Vít Soukup - The Stove of Cleophas

AUTHORSHIP

Equal co-authorship: Vít Soukup

CLASSIFICATION

Classification: film/videoart

DATES

Date of creation: 1996

SUBJECT

Other persons appearing in the film: Jan Novotný, Darija Symkiewicz, Adam Hlaváč, Vít Soukup, Eliška Pokorná, Patrik Hábl, Jan Materna, Jan Hísek, Jan Kukla, Roman Hudziec, Jakub Stanovský, Nikola Nováková, Ondřej Indián, Jakub Dolejš, Milan Salák

COLLABORATORS AND PARTICIPANTS

Other collaborators: Adam Hlaváč

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Duration: 00:30:09
Sound: Sound

EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Compilation containing the work: Vít Soukup: Everything!, 2012
Attachment included with work’s publication: booklet CZ/EN

NOTES AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Notes: Included in the compilation Vít Soukup: Everything! Films and Theater Performances 1993–2003 (edited by T. Nekvindová, S. Sobotovičová) - published in 2012 by the Research Centre of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (VVP AVU) in cooperation with Divus.

Story and Screenplay: Vít Soukup, Jan Materna, Jan Novotný, Jan Kukla
Music: Jakub Stanovský
Directed by: Vít Soukup

Adopted text on the work: A light parody on the trend in esoteric films and more. The main protagonist, “neoconceptual postmodern minimalist” Cleophas Drudge (we met an older and disillusioned Drudge three years earlier in Old Mates) is stuck in a chaotic, black-and-white period. In a colorful vision presented to him by his guardian angel, he meets a mix of prophets and dictators, philosophers and madmen; Czech is interspersed with amateurish and fragmentary dialogues in other languages. In the end, help comes in the form of a charming minor miracle, and the hero’s life takes on color.

The film is framed by a meditation guru’s monologue on the proper approach to life. It shows the conflict between theory and practice and pokes fun at questionable New Age recipes and television psychics. Some elements of the film are a parody of the lyrical Slovak film The Garden (1995, dir. Martin Šulík) about the search for inner balance. The main protagonist’s name may evoke the biblical Cleophas, representing the melancholy of those of little faith who hesitate to accept the miraculous.
Source of text: Edice VIDA 3, VVP AVU, 2012
Author of text: Terezie Nekvindová, Sláva Sobotovičová
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INFORMATION IN PARTNER DATABASES

Artlist #1: Record at Artlist