite revolutionary poems at party cultural evenings.

In 1996 she ran unsuccessfully for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) for the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1951: The Way to Happiness (Cesta ke štěstí)
  • 1953: It meets above us (Nad námi svítá)
  • 1954: Pricházejí z tmy
  • 1959: King of the Bohemian Forest (Král Šumavy)
  • 1960: Vstup zakázán
  • 1961: Report written under the head (Reportáž psaná na oprátce)
  • 1961: Smyk - Towards the Abyss (Smyk)
  • 1961: Shackles (Pouta)
  • 1961: Investigation result: murder (Tereza)
  • 1963: Glowing Heart (Horoucí srdce)
  • 1976: What color is love? (Jakou barvu má láska)
  • 1978: The Woman Behind the Counter (TV series)
  • 1981: Okres na severu (TV series; Northern District )
  • 1983: All my life has been hiking (Putování Jana Amose)
  • 1986: Gottwald (mini series)
  • 1989: Roky přelomu (TV series)

literature

  • Joachim Reichow / Michael Hanisch: actor A-Z . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-362-00022-3 , p. 568.

Web links

Commons : Jiřina Švorcová  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Jiřina ŠVORCOVÁ biography (totalita.cz)
  2. ↑ a b c Décès de l'actrice tchèque Jirina Svorcova, symbole de la culture communiste obituary (French), RTL.be of August 8, 2011
  3. ↑ a b c d e Actress and communist apologist Jiřina Švorcová dies. Obituary on Radio Praha on August 9, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Švorcová, Jiřina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Kociánovice near Hradec Králové
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 2011
Place of death Prague