Fotograf (Photographer)

Fotograf

Directed by Irena Pavlásková. Starring Karel Roden, Marie Málková, Zuzana Vejvodová, Václav Neužil ml., Jitka Sedláčková, Vanda Károlyi Konečná, Jenovéfa Boková, Vilma Cibulková, Marika Procházková, Patrik Děrgel, Vilém Udatný, Marian Roden, Jiří Ployhar ml., Radek Balcárek, Petra Lustigová, Anna Polcarová, Tomáš Materna, Jan Saudek, Michaela Jílková, David Černý, Jan Rejžek, Petr Vondráček, Martina Menšíková, Ivanka Devátá, Rostislav Novák st., Iveta Jiřičková, Igor Orozovič, Natálie Řehořová, David Šír, Slávek Bílský, Dáša Zázvůrková, Zbigniew Czendlik, Hana Čížková, Dana Marková. Written by Irena Pavlásková, Jan Saudek.

And yet, we have no reason to doubt the veracity of the film’s claims, because (incredibly) it was co-written by Saudek himself, who also appears together with actor Karel Roden (who plays the photographer in the film) in bumper scenes at the beginning and end.

There are two possibilities here: either Saudek is presenting an exaggerated portrait of his tabloid lifestyle (which is entirely possible – the painter jokes with Roden that the filmmakers should “give the audience what they want” at the beginning) or he’s being brutally honest with the filmmakers here.

In the early 1990s, Saudek is one of the most famous photographers the country has produced, having covertly smuggled his pictures out of the country during the communist years.

Still, he lives an unassuming bohemian life in his modest Prague flat, which always seems to be full of scantily clad women waiting to be photographed in his home studio – and assist the photographer in other ways. Saudek makes no secret of his fetishes, and most of these women are obese (which makes certainly makes for some unique scenes of graphic nudity); still, his many wives and long-term lovers are of the more traditional variety.

Flashbacks detail his early days as a fledgling photographer, shooting his nude wife against the moldy walls of the factory where he worked. Those walls, of course, became one of the defining aspects of Saudek’s work, and years later he recreates the backgrounds in his apartment studio.

The seeds of a storyline are planted in early scenes. It involves young Líba (brilliantly played by Marie Málková), who forcibly inserts herself into Saudek’s life after spotting him at a gallery function. The photographer doesn’t show much interest in her, but once she starts managing his schedule and cleaning up around the studio, she ingratiates herself into his life.

The film belongs to Roden’s Saudek and Málková’s Liba, two incredibly complex characters whose goals aren’t immediately known to us – or even the characters themselves. Roden and Málková have a terrific rapport in scenes that take them from a business relationship to a sexual one, before pitting them against each other as bitter rivals.