Movie Details
Movie: Big Opening/velká premiéra (2022)
Director: Miroslav Krobot
Cast: Pavel Simcík, Iva Janzurová, and Iva Pazderková
Genres: Comedy/Drama
Release date: 21 July 2022
IMDB Rating: 4.5/10
Languages: Czech
Duration: 1h 30m
Trailer
Synopsis
I quite like Miroslav Krobot. I have fun in comedic roles such as the District Championship-Last Match, where with his typical rough face and dry humor he can sell any line excellently and has great comedic timing. Which, after all, he confirms in his other creative fields, especially in the Dejvice Theatre. But while he is doing well on the boards, which means the world, and as an actor, he has gained great popularity among the audience, his directorial efforts in the film have so far turned out very poorly. The Hole in Hanušovice was a tiresome and sleepy bore, and unfortunately, the Quartet did not fare much better. Was Krobot able to break the directing bad luck on the third attempt, with the comedic Grand Premiere? In a way, actually. However, several big buts remain.
Krobot’s novel is about the Prague actor Šnajdra (Pavel Šimčík) whose marriage is going through a crisis. His partner is allergic to him, and he is mainly interested in theater and acting, rather than saving a collapsed relationship. Instead of going to marriage therapy, he therefore prefers to take an attractive offer in Olomouc, where he will be able to direct in a theater for the first time. So he moves in with his grandmother, takes a peek at her caretaker, Mikyna, and prepares his first ambitious improv show. Not only does he have an unhappy wife behind him, but also the head of the local theater with political ambitions, Grunt, who wants Šnajdra’s play to be the event of the season.
And as far as the humorous side is concerned, this time the film works much better than in Krobot’s previous attempts. The creator serves not only properly shaking and strange characters but especially in the details of relatively functional and funny scenes with nice sayings and imaginative silence, which do not deny Krobot’s typical handwriting and manage to put a smile on your face relatively easily. In many ways, the film shows not only the director’s unique creative hand and a great feeling for comedic timing, but it also has the right aura of the Dejvice Theatre in certain scenes. And, of course, the cast itself, which Krobot has for the most part already tried and tested, helps a lot.
Pavel Šimčík is not exactly a great actor, but his dialogue exchanges with the angry wife played by Klára Melíšková work perfectly, as well as the romantic flirting with the unexpectedly pleasant Iva Pazderková. Krobot and Boková then play their nice standard in supporting roles, and the most attention is drawn to the right-tempered Iva Janžurová with Tourette’s syndrome, who enjoys her role immensely. It is the properly relaxed cast that can sell every gag perfectly. And that the script offers quite a few of them.
But while writing thank-you messages is not the slightest problem for Krobot, he still hesitates somewhat in the film’s narrative. The big premiere is by far his most entertaining piece and holds its own in entertaining scenes, but as a whole, it doesn’t hold together at all. The film is full of subplots and conflicts or potential relationships between the characters, but basically, none of these lines can be used sufficiently by the script and several of them are even lost. A strong main plot is absent here because Šnajdr’s theatrical rehearsal full of improvisation does not excite the audience very much. After all, Krobot seems like he couldn’t completely get rid of his typical theatrical style this time either, and because of that some passages don’t work very well. The director then has problems with the pace, and his new work seems quite fragmented and incomplete due to the many lines.
The well-known actor and director may have made his best feature film and a nice one-shot, which will not upset the audience in any way, but at the same time, it stands on rather shaky screenwriting and storytelling legs, which are supported especially by the great cast and Krobot’s humorous quips. Although this is enough for a non-offensive Czech average, the potential was a bit higher and the new audience comedy classic did not happen here either this time. Maybe with Krobot’s curve of increasing quality, it will come in a few years.
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