Prince Bajaja

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Movie
German title Prince Bajaja
Original title Princ Bajaja
Country of production ČSSR
original language Czech
Publishing year 1971
length 81 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Antonín Kachlík
script Antonín Kachlík,
Eva Košlerová
production Eliška Nejedlá
music Vladimír summer
camera Jiří Macák
cut Jaromír Janáček
occupation

Prince Bajaja is a Czechoslovak fairy tale film . In the ČSSR the film was released under the title Princ Bajaja , in the FRG and the GDR under the title Prince Bajaja and in Spain as El príncipe valiente . The film started in 1971. The first screening in a German dubbed version was shown in the GDR cinema on December 15, 1972 and the film was shown on German television on December 8, 1973 on DFF 1 and on December 25, 1973 on ARD.
The film was based on motifs from the fairy tale of the same name by Božena Němcová .
The beautiful autumn forest shots with interesting incidents of light are accompanied by the late romantic orchestral music by Vladimír Sommer .

action

Search for happiness

A young man locks his parents' abandoned castle and sets off. An old mother asks the prince what he's up to. He wants to look for happiness. The mother gives wise advice: the road to paradise is steep and hard, the road to hell easy and comfortable.

The robbers and the talking horse

In the dark forest he chases away robbers who have attacked a lonely trader. Then he learns from an old farmer that the king is looking for a brave bridegroom for the princess in order to save her from a three-headed dragon. The young prince wants to make the fight against the dragon his task.
The prince meets the robbers again in an inn. This time her master, a black knight, is also there. The black knight tries to tame a beautiful white horse with a whip. The prince takes care of the horse, which lets him mount and flees with him from the overwhelming number of robbers. It turns out that the horse can talk and is very wise. It wants to help the prince in his search for happiness and in the fight against the dragon.

Blind cow and Bajaja

Before he even arrives at the castle, the prince meets a group of girls and boys who are playing blind cows in a clearing. At first sight, he falls in love with one of the girls and the girl with him. You don't get to introduce yourself, but from now on the prince has an additional goal, namely to marry the girl. As a sign of identification, he keeps the cloth with which the girl's eyes were blindfolded in the game.
The little horse brings the prince into a magical cave, warns him to be careful and slows him down in his urge. It instructs the prince to disguise himself as a gate with hair and eye patch and to offer his service in the castle. So that the prince is not recognized by his great love by his voice, he should also be mute. The only sound he utters is the stammering "bajaja". This is how it gets its name.

Slavěna

The beautiful girl from the forest clearing was of course Princess Slavěna herself, whom the king had to promise the three-headed dragon as a bride. Three knights come to the castle to court the princess. The Black Knight is also among them. During the subsequent feast, terrible shouts penetrate the hall. The dragon is there. The suitors flee, only the Black Knight states that he wants to go into battle against the dragon if he receives the princess immediately. Slavěna denies him that.

Dragon fight

As a bride, Slavěna is brought to the dragon's nest by a team of six. The three heads of the dragon approach her. The sadistic black knight observes the action from a hiding place. In the meantime, Bajaja has received armor from his horse. He appears as a knight and cuts off the dragon's head. Again the horse prevents him from revealing himself to the princess. This time he received a red rose from Slavěna as a recognition mark. As soon as Bajaja has ridden away, the princess is surrounded by the band of robbers and forced to lie that the Black Knight is her savior.

Apple tasting and tournament

Back at the castle, Slavěna tries to postpone the wedding with the villain. An apple throwing game is organized, whoever catches the apple should be allowed to marry the princess. For everyone's amusement, the apple rolls to Bajaja in a fool's costume. The black knight furiously demands a game to his liking, a knight's tournament. He defeats everyone, but then Bajaja rides into the courtyard as a knight. The princess happily shows her father the real dragon slayer. After winning the tournament, Bajaja still helps the castle guards in the fight against the whole gang of robbers. Then he has to ride away again unrecognized. The horse demands that he can only reveal himself when he is absolutely sure of Slavěna's love.

luck

Slavěna is sad and tells Bajaja, who is again mute, about her longing and her confused feelings. She is very fond of the fool Bajaja, she fell in love with Prince Bajaja at first sight and now she also loves the knight Bajaja. Bajaja mimes the scenes in which he received Slavěna's distinctive marks: the blind cow scene, the dragon fight and the apple tasting. Slavěna realizes that she really loves Bajaja, in each of his three roles and with all sides of his being, but he hurries away again and puts the sheet, the rose and the apple on her bed. Then he hurries into the cave to the horse to change clothes and to meet the princess as a prince. Slavěna hurries after him. It is night, she falls asleep in the forest. The horse reminds the prince to calm down again, explains to him the nature of happiness and says that love can "wait until tomorrow". In the morning the horse disappeared. Shiny horseshoes lead the prince to the sleeping princess.

material

The fight with the dragon appears in many myths and fairy tales. In the Greek myth, Perseus frees Andromeda in a fight with the dragon-like sea monster. The Archangel Michael slays evil in the form of a dragon with his sword, Saint George pierces a dragon with a lance and saves a virgin. Siegfried gains fame and invulnerability through his fight with a dragon.
The film adaptation essentially follows the Bajaja fairy tale by Božena Němcová. Certain differences result from the different initial situation. In the fairy tale, Bajaja is the older of two twin brothers, but is passed on by the mother for the younger and thus loses the right to the inheritance. He does not find the talking horse on the way, but grew up with it. There are also three princesses in Božena Němcová's version, each of whom is threatened by a dragon, but the most beautiful and youngest princess is threatened by the strongest dragon. Instead of in a tournament, Bajaja has to prove himself here in war.
Of the Grimm fairy tales, the fairy tale Prince Bajaja most closely resembles the dragon battle tale The two brothers with two twin brothers who are helpful to each other. The connection between goal and hero in Prince Bajaja is definitely a unique selling point of this Czech fairy tale and can at best be reminiscent of the prince's gardening role in Grimms Eisenhans . In the Bajaja fairy tale, the goal and the hero are roles or masks of a complex character. The guesswork in the fairy tale about the identity of the lover is a bit similar to the famous puzzle from Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella .

Other adaptations of the fairy tale Prince Bajaja

The lavish Czechoslovakian puppet film “ Bajaja ” by Jiří Trnka dates back to 1950 . In this version, the soul of Bajaja's mother is trapped in the speaking horse, which logically establishes the horse's educational character.
The German-language long poem Prinz Aberjaja by Ondřej Cikán was published in 2013 . Similar to Trnka's film, the soul of the prince's mother is hidden in the talking horse. The name "Aberjaja" in Cikán's version comes from the fact that the prince, in his disguise as a mute beggar, slips out the exclamation "But yes!" When he sees the princess again. Since then, the words “but yes” or “but yes yes” are the only things he says as a beggar. A scene from Cikán's poem Prince Aberjaja was transformed into a short film of the same name with Paula Beer in the lead role (AT / CZ 2017, directors: Anatol Vitouch, Ondřej Cikán).

Reviews

  • “Prince Bajaja travels through the country in disguise in search of happiness. After various adventures, fighting a dragon and a black knight, he finds happiness in the shape of a pretty princess. The film puts together set pieces from different fairy tales, mythologies and legends to an adventurous story, which thanks to playful actors and some spectacular fight and equestrian scenes offers appealing entertainment. "

synchronization

German adaptation: Aventin-Filmstudio, script and dialogue director: Ursula Zell (ARD)

DEFA-Studio for Synchronization, Leipzig (GDR), book: Horst Willing, director: Horst Schappo

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Prince Bajaja" in Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová : Märchen , pp. 86–95; illustrated by Josef Lada , translated by Günther Jarosch and Valtr Kraus; Albatros Publishing House, Prague 2001; ISBN 80-00-00930-7
  2. ↑ cf. Perseus by Karl Kerényi in The Mythology of the Greeks - Die Heroengeschichten Vol. 2, pp. 44–52; Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2004; ISBN 3-423-30031-0
  3. ↑ Georg slays the dragon by Paolo Uccello
  4. ↑ Arthur Rackham: Siegfrieds Drache ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rackham: Siegfried fights the dragon @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.monstropedia.org
  5. ↑ http://www.zweitausendeins.de/filmlexikon/?sucheNach=titel&wert=45921
  6. ↑ Ondřej Cikán, Prince Aberjaja , Vienna, 2013, ISBN 978-3-902800-09-1
  7. ↑ imdb.com: Prince Aberjaja. Retrieved December 3, 2017 . The production date on IMDB does not match that in the credits.
  8. ↑ Prince Bajaja. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used