From Saturday to Sunday

After a long period of a distorted view of the history of Czech cinema, better times have indeed been dawning in recent years. Unfortunately, a treasure such as From Saturday to Sunday belongs to the category of displaced sound, which is particularly disappointing in the context of its experimental form. However, if we manage to remove this discord, along with the schematic view of the legend of Machatý as the author of only the films Eroticon and Ecstasy, we are then prepared for a great timeless work that functions without the slightest problem even after almost 80 years since its creation. The straightforward story of Nanny and Mary is as valid now as it was then, even the sparkly spoken word is much closer to Czechs now than the later uneven language of nationalised films. The charming casting of the spicy Jiřina Šejbalová, who moved from silent to sound film with this role, and the civil Magda Maděrová, who resumed her film career in the late 1950s, remains one of Machatý's few original muses in the form of a pair. The stenographers are perfectly complemented by the duo of seducers Rudolf A. Dvorský and Karel Jičínský, who seem to have accidentally dropped out of I Kiss Your Hand Madame, to give way to their exact opposite, the always original L. H. Struna. Hammid's work is then just the finishing touch to the symbiosis of the personalities of the director, the screenwriter Nezval, and the composer of the music Ježek. (22.02.2009)

Old films are simply worth it and it's worth taking the time to try to discover them and watch them. From Saturday to Sunday is an unassuming film, it's not an unnecessarily awkward romance, but it's all the more captivating and, most importantly, it's overall very pleasantly acted and filmed. I like these types of old films. (10.10.2017)

A simple story in a captivating presentation that smells of the enchantment of sound and the opportunity to play around with combining it with images and filming in general. It's a terrible cliché, but this film really barely aged and is perhaps paradoxically more modern than many of those made in the years and decades that followed. Amazing music by Jaroslav Ježek. (19.11.2016)