Ladislav Rychman


Ladislav Rychman was a Czech film director, who made the Czechoslovak musical comedies Starci na chmelu and Dáma na kolejích .
Starci na chmelu is a light examination of adolescent morality and bureaucracy about a group of pre-teen boys and girls picking hops under school supervision. One boy builds a secret hideaway in an attic. When a schoolgirl finds him in his retreat, puppy-love blossoms, but a jealous classmate tells the teacher about the two friends, and they are suspended from school. The boy and girl accept their punishment and form an even stronger bond. The two leave the school together while their classmates ostracize the jealous informant.
Dáma na kolejích is a musical comedy about a streetcar driver in Prague who mounts a campaign for women's rights when she discovers her husband's love affair.

Music Clips

Rychman is also considered a key figure in the development of early Czech music videos. 1958's "Dáme si do bytu" differs in style to earlier musical films such as Bessie Smith's St. Louis Blues, in that the narrative is contained within the song and not extrapolated out into a longer form story. It also features heavy art direction and abstraction which was not common in promotional music films at the time.

Filmography

Selected movies