Oldřich Lipský

Oldřich Lipský (born July 4, 1924 in Pelhřimov , † October 19, 1986 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak film director and screenwriter .

Life

Oldřich Lipský was enthusiastic about theater, circus and cinema from an early age, influenced by his parents who were involved in amateur theaters. With his older brother Lubomír (later a well-known actor, whom Oldřich often cast in his films), he played in amateur productions as a child. Briefly deported to forced labor by the German occupiers , after his return to Pelhřimov from 1943, together with his brother and Jan Maška , he took part in the youth theater group Mladá komedie founded by Zbyněk Vavřín (1919-2001) . Lipský also took on his first film roles, for example in Václav Krškas Kluci na řece (1944) and Řeka čaruje (1945). Shortly after the end of the war, the theater group around Vavřín completed a few performances in Prague, stayed in the capital due to its success and founded the Divadle satiry there , in which Lipský continued to play and of which he was later artistic director. At the same time he began to study philosophy at the Charles University, which had reopened (after being closed for five and a half years by the occupying forces) .

After directing various theaters in Prague, Lipský began working for Studio Barrandov in 1949. First he wrote scripts, so in 1950 Josef Machs Razek finds a connection ( Racek má zpoždění ), then worked as a co-director and finally from 1954 as a director. His first work The Circus Plays was received negatively by the critics, but it was a success with the public and Lipský committed himself to the comedy subject for his entire directing career. After the rather low success of his next two films, he said goodbye to Barrandov for a few years and staged tour programs for the Czechoslovak state circus, in which traditional circus art was combined with projections and magic lantern effects. During the tours to Japan, India and Burma several short documentary films and the tour documentary Cirkus each! which hit theaters in 1960.

His first feature film after the circus episode was the satirical time travel comedy The Man from the 1st Century with Miloš Kopecký in the lead role. With the film based on motifs from Mayakowski's play The Bug , Lipský took part in the 1962 competition at the Cannes International Film Festival .

This film was followed by the western parody Lemonade Joe with Karel Fiala in the title role. The comedy, in which Lipský worked with a formal language borrowed from the silent film aesthetic, won the Silver Shell and the FIPRESCI special prize at the 1964 San Sebastián Film Festival . At the same time, lemonade Joe Lipskýs was first collaboration with the screenwriter Jiří Brdečka (1917–1982); Later the two shot the nostalgic thriller Adele Has Not Yet Meal (1977) with Michal Dočolomanský and Rudolf Hrušínský and in 1981, also with Dočolomanský and Hrušínský, the horror film parody Jules Verne film The Secret of the Carpathian Castle . The latter two films also benefited from the macabre and surrealistic ideas of their set designer and trick designer Jan Švankmajer .

After the international success of Lemonade Joe , the plan arose to realize several English-language science fiction films for producers Carlo Ponti and Moris Ergas , but this failed, so that Lipský was soon working again in Barrandov. His next film was the comedy Happy End in 1967 with the screenwriter Miloš Macourek , which begins with the execution of the hero played by Vladimír Menšík and then develops in reverse chronology towards the (happy) beginning.

Also in collaboration with Macourek, the time travel comedy I killed Einstein was created in 1969 (with Jiří Sovák and Jana Brejchová ), in 1970 the film “Čtyři vraždy stačí, drahoušku” , in 1971 the comedy The Straw Hat set in France around 1900 , in 1972 the school comedy Six Bears and a clown and finally in 1975 the circus comedy elephant solo with orchestra, filmed in coproduction with the Soviet Mosfilm studio .

Lipský also made several films with the screenwriter Zdeněk Svěrák , such as Horoskop aus dem Computer (1974), “Marečku, podejte mi pero!” (1976), Our spirits should live (1977) and Giveaway happiness (1983).

In 1979 Lipský was honored as a People's Artist of the ČSSR .

Filmography

• 1950: Slepice a kostelník - co-director with Jan Strejček
• 1952: The good old days (Haškovy povídky ze starého mocnářství) - co-director with Miroslav Hubáček
• 1954: The circus is still playing ( circus booth!)
• 1955: Vzorný cinematographer Haška Jaroslava
• 1958: A star goes south (Hvězda every na jih)
• 1960: Circus everyone!
• 1960: Hurvínek to zařídí (short film with the puppeteer Miloš Kirschner and his characters Spejbl and Hurvínek )
• 1961: The 1st Century Man (Muž z prvního století)
• 1964: Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera)
• 1967: happy ending
• 1969: I killed Einstein (Zabil jsem Einsteina, pánové ...)
• 1970: "Čtyři vraždy stačí, drahoušku"
• 1971: The straw hat (Slaměný klobouk)
• 1972/76: Six bears and a clown (6 medvědů s Cibulkou)
• 1973: Three Men on the Road (Tři chlapi na cestách)
• 1974: Horoscope from the computer (Jáchyme, hoď ho do stroje!)
• 1975: Elephant solo with orchestral accompaniment ( Соло для слона с оркестром )
• 1976: "Marečku, podejte mi pero!"
• 1977: Our spirits should live! (Ať žijí duchové!)
• 1977: Adele has not yet had dinner (Adéla ještě nevečeřela)
• 1979/80: But Doctor (TV)
• 1981: The secret of the castle in the Carpathian Mountains (Tajemství hradu v Karpatech)
• 1982: Greetings from the globe (Srdečný pozdrav ze zeměkoule)
• 1983: Fortune given away (Tři veteráni)
• 1986: Velká filmová loupež (completed by Zdeněk Podskalský )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ sansebastianfestival.com ( Memento of the original from October 30, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Export to the west . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1966 ( online ).

Web links

• Oldrich Lipský in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Oldřich Lipský at CFN.cz
• Oldřich Lipský in the ČSFD.cz
• volny.cz