Vlasta Chramostová and Stanislav Milota belong among famous artistic married couples; one is never bored with them. Their famous mutual teasing flows to-and-fro but you can feel their love and respect for each other in it. They have been through a lot together. An excellent actress and an outstanding cameraman are coming this year to Pilsen guests of honour - the festival has prepared for them a big tribute and a small publication.

What do you think about that?

SM: What have we done, what for, comrades? I do not enjoy such festivities! But Vlasta does, she is an actress and they love to be celebrated.
VCh: Do not slender me!
SM: Whose idea was that?

Maybe director Ivan Jáchim...

SM: Director Jáchim is a great man. We like coming to Pilsen and we do it often.
VCh: Pilsen is one of the things that bring us together: we have both been separately and at a different time invited to sit in a jury at Finále. And thus we started coming to Finále regularly and have come to like as it is not as snobbish as other festivals tend to be.
SM: In Plzeň it is about the film, seriously, with properly chosen juries, programme and so on.
VCh: I even have one story from Pilsen, it explains why I like it here. There are many screenings at Finále in various large and small halls and even in the tiniest ones you can see interesting films. Once in a small hall a film called "Žid Süss" was screened and it had to be allowed by the German embassy. I saw the film when I was a little girl, my father could never know about it because I liked German actors. "Žid Süss" is an anti-Semite, political agitation, but it has great actors. Nowadays this film can only be played with permission from the Germans, for example for educational purposes. And then in Plzen I just wanted to se it again after so many years. With new eyes. Questions such as "artists, society and totalitarian regime" are very close to me. This film was screened only for young audience and a teacher said a few sentences to introduce it. After the film I went to the teacher and told him off - it is not possible to show this film to such young people without explaining it further. But he replied: Mrs Chramostová, you can be calm, these children know more about these things than we do; they look after a yard of a synagogue, where there are stones with the names of killed Jews... That is wonderful, isn't it? And that is why I have to love Pilsen.

Many filmmakers come to Pilsen to also catch up on films they missed during the year ..

VCh: We - as judges of Czech Lions - have to keep up with Czech cinematography, however, in Plzeň we see many films, even older ones, which we missed.

And you, Mrs. Chramostová, what do you think about your upcoming tribute in Pilsen?

VCh: So far I do not feel like celebrating, maybe with time and for some other contribution. I only did two films after the November: "Sekal Has to Die" with director Vladimír Michálek, a beautiful film nominated for many awards such as the Czech Lion and "The Melancholy Chicken" directed by Jaroslav Brabec. My other activities were in television. I have the Elsa award but also for a television act, a film by Brabec "P. F. 77".

And what about your rewards, Mr. Milota?

SM: I have received an award for lifelong achievement from the Czech Cameramen Association and a Trilobite for "The Cremator". Trilobite, the award from Film and Television Association, I value the most as it is an award from experts. But I got it already in year 1968, and then I actually quit this profession. It is true that I captured "flat theatre" here in this flat and several other things around Charta 77, but that had hardly anything to do with this activity. And I also have the Award of František Kriegl, which is not relevant to filmmaking. It is true that since 1968 I have not gone back to movie camera.
VCh: Ok, but why have you not gone back to the movie camera? That has to be said!
SM: No, nobody wants to know that!
VCh: But I will say it. "Not much" happened to us in the 70s and 80s but that "not much" caused Milota to have two brain episodes. One of them had an impact on his camera eye, he received twelve lasers. So he could not return, because he loved the camera so much and he would not enjoy just sitting around...
SM: I have to interrupt this defence, but it is a fact that I cannot see with one eye. In addition, after 1998 nobody called me to ask me for cooperation...
VCh: Brabec wanted you!
SM: No, nobody called. Not even when Barrandov was being "chopped up".

I have to disagree with you Mr. Milota: capturing the "flat theatre" in your place has a lot to do with film-making; in addition it is a valuable documentary nowadays. Thank good you made it!

SM: I am glad you say that, but maybe you are the only one, who thinks so. Practically nobody is interested in these records. I don't even know where they are stored. Conditions for their creation were at that time so desperate; there was no film-camera, no material. I still have in my entrance hall the lamps which a "great guy" in Barrandov, electrician Brodil, "helped me steal", and that is the only thing I have from Barrandov! I acquired some material thanks to my former focus puller Bohumil Rath. These two people "stuck" with me and helped me to film the "flat theatre". The times were not easy, in years 1978, 1979 Charta 77 was already being watched, people were being followed, getting everyone into our flat was really hard! For example Landovský climbed here over the roof from Deminka. Our first thing, Play Macbeth, we did just before Kohout's departure. And when everyone left, I and Vlasta shot Pavlíček's "Report on Burials in the Czech Lands".
VCh: It's a long, long time ago!
SM: A long time ago, I think that as far as cultural activity is concerned, this, among Plastic People, other "flats" and literature, is an act that deserves a point. Something new was born at those times.
VCh: I do not want to look like we are the "keeners of the 60s", and I could also say that I only made two films after the November, but it also because we were quite choosy. Moreover, after the November I enjoyed twenty years in the National Theatre. However, in the society there is a kind of subconscious dislike of dissidents and Charta signers, quite frankly: buck-passing subconscious; we are the proof that a man could behave in a different way. One had to decide to do so and sacrifice something for it.
SM: But we were made to do that. At that time I was making "The Cremator", the film was not even finished and suddenly the Russians came. So I picked up a film-camera in Barrandov and went to film the streets. Afterwards I was the only "feature" cameraman fired from Barrandov. But I managed to record Palach's funeral, they had taken away my camera, but the director of the studio Harnach lent it to me and I filmed how after the burning of Jan Palach the nation was ashamed and stood in long queues in front of his coffin. At that time I was making a film for the Germans in Israel and I took one copy there. After the November we searched for it in Israel and did not find it, in the end after many years it was found in our country. It is an eight-minute essay accompanied with music only.
VCh: A well-made work. Milota walked among people and filmed with the camera above his head. And by the way - the film was also shown in Pilsen at Finále.

Mrs. Chramostová, you said you only made two films after the November, however you were also involved as an actress in Havel's Leaving!

VCh: That is true; I did not talk much about it, because it is before its premiere. My husband was also present at its filming and he became an actor! Václav Havel knew he should be with me and watch over me as I am an old lady.
SM: That is not how it happened, I will tell the truth!
VCh: OK, it is piquant.
SM: Havel came to Vlasta for a chat, they talked about the role, and he told her his ideas. And I told him I would like to participate in the filming. One reason was that I hadn't been to any filming in forty years; the other was that I had to inject Vlasta twice a day. So during the filming I was my wife's medic and Havel then asked me if I would play one of his parts. It was a photographer who runs around and at the end of the film he is supposed to say: Thank you for switching off your mobile phones and the truth and love must win over the lies and hatred; good night, sweet dreams! Piquant is, that I contributed - that is in November 1989 - to this sentence. So I said it into the camera but the sentence was stole from me, in the end, somebody else says it!

Mrs. Chramostová, Mr. Milota, did you work together on any other films apart from "The Cremator" and the records of "flat theatre"?

SM: No, nothing else. I chose a lot and refused a lot. So I also turned down "Romance for Flugelhorn" by Otakar Vávra.
VCh: You made a mistake...
SM: I never liked Vávra and I was right to do so, he was a member of the committee which sacked me from Barrandov after August 1968. However, I turned down one of the most beautiful Czech films. I have regretted that till present day but I know that I could not do it with such a person. The cameraman is the closest co-worker of the director; he is a co-director in fact. It is still true today but it was not said so at that time.

To conclude I would like to ask you about the notorious but beautiful "Shakespearian" summary of your relationship.

VCh: One day a long time ago, František Pavlíček asked me to characterise our marriage using Shakespeare's plays. I started: Milota would say The Taming of the Shrew; I would reply Love's Labour's Lost...
SM: There is one important thing here that Pavlíček said...
VCh: ... but I have to say it - even though I have said it many times. Once we were just sitting with Milota and František Pavlíček, Milota was being rather arrogant to me again and Pavlíček said in his perfect Czech: Stanislav, I have always though that you are somewhat moderated by Vlasta. But now after many years I can see that you are as much a son of a bitch as Vlasta is a saint! And I say: that is true after a very thorough observation! Carve it in to stone immediately and cast it in bronze. Those are the words of a deceased classic.

And back to those Shakespeare's plays?

VCh: So The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, continued with The tempest and in the end, at our age it is The Winter's Tale. But that is not a kind fairytale; it is a cruel fairytale just like fairytales ted to be...
SM: there is a cruel winter, a terrible frost! The frost which does not come from Kremlin, but...
VCh: ... from our own home.
SM: From us!

Tomáš Pilát