Underplayed Gems

Jára Cimrman Lying (1983)

Jára Cimrman Lying poster
Original title
Jára Cimrman ležící, spící
Directed by
Ladislav Smoljak
Genre
comedy film, biographical film
Country
Czechoslovakia
Runtime
1h 21m
Rating
8.1 of 10 from 19 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This comedy is a fake biography of a fictional Czech hero. It follows his supposed adventures across Europe as he interacts with historical figures and tries to undermine the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

playfulwhimsicalmock-seriouslightheartednostalgicdeadpaninventiveepisodic

What happens

Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping (Czech: Jára Cimrman ležící, spící) is a 1983 Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Ladislav Smoljak. It is a biopic of the fictional Czech national hero Jára Cimrman, who is portrayed by one of his inventors, Zdeněk Svěrák. The story is framed by an excursion to Liptákov, the (fictional) village where Cimrman allegedly spent the final years of his life. The retrospective passages, which make up most of the film, span Cimrman's whole "known" life, where he interacts with many personalities of Czech and European science and culture in the Belle Époque. A large portion of the film deals with Cimrman's acting as a tutor in the family of Franz Ferdinand d'Este, the heir presumptive of Austria-Hungary. In this role Cimrman is secretly aiming to "split the monarchy". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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