Acting

Gustav Opočenský

Born 1920-12-07 · Prague, Czechoslovakia

Gustav Opočenský was the son of Bohemian poet and journalist Gustav Roger of Opočenský (1881-1949). Originally, he began to study law, but after closing Nazi colleges in 1939 he headed for the theater, close to art, thanks to his father. He did not undergo any professional training, but after the war he gained his first permanent engagement in the Realistic Theater in Prague (1945-1946). Due to his unbridled inheritance, his father in the mid-1950s came into conflict with the Communist power, he had to go to the theater in Cologne from Pardubice and eventually in 1956 he banned the ban on artistic activity. Then he worked as a miner, later a worker in Stalin's races in Záluží near Most, but at the beginning of the following decade he managed to return to the theater. Subsequent banning of activity silenced Opočenský for twelve years, he reappeared in the film MARATÓN (1968). We can also remind him of his comedic role as an old Nazi in the movie ZÍTRA VSTANU AND I WILL BE TEA (1977). Gustav Opočensky's wife was actress Eva Strupplová (* 1926). Bohemian and artistic family genes also accompany the lives of their two sons, the artist and musician Petr Opočenský (* 1950) and sculptor Pavel Opočensky (* 1954).

Acting credits

No artwork available
10.0

Eleven-year old Mísa has the temperament of a proper boy and endless problems with the grown-ups. It is no wonder that he longs to become an adult without further delay. Mísa keeps house together with his father and has various duties. After a failed attempt at dish-washing he goes off to the research institute where his father is working on an important invention. He is trying to produce a substance that would make poultry and other animals bigger and thus help the struggle against famine in the world, but so far he has only managed to produce a shrinking substance. After his father leaves the laboratory, Mísa mixes up different ingredients and makes the growth substance. He drinks it and instantly becomes an adult. His father, conversely, turns into a toddler after drinking the shrinking substance with his beer by mistake.

Just Because You're Grown-Up

1970

Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea poster
6.2

Former Nazi Klaus Abard survives to the 1990s by taking anti-ageing pills. He plans to use a time travel trip to return to Germany in 1944 and present Hitler with a hydrogen bomb, so that he can win the war. Unfortunately the pilot, woman-chasing Karel Bures, dies on the morning of the trip and his earnest twin brother Jan impersonates him, without knowing about the plot.

Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea

1977

Witchhammer poster
7.5

In the 1600s, an overzealous clergy hauls innocent women in front of tribunals, forces them to confess to imaginary witchery, and engages in brutal torture and persecution of their subjects.

Witchhammer

1970

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Třírohý klobouk

1971

Marathon poster
5.6

It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.

Marathon

1968

No artwork available
4.0

No synopsis available yet.

Zbabělec

1992

Against All poster
6.1

After the battle of Sudoměř the Hussite teaching spreads through the whole country and people start leaving their homes to help build the fortification of Tábor. Prague citizens request help against the army of Zikmund. The Hussite army with Jan Žižka in the lead make their way towards Prague. They fortify themselves on the mountain Vítkov and engage in a bloody battle with Zikmund’s huge army.

Against All

1957

The Ear poster
7.2

Government bureaucrat Ludvik becomes suspicious after several colleagues disappear and he overhears something strange at a cocktail party. Returning home with his wife, Anna, he finds their house under surveillance and spends a fraught night worrying about his possible arrest in the morning. Marital difficulties come to light as Ludvik and his wife attempt to act normal in front of the cameras while dredging up their problems out of sight.

The Ear

1990

Romaneto poster
7.0

A frightening atmosphere, full of chilling dampness and darkness, follows the fate of a desperate searcher who tries in vain to unravel the supposed secret of the altarpiece...

Romaneto

1981

Jan Hus poster
6.3

The first part of the "Hussite Revolutionary Trilogy", completed with Jan Žižka (1955) and Proti všem (Against All Odds, 1957). The film captures the period from May 1412 to the summer of 1415, a turbulent time in the Czech Kingdom, during which there were protests in Prague against the sale of "omnipotent indulgences" whose sale throughout the kingdom was announced by Pope John XXIII. The ideological leader of this movement is the preacher Master Jan Hus, whose words, calling for the elimination of church abuses, are listened to in the Bethlehem Chapel by thousands of ordinary Praguers, Czech lords and Queen Sophie, wife of the Czech King Wenceslas IV.

Jan Hus

1955

Putování Jana Amose poster
5.5

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

Putování Jana Amose

1983

Days of Betrayal poster
5.6

This feature film based on the events of 1938 is a chronicle of the futile efforts of the Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes (Jirí Pleskot), politicians and ordinary citizens, to save the independence and the territorial integrity of the state from the advance of Hitler's Germany. On the 29th of March 1938 the leader of the Sudeten Germans Henlein (Werner Ehrlicher) has a meeting with Hitler (Gunnar Möller). Hitler orders him to intensify pressure on the Czechoslovak government. On the 24th of April in Carlsbad, the Sudetendeutsche Partei (Sudeten German Party) decides upon eight demands that are unacceptable to the Czechoslovak President, since they would ultimately lead to the break-up of the Republic. Benes still shows a certain willingness to negotiate, and Henlein resents this. The Germans are determined to make further negotiations impossible through incidents and violence.

Days of Betrayal

1973

Funeral Ceremony poster
6.0

Matylda, who lives in the Czech countryside, is trying to arrange burial plans for her dying husband, Jan. While Matylda hopes to have a funeral for Jan in the small town where they once lived, there are complications. Years earlier, Jan spoke out against the Communist government and was consequently expelled from the town. When Matylda fails to convince a local politician to allow the ceremony, she uses her husband's funeral as a public show of dissent.

Funeral Ceremony

1990

Luk královny Dorotky poster
10.0

Set in a vagabond and petty bourgeois environment, the three stories deal with the pitfalls of love, the petty and insidious betrayals of trust.

Luk královny Dorotky

1971

Prince Bajaja poster
6.2

The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.

Prince Bajaja

1971

Chief, There Is a Horse in the Backyard poster
5.5

Criminal comedy, a fourth movie from the "Chief" series.

Chief, There Is a Horse in the Backyard

1990

Jan Žižka poster
7.3

The second part of the revolutionary Hussite trilogy takes place in the years 1419-1420.

Jan Žižka

1956

No artwork available
5.8

At the beginning was the Slovak television series Lekár umierajúceho czasu (Doctor of Dying Time), dedicated to the Rudolphine-era scientist Jan Jesenius. He ended up on the scaffold along with other gentlemen after losing the anti-Habsburg uprising. When director Miloslav Luther conceived the idea of making an abridged version of the footage for cinema, he had to not only rebuild the storyline but also dub it into Czech. However, the result was only an illustrative puzzle, describing the various stages of the hero's turbulent life.

Svědek umírajícího času

1991

Na konci světa poster
4.3

In the 1950s, selected basic soldiers in a small border unit guard the western border with devotion, fighting intruders and uncovering their network of facilitators. It's a story of border guards that thankfully wasn't much of a political nudge, more of a tongue-in-cheek tale of young men at war and their joys and sorrows. And in between, they managed to catch a saboteur.

Na konci světa

1975

On a Wayward Princess poster
5.8

Princess Julia doesn't want to marry an old prince Hubert so she runs away from home. She meets two old magicians and join the circus, where she meets lovely Franta Kuldan and evil devil performer.

On a Wayward Princess

1987

No artwork available
6.5

Otakar Vávra dedicated his latest film to events accompanying the devastation of the first World War. It takes place in representative centers of power, in the courts of Vienna, Berlin and Moscow. In parallel, it develops the fate of the Czech archivist, who will take part in the Serbian anti-Austrian branch.

Evropa tančila valčík

1989

Oldrich and Bozena poster
4.5

At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries Boleslav's kingdom fell apart in the fratricidal war between the Přemyslovci and the other clans the main profiteer of this being the German emperor. At that time it seemed as if the Czech state and the lineage of its princes was awaiting its end..." It is with these words that the tale of this film begins, whose narrative is based upon the the play by František Hrubín of the same name.

Oldrich and Bozena

1985

Build a House, Plant a Tree poster
5.3

Juraj Jakubisko's first feature film after a forced nine-year-long break is a story about an unconventional man, Jozef Matúš. He arrives to a small village in eastern Slovakia to settle down and start a family. He is ready to subordinate everything to his goal. It all starts with stealing building material and ends with him disregarding those close to him to a point where his ambitions are turning against him. Build a House, Plant a Tree is a viewer-friendly film with a plot resembling a western, including several attractive action sequences.

Build a House, Plant a Tree

1980

Hry lásky šálivé poster
4.7

Two historical stories about love. In the story "The Arabian Horse", the scheming townsman Messer Francesco Vergellesi is so firmly convinced of his wife's virtue that he does not hesitate to bet her against a rare stallion he has a crush on... The story "The Earrings" shows how a poor girl can help herself to a rare jewel and what intrigues are needed for an elderly noble couple to finally have an heir...

Hry lásky šálivé

1971