The Sun In A Net
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''The Sun in a Net'' (''Slnko v sieti'', also translated as ''Sunshine in a net'' or ''Catching the sun in a net''Jaroslav Boček, Šaska Batošková, Luboš Bartošek, Jan Hořejši and Jiři Havelka: "Modern Czechoslovak film", 1965. Editor: Stanislav Zvoníček, published in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Film Institute. ''ARTIA'') is a 1963 film that became a key film in the development of Slovak and
Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...
cinema from the mandated Socialist-Realist filmmaking of the repressive 1950s towards the Czechoslovak/Czech New Wave and socially critical or experimental films of the 1960s marked by a gradual relaxation of communist control. ''The Sun in a Net'' received multiple votes in a wide survey of Czech and Slovak film academics and critics in the late 1990s asking them for their lists of the 10 best films in the history of filmmaking in the former Czechoslovakia.


Plot

Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajták (Marián Bielik), a student who directs quasi-existentialist verbal abuse at his girlfriend Bela Blažejová (Jana Beláková), takes off to a formally volunteer summer work camp at a farm, actually mandated by the authorities, which inspires both him and Bela to start a relationship with someone else. A parallel story peels layers off Bela's permanently tense home life marked by her blind mother's (Eliška Nosáľová) studied helplessness, and her father's (Andrej Vandlík) revealed infidelity and past break with his father (Adam Jančo) who happens to live in the village where Fajolo is finding some consolation in the arms of a fellow student-volunteer Jana (Oľga Šalagová). As Fajolo begins to pry into Bela's grandfather's secrets, she, in turn, allows her new boyfriend Peťo (Ľubo Roman) to read and deride Fajolo's discursive and indirectly remorseful letters from the farm. The solar eclipse barely discerned by the main characters through thick clouds at the beginning of the film is echoed by summer and fall images of the sun as they present themselves to all of them at various points in the film through a fisherman's net from his pontoon on the
Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
beyond the city's suburbs, which Fajolo and Peťo have discovered independently and use as a swimming deck, a place to ponder life, or to try to seduce Bela. When, however, Bela brings her mother and brother Milo (Peter Lobotka) to the pontoon after a series of subdued interpersonal crises, the pontoon is on dry land because the water level has dropped, and the film ends with Bela and Milo lying to their mother about what they can see as they did about the visibility of the eclipse during the opening sequences.


Cast

*Marián Bielik as Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajták *Michal Dočolomanský (born 1942) as Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajták (voice) *Jana Beláková as Bela Blažejová *Eliška Nosáľová as Mother, Stanislava "Stanka" Blažejová *Andrej Vandlík (1925-1985) as Father, Ján "Jano" Blažej *Peter Lobotka as Son/Brother Milo Blažej *Adam Jančo as Farm Stacker Blažej, father/grandfather *Pavol Chrobák as Supervisor Mechanic Blažej *Viliam Polónyi (born 1928) as Supervisor Mechanic Blažej (voice) *Ľubo Roman (born 1944) as Peťo *Oľga Šalagová as Jana Uher chose little known actors (Eliška Nosáľová and Andrej Vandlík, both from the SNP Theater in
Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...
) or non-actors, two of whom had to be dubbed – by Michal Dočolomanský, a student of acting and later a star of Slovak cinema, and by Viliam Polónyi, a professional actor. Only Ľubo Roman, a student of acting at that time, became a successful actor, theater administrator, and ultimately a politician. Jana Beláková from a singer's family had marginal experience from several TV productions and followed her role in ''The Sun in a Net'' with a singing career.


Director

Štefan Uher Štefan Uher (4 July 1930 – 29 March 1993) was a Slovak film director, one of the members of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Life and work He was born in Prievidza on 4 June 1930. He graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Perform ...
(1930,
Prievidza Prievidza (; , ) is a city in the western Slovakia. With approximately 46,000 inhabitants it is the second biggest municipality in the Trenčín Region and 11th List of cities and towns in Slovakia, largest city in Slovakia generally. Name The ...
− 1993,
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
) graduated from the FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
in 1955. Among his fellow students were future directors Martin Hollý Jr. and Peter Solan who also began to work at the Koliba film studios (then called the Feature Film Studio and the Short Film Studio) in
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
after graduation. Uher first worked in the short film division. ''The Sun in a Net'' was his second feature film. His first one was ''We from Study Group 9-A'' (''My z deviatej A,'' 1962) about the life of a group of 15-year-old students and their school. Uher followed ''The Sun in a Net'' by two more films with the same author-screenwriter Alfonz Bednár and cameraman − Stanislav Szomolányi, later professor of cinematography at the University of Performing Arts, Bratislava: ''The Organ'' (''Organ,'' 1964), and ''Three Daughters'' (''Tri dcéry,'' 1967). The original music score in ''The Sun in a Net'' is by the composer
Ilja Zeljenka Ilja Zeljenka (21 December 1932 – 13 July 2007) was a Slovaks, Slovak composer. Born in Bratislava, Zeljenka studied music with Ján Cikker from 1951-1956. During the 1970s his more experimental idiom was suppressed by the Communism, Communist r ...
, who also worked with Uher on ''We from Study Group 9-A,'' and went on to work with him on six more films. Uher's and Szomolányi's ''
She Grazed Horses on Concrete ''She Grazed Horses on Concrete'' () is a 1982 Slovakian-Czech comedy-drama film exploring themes of female sexual mores and abortion, holding out in society balanced with comedy and irony in proportions that instantly made it one of the biggest ...
'' (''Pásla kone na betóne,'' 1982) has remained one of Slovakia's most popular domestic productions through the 2000s.


Screenplay

The screenwriter, Alfonz Bednár (1914, Neporadza − 1989,
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
), was already an established writer who published mildly nonconformist fiction somewhat earlier than most other authors. He studied Latin, Slovak, and Czech at universities in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
and
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
. He was also familiar with American and British fiction and had translated
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
,
Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
,
Howard Fast Howard Melvin Fast (November 11, 1914 – March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E.V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson. Biography Early life Fast was born in New York City. His mother, ...
, and other authors. Bednár joined the Koliba film studios,
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
, in 1960. His first screenplay was ''The Sun in a Net.'' He based it on his three short stories "Fajolo’s Contribution" (''Fajolov príspevok''), "Pontoon Day" (''Pontónový deň''), and "Golden Gate" (''Zlatá brána''). A highly likely source of the central theme was the 95% solar eclipse that occurred in
Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
on February 15, 1961. Additional inspiration for the symbolic construction of the storyline may have come from ancient solar myths that have been available in Europe in increasingly numerous publications since at least 1865. A specific myth of the Sun in a net was brought from
Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
, more general myths of catching the Sun have been attributed to the pre-Columbian Americas, some of the published solar myths may date back to
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
prehistory. Associations with
Sol Invictus Sol Invictus (, "Invincible Sun" or "Unconquered Sun") was the official Solar deity, sun god of the late Roman Empire and a later version of the god Sol (Roman mythology), Sol. The emperor Aurelian revived his cult in 274 AD and promoted Sol Inv ...
and other solar myths are possible.


Significance

The early 1960s saw some relaxation of communism in Czechoslovakia. ''The Sun in a Net'' was the first film that took advantage of this new atmosphere. It brought a number of hitherto unacceptable social and political themes: distant — perhaps uncaring — parents, a philandering husband, teenagers changing partners, an attempt at suicide, a poorly run collectivized farm, the fact that the students disdained the summer "voluntary" work camps. None of these issues are resolved in a "positive" manner. The core storyline — the ups and downs in the relationship of two teenagers — the realism and novelty of its urban setting, and the hints at some social and political taboos were not lost on the audience, and cannot have been lost on the censors. ''The Sun in a Net'' pushed the envelope and showed artists, and the audience at large, what the authorities could now be pressed to permit. Besides Štefan Uher’s effort to get past the strict requirements of Socialist Realism, the director was inspired by some of the trends current in (Western) European cinema and culture in the 1950s. Among them were traces of
Italian neorealism Italian neorealism (), also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They p ...
, the film's low-key style, a hint of fashionable existentialism in the dialogues, and attempts at cinéma-vérité amplified in the beer-drinking scenes in a tavern by the employment of a background soundtrack with taped unscripted conversations of real villagers. That also motivated Uher's choice of unconversant actors or non-actors.Martin Votruba, "Historical and Cultural Background of Slovak Filmmaking."
/ref> Some of the film's traits inspired students at the FAMU, who soon followed with a series of films known as the Czechoslovak/Czech New Wave.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun in a Net, The 1963 films Slovak drama films Slovak-language films Czechoslovak black-and-white films Films directed by Štefan Uher Czechoslovak drama films