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The Sun in a Net
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Wikipedia article
'The Sun in a Net' ('Slnko v sieti', also translated as 'Sunshine in a net' or 'Catching the sun in a net'Jaroslav Boek, aska Batokov, Lubo Bartoek, Jan Hoeji and Jii Havelka: "Modern Czechoslovak film", 1965. Editor: Stanislav Zvonek, 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 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" Fajtk (Marin Bielik), a student who directs quasi-existentialist verbal abuse at his girlfriend Bela Blaejov (Jana Belkov), 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 (Elika Nosov) studied helplessness, and her father's (Andrej Vandlk) revealed infidelity and past break with his father (Adam Jano) who happens to live in the village where Fajolo is finding some consolation in the arms of a fellow student-volunteer Jana (Oga alagov). As Fajolo begins to pry into Bela's grandfather's secrets, she, in turn, allows her new boyfriend Peo (ubo 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[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/slnko-pog.shtml Jasmine Pogue, "tefan Uher: 'The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti)' 1963."] 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 beyond the city's suburbs, which Fajolo and Peo 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
*Marin Bielik as Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajtk
*Michal Doolomansk (born 1942) as Oldrich "Fajolo" Fajtk (voice)
*Jana Belkov as Bela Blaejov
*Elika Nosov as Mother, Stanislava "Stanka" Blaejov
*Andrej Vandlk (1925-1985) as Father, Jn "Jano" Blaej
*Peter Lobotka as Son/Brother Milo Blaej
*Adam Jano as Farm Stacker Blaej, father/grandfather
*Pavol Chrobk as Supervisor Mechanic Blaej
*Viliam Polnyi (born 1928) as Supervisor Mechanic Blaej (voice)
*ubo Roman (born 1944) as Peo
*Oga alagov as Jana
Uher chose little known actors (Elika Nosov and Andrej Vandlk, both from the SNP Theater in Martin) or non-actors, two of whom had to be dubbed by Michal Doolomansk, a student of acting and later a star of Slovak cinema, and by Viliam Polnyi, a professional actor. Only ubo Roman, a student of acting at that time, became a successful actor, theater administrator, and ultimately a politician. Jana Belkov 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
tefan Uher (1930, Prievidza 1993, Bratislava) graduated from the FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague in 1955. Among his fellow students were future directors Martin Holl 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 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 Bednr and cameraman Stanislav Szomolnyi, later professor of cinematography at the University of Performing Arts, Bratislava: 'The Organ' ('Organ,' 1964),[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/organ.shtml Peter Konen, "tefan Uher: 'The Organ (Organ),' 1964."] and 'Three Daughters' ('Tri dcry,' 1967). The original music score in 'The Sun in a Net' is by the composer Ilja Zeljenka, 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 Szomolnyi's 'She Grazed Horses on Concrete' ('Psla kone na betne,' 1982) has remained one of Slovakia's most popular domestic productions through the 2000s.
Screenplay
The screenwriter, Alfonz Bednr (1914, Neporadza 1989, Bratislava), 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 and Bratislava. He was also familiar with American and British fiction and had translated Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Howard Fast, and other authors.
Bednr joined the Koliba film studios, Bratislava, in 1960. His first screenplay was 'The Sun in a Net.' He based it on his three short stories "Fajolos Contribution" ('Fajolov prspevok'), "Pontoon Day" ('Pontnov de'), and "Golden Gate" ('Zlat brna'). A highly likely source of the central theme was the 95% solar eclipse that occurred in Central Europe on Feb. 15, 1961.[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/votruba.shtml#cz1945 Martin Votruba, Footnote 19, in: "Historical and Cultural Background of Slovak Filmmaking."] 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, 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 prehistory.Edward Burnett Tylor, 'Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.' London, 1865 Associations with Sol Invictus 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.[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/macek.shtml Vclav Macek, "From Czechoslovak to Slovak and Czech Film."] 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.[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/slnko-gol.shtml Alex Golden, "tefan Uher: 'The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti)' 1963."]
Besides tefan Uhers 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, the film's low-key style, a hint of fashionable existentialism in the dialogues, and attempts at cinma-vrit 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.[http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/3/votruba.shtml#cz1945 Martin Votruba, "Historical and Cultural Background of Slovak Filmmaking."] 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
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