Anna Steimarová

Filmed during the Nazi occupation, this panoramic drama set in a Prague department store follows the divergent destinies of four female coworkers, each of whom seeks happiness in a different way.

A morally questionable lord comes to the aid of a working class man who is to be executed for speaking out about thieving rich scoundrels sticking it to the poor.

A student rebellion precedes revolutionary events in Prague.

Fifty years old Baron von Fibberg lives at The Fibberg Castle with his wife Olga and daughter Charley. Besides the delight in hunting, Baron is very enthusiastic about truth. Although he can't withstand any falsehood of others, he keeps his own intimate secrets from his wife. Charley seems to be an innocent girl at first glance, but she has a little secret too. She fell in love with a young fop Ernest Benda and married him in secret. Her only concern is the way, how to let her strict father know about the marriage. Together with her husband they prepare a plan how to do it, but it turns out to be a catastrophe for the whole family.

A romantic story of a noble lady who wanted to live without the bonds of marriage, but her desire for a child led her - carefully disguised - into the arms of a young nobleman. Only years later did she believe in his love and make herself known.

Dvořák's well-known composition reappears again and again in the serious moments of the lives of the father and son Hupeks - talented non-professional musicians for whom music gives them the opportunity to rise above difficulties and problems...

Prague, the beginning of the 17th century. Rozina falls in love with Italian glass worker Nikolo, but after returning home, she gets a message that will never come to Prague. She falls for the promise of an older man to marry her, but when Nikolo does return, the tragic fate of Rozina is sealed.

A rich bachelor, Pavel Haken, tries - with the help of his faithful servant - to escape the courtship of marriageable young ladies. They meet at a ladies' social club. In the cafeteria there, he is helped by the talkative Andula, the daughter of a poor taxi driver. Haken longs for peace and has a secluded weekend villa built for him. The brief silence that followed his mother's departure is interrupted by the inhabitants of a tent camp. The girls from the club have taken advantage of Mrs. Haken's offer and camped on their property, and Andula helps out in the camp kitchen...

Czech-American professor Johny Novák takes over his father's inheritance. The estate reveals that Johny is the father of a girl who lives with her mother Helena Strnadová in Prague, where Johny had stayed eighteen years earlier. Johny's father did not approve of his love and so he withheld Helen's letters, but he sent money to Helen's aunt for the child. Johny intends to visit Helen and her daughter with his friend Jimmy Sládek and informs his aunt about it by telegraph...

The film begins with shots of the castles of Bezděz, Točník and Karlštejn. In a restaurant at Karlštejn the guests remind Hašler that he is performing at the Varieté club. Hašler misses the train so he starts walking along the main road in the hope of getting a lift. In despair he forces a car to stop and makes the chauffeur to drive backwards to Prague. They stop at the wharf but, because he misses the steamboat , he uses a motorboat. The rest of the journey is spent on a tram. Hašler then quickly changes his clothes in his flat he reaches the Varieté club across the rooftops.

Leopold Kohák married a rich widow a long time ago and now has nothing to do compared to his energetic wife. He's growing old and troubled by the fact that he betrayed his first love Emča and his beloved river Sázava where he spent his childhood and youth. A visit from an old friend Lebeda brings it all back to him. After a nervous breakdown Leopold secretly visits his home instead of going to the spa. A wandering tramp suggest Leopold should bathe in the magical waters of the Sázava, and slowly his youth returns to him.

Alois Novák (Oldrich Nový), a minor clerk in a travel agency and the husband of a dowdy housewife Marenka (Natasa Gollová), lives a run-of-the-mill, dull life. In his soul, however, there resides an inextinguishable desire for adventure. And so once a month he poses as a playboy. As the mysterious and wealthy Mr. Kristian he goes to the exclusive Orient Bar where he does not skimp on generous tips and where he platonic-ally seduces beautiful and elegant women. In the salon he speaks of love and the magnificence of exotic lands, which he has supposedly come to know on his wanderings abroad. In reality he has read all of this in the travel agency's brochures.

The doomed love of a city girl caught in the vise of poverty is detailed in Vavra’s fluid, romantic work, one of the most elegant creations of the Czech Modernist era... The film lingers over its characters’ habitats and haunts, finding psychological truths in what each owns or desires, and countering every Hollywood-ready scene of gleaming restaurants and dazzling penthouses with realist moments of employment lines and crammed flats. Vavra’s classical camerawork and aura of romantic defeatism give Virginity a force comparable to the master of this genre, Hollywood’s Frank Borzage. (BAM/PFA)

A highly romanticized autobiographical novel by a Czech 19th century writer, Bozena Nemcova. It's a classical, compulsory reading in Czech schools, about a wise, working-class woman, happier in her simplicity and good heart than the nobles whom she serves.

Although the emancipated editor of a women's magazine proclaims that grandparents in particular should not be abused by their adult children, she accepts without scruple the fact that her mother, still a sprightly pensioner, works in her household as a jack-of-all-trades without receiving not only any pay but also no recognition. However, the grandmother learns from an article written by her daughter - and rebels.

The foolish Pedro is supposed to marry the beautiful Rosita, who is also attracted to the adventurer Pancho - during his journey to see her, Pancho finds himself in prison, where he is tricked by a cunning desperado who decides to win Rosita for himself.

Marta Dekasová works as a governess in a garrison town. The beautiful girl is the center of attention of many men, but she only desires Lieutenant Varga, who is married and rejects her. Desperate, Marta throws herself into the arms of the most intrusive of her suitors, and is then dismissed in disgrace. She goes to Prague to live with her friend Kiki, becomes a bar singer, and continues her journey down the sloping surface. Hope for a new life dawns on her when a young student falls in love with her, but just then Varga appears in the bar and rekindles her unquenched feelings...

Thirteen people have gathered at Mayor Bartoš's. The company is uneasy about this number and therefore warmly welcomes the fourteenth guest, who is the new librarian Pavel Čtrnáctý...

The title refers to the office of records in the basement of a large company... sort of the place where a troublesome employee may be dumped in a dead end job. If fact, the story is a simple romantic comedy, with Burian as the kindly old stick-in-the-mud who helps the young man to sort out his romance with the daughter of the company's owner.

Theater props maker Karel Vajgant has a young wife, Magda, and two children, seven-year-old Pavlík and eleven-year-old Pepička. Magda is a caring mother, but she feels that her husband prioritizes work and his comfort. In a weak moment, Magda becomes unfaithful. Vajgant receives an anonymous letter that warns him of his wife's infidelity. His friend, the opportunist Tonda, advises him to throw away the letter and instead devote more time to Magda...