''Such Is Life'' (Czech: ''Takový je život'') is a 1930 Czech

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by and starring

Vera Baranovskaya Vera Vsevolodovna Baranovskaya (russian: Вера Всеволодовна Барановская; 1885 – 7 December 1935) was a Russian Empire and Soviet actress. She performed in more than twenty films between 1916 and 1935. Biography Barano ...

, Theodor Pištěk and . The German director Carl Junghans was unable to secure funding in his native country, but eventually found an investor in Theodor Pištěk and the movie was made in Czechoslovakia.

Plot

The movie follows story of a washerwoman, her lazy husband and her daughter.

Cast

as Washerwoman * Theodor Pištěk as Washerwoman's husband * as Washerwoman's daughter *

Wolfgang Zilzer Wolfgang Zilzer (January 20, 1901 – June 26, 1991) was a German-American stage and film actor, often under the stage name Paul Andor. Biography Zilzer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to German-Jewish emigrant Max Zilzer, who was employed at the ...

as Washerwoman's daughter's boyfriend *

Jindřich Plachta Jindřich Plachta, born Jindřich Šolle (1 July 1899 – 6 November 1951) was a Czechoslovak film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1926 and 1951. Selected filmography * ''The Lovers of an Old Criminal'' (1927) * '' Father ...

as Seamster * Manja Kellerová as Seamster's wife * Eman Fiala as Pianist *

Valeska Gert Valeska or Valeška may refer to the following people: Given name * Valeska von Gallwitz (1833–1888), German writer *Valeska Gert (1892–c. 1978), German dancer and cabaret artist *Valeska Menezes (born 1976), Brazilian volleyball player * Val ...

as Waitress * Uli Tridenskaya as Washerwoman's friend *

Betty Kysilková Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beatric ...

as Teller *

Edith Ledererová Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and vari ...

as Seamster's daughter * Max Körner as Coal company owner

Reception

The film was well received by critics and audience, however being a silent film in 1930 it couldn't compete with sound films and quickly disappeared from theatres.

Restoration

For many years the film was considered lost. Only in 1959 the film was discovered, reconstructed by director

Elmar Klos Elmar Klos (26 January 1910 – 19 July 1993) was a Czech film director who collaborated for 17 years with his Slovak colleague Ján Kadár and with him won the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for the film ''The Shop on Main Street' ...

and new music was created by

Zdeněk Liška Zdeněk Liška (16 March 1922 – 13 August 1983) was a Czech composer who produced a large number of film scores across a prolific career that started in the 1950s. He was revelatory in his contribution to the development of electronic music. Hi ...

. In 2016 the film was digitally restored by

Czech Film Archive The National Film Archive (, abb. NFA) is a film archive located in Prague, Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to t ...

. The restored version was first shown at

Il Cinema Ritrovato Il Cinema Ritrovato (meaning "cinema rediscovered") is a festival dedicated to the history of cinema, screening classics, retrospectives and showcasing the latest restored films from labs and archives around the world. The majority of the films sh ...

festival in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

on 29 June 2016.

References

External links

* 1930 films Czechoslovak drama films Czech drama films 1930 drama films Czech silent feature films Czech black-and-white films Social realism in film Silent drama films 1930s Czech films {{1930s-CzechRepublic-film-stub