Jana Romanová

Acting

Jana Romanová

Born 1920-05-19 · Praha, Československo

A Czech theater and film actress born on May 19, 1920, in Prague. She had always been drawn to the arts, ever since childhood. We do not know when or why she decided to pursue acting. Although it was not common at the time for parents to support their children’s acting careers, this was not an issue in Jana’s family. In fact, thanks to her father’s connections, she received private acting lessons from the legendary actor Rudolf Deyl Sr. She began acting with an amateur theater group at Umělecká beseda and later enrolled in the drama department at the Prague Conservatory. In 1939, she received her first professional engagement with Fráňa Francl’s theater troupe and subsequently joined the ensemble at the Vinohrady Theater, where she remained until her emigration. In total, she appeared in 14 films. Her film debut was “Svatební cesta” (1938), in which she played a minor role alongside Adina Mandlová, František Krištof Veselý, and Eva Gerová. Her next role was Amálka in Vlasta Burian’s film “Ulice zpívá” (1939). This was followed by “Přítelkyně pana ministra” (1940), “Advokát chudých” (1941), “Provdám svou ženu” (1941), and the well-known film “Nebe a dudy” (1941), starring Jaroslav Marvan and Jindřich Plachta. Perhaps her best-known film is “Muži nestárnou” (1942). In addition to Zita Kabátová, she starred alongside Jan Pivec, with whom she also appeared in her next film, “U pěti veverek” (1944). In 1943, Jan Pivec became her husband, although their marriage ended in divorce a few years later. After the liberation, she appeared in Průlom (1946), “Týden v tichém domě” (1947), “Nikola Šuhaj” (1947), “Nevíte o bytě” (1947), and “Až se vrátíš...” (1947). Her last film was “Alena” (1947). At the turn of 1948–1949, she married for the second time and soon afterwards emigrated to England, where she settled and presumably started a family. While in England, she met up several times with her friends Adina Mandlová and Sylva Langová. She returned to Czechoslovakia once more in the 1960s, where, among other things, she met Jan Pivec backstage at the National Theatre. However, she never returned to England. She died on May 9, 2007.

Acting credits

Svatební cesta poster
10.0

Kind and decent professor Artur Čejka is about to marry his fiancée Helena Frýdlová. On the eve of the wedding, he comes across the unfortunate actress Káťa Holanová on the riverbank, who has been unsuccessfully looking for an engagement for a long time and wants to take her own life out of desperation. Čejka prevents her from committing suicide and helps her. He meets the girl again on the train when he and Helena are going on their honeymoon...

Svatební cesta

1938

I‘ll Marry Off My Wife poster
7.8

The film is about a slightly crazy botany professor Ducánek, who is so busy with his scientific experiments that he has completely forgotten that he is married. Neither his housekeeper Veronika nor his friend Potužník knew about the existence of his capricious wife, the operetta diva Lucy. However, when his wife returns home after seven years in remorse, Ducánek takes a complicated action to elegantly get rid of his wife...

I‘ll Marry Off My Wife

1941

Přítelkyně pana ministra poster
8.1

The main character of the funny story is an ordinary typist Julinka Svobodová, who works for the established business firm Hrubý a syn and lives in a sublet with the seamstress Mrs. Pokorná. Although she is poor and sometimes manages to be late, she is still cheerful and pleasant. However, a small coincidence is enough and everything changes. That is when she takes an elevator ride with the Minister of Trade, Dr. Horák, who coincidentally lives in the same building. Mrs. Pokorná, in good faith, hints to the inquisitive landlady that Julinka is the Minister's girlfriend. From the talkative woman, an innocent rumor spreads like wildfire and, surprisingly, it helps the girl in every way...

Přítelkyně pana ministra

1940

Průlom poster
6.0

A small Czech town in the 1860s. The townspeople once made a fortune from the proceeds of gold mines that are now flooded. However, they do not want to invest in draining them, as they are convinced that it is not worth it. However, the cessation of mining has plunged the miners' family into poverty. After vain requests for help in the town and the governor's office, the miners decide to take action themselves...

Průlom

1946

No artwork available
7.0

In an unsightly tenement house, the walls of which are as peeling as the souls of the tenants, an old woman waits for her son to return from prison. However, her neighbors believe that she is hiding a large fortune in her tattered suitcase, which she protects like the apple of her eye, and they want to get hold of it at any cost.

Až se vrátíš...

1948

Nikola Shuhai poster
7.0

At the end of the First World War, Nikola Shuhai and his friend from the army desert. On the way home, to the village of Kolochava, they both find refuge with baby Jaga. Jaga mixes them a drink to protect them from the deadly bullets. The bachelors must promise to marry her daughters in exchange for a drink, or they will be punished. Nikola finds his home village in poverty. He stands against the powerful and the rich, and they turn the gendarmes against him. Nikola hides from them in the woods, where he will remain even after the end of the war, because nothing has changed for the villagers. Out of poverty and hopelessness, other men join Nikola and together they raid the wealthy. Nikola distributes the obtained booty to the poor and needy, who see him as their protector and hero.

Nikola Shuhai

1947

Lawyer of the Poor poster
8.0

A kind-hearted man and lawyer's clerk, Kypr, selflessly takes care of his ward Anna Marie and in the evenings helps the poor and helpless with various legal problems at the U Hrubiána pub. While Anna Marie gains the opportunity to succeed as a singer, the aging man struggles with growing problems that stem not only from his work as a lawyer for the poor, but above all from his tragic past shrouded in mystery, which catches up with him again after years...

Lawyer of the Poor

1941

Alena poster
8.8

Master armourer Tomás has young wife Alena, of whom he is very jealous. One day the ruler of town sees Alena and decides to win her over for himself. To get a free hand for his love affairs, he sends Master Tomás to acquire more skills in Flanders. Jealous husband does not know how to secure fidelity of his beautiful wife while he is away, and finally accepts aid of the devil, to whom he signs his soul as a reward. Devil in the disguise of Master Ondrej works in Tomás's workshop and protects Alena against various courtiers and the ruler of town. But finally he falls in love with Alena himself and becomes her lover.

Alena

1947

Chalk and Cheese poster
9.0

Rudolf Bartoš, the owner of a farm, quarry and factory, is extremely rich, however, he is unapproachable and irritable, and the dread of his employees. One day he falls down a steep slope by a river and hurts himself. The quarryman Fábera finds him groaning in pain and takes him to his cottage.

Chalk and Cheese

1941

Nevíte o bytě? poster
7.0

A comedy about the post-war housing crisis in Prague, which several young people are struggling with. The young puppeteer Josef lives in a sublet with the singer Šimůnek, who is currently missing. After returning from a trip, Josef discovers that a demobilized member of the foreign army, a Slovak woman named Elena, has been given a decree for the apartment. And she does not want a sublet. The couple starts looking for a new sublet, but is unsuccessful due to the housing crisis. However, since the two young people have fallen in love in the meantime, the solution seems obvious...

Nevíte o bytě?

1947

The House of the Five Squirrels poster
7.3

Josef Houbička, the owner of the U pěti veverek apartment building in Malostran, is a kind and forgiving good man who allows himself to be ruthlessly oppressed by his proud wife, Filoména, and secretly fixes her problems with the tenants. He lends rent money to two poor painters and bribes offended maids just to keep the house quiet. He would like to restore the old soap factory in the house, but Filoména promotes more profitable garages. And since neither of them wants to back down, Houbička eventually leaves the house after one of the arguments. He makes friends with the innkeeper Pulec, who runs the not-so-prosperous inn At the Leaky Jug...

The House of the Five Squirrels

1944

Muži nestárnou poster
6.3

In 1911, Stáňa Járský was giving music lessons to little Jiřina Horníková and fell passionately in love with his pupil's mother. The evening before he left for his studies, Mrs. Helena succumbed to him. Nine years later, engineer Járský met the grown-up Jiřina in Prague - and love met him again. However, this time he was not lucky either, the girl had to save the family factory with a marriage of convenience. After another nineteen years, CEO Járský returns home after a long stay abroad. His hair is graying, but he is still charming and elegant. How will his meeting with young Helenka, the granddaughter and daughter of his former loves, turn out?

Muži nestárnou

1942

The Street is Singing poster
8.7

A pair of circus clowns, played by Vlasta Burian and Jaroslav Marvan, take in an abandoned child and care for them even when they have to make a living as street musicians. The grateful foundling loves his adoptive parents even in adulthood, when he struggles with both love and stolen loot that accidentally falls into their laps. However, the result is only a crudely sentimental comedy that is considered one of the weakest works of the king of comedians, although he also participated in the direction.

The Street is Singing

1939

A Week in the Quiet House poster
7.0

A sometimes humorous, sometimes more serious look at the hustle and bustle of a house in Lesser Town with a diverse array of tenants living there, and often petty quarrels that break out between them. Behind the facade of the house in Lesser Town "U dvou slunců" (Two Suns) there is life. The Bavors live here, eternal slaves to the grocery store. The Ebros, who need to marry their daughter off at a good price. The bachelor Dr. Loukota and other interesting Nerudov characters.

A Week in the Quiet House

1947