• 06/03/2023
• By wizewebsite
• 393 Views

Cult series Woman behind the counter: The ardent communist Jiřina Švorcová experienced great love and trickery from the director during filming<

If we want to stick a "cult" tag on a series, then The Woman Behind the Counter certainly deserves it. We can argue about it, but it is certain that even most young people today at least have an idea of ​​what it is about. A socialist series from the environment of a grocery store and households, as well as the lives of the people who worked here, is what attracts old and new viewers to the screens even today. For some, it is a nostalgic return to youth (that is, mainly for those who have already forgotten a lot of things), for those with a better memory, The Woman Behind the Counter is a rather bizarre spectacle, a fairy tale about what the filmmakers were able to find and put on the shelves, while elsewhere there were long queues for such goods - when they happened to arrive. And the character of saleswoman Anna Holubová, played by Jiřina Švorcová, stands out above all of this.

Filming of the unforgettable Cottagers: Stealing carp, Menšík without a driver's license and startling Sovák

Without a husband and without children

The series was created in 1977, when Jiřina Švorcová was forty-nine years old. In the same year, the actress, whom everyone mainly associates with her devotion to communist ideas, died of her second husband, the painter Vladimír Šolta. No child was born either from the first marriage with Jindřich Rohan or from this second union, so Jiřina Švorcová was left alone. Perhaps she became even more attached - and, according to her own story, literally fell in love - with the serial's son Peter, played by Jan Potměšil. How did the representative of her descendant see it?

At first they got along well...

According to later interviews, little Jan Potměšil at the time of filming was not particularly interested in the environment in which the series was filmed or whether it was actually a certain kind of propaganda. He got along well with his serial mother even later, until the November revolution, which directed him elsewhere, he began to think more about the events around him and he no longer wants to return to the serial.

A bit of a malicious move by the director

In addition to little Jan Potměšil, Jiřina Švorcová had one more love "on the set" next to her - at that time she was already an ex. But she was no longer so happy about it. What happened? In one of the male roles, the director Jaroslav Dudek cast the actor Zdenek Řehoř, whom he knew well to be the ex-love of the then-married actress of the main role. But in the end, their love failed after all, Jiřina Švorcová ended the relationship and Zdeňko Řehore hurt and offended her. And it was this actor who was supposed to strive for Anna Holubová in the series.

The difficult youth of the brilliant actor Jaroslav Marvan: He lived in the shadow of his dead brother. He could become himself far away from his family

Revenge for a forced change

If it seems like approval, such reasoning approaches the truth literally at the speed of light. Jaroslav Dudek had Jana Hlaváčová in the main role, but the TV management finally decided that either the prominent communist Jiřina Švorcová would play Anna Holubová, or nothing would be filmed. And so the director coped with the situation in his own way.

Where to take the goods to the "store"?

In addition to casting the main and secondary roles, the fitting out of the store was also interesting and complex. Do we actually still remember what it looked like in regular stores back then? How many goods were on the shelves and especially what kind? If so, it is not difficult to compare the reality of that time with the scenes of the series - full shelves were literally overflowing with goods that people could often only dream about, unless they had a well-known salesperson or, even better, a manager in the store. After all, the staff also had a lot to do to get all the goods.

Do not touch the goods!

"Edible" props were collected from several establishments and once they were placed in the serial shop, no one was allowed to touch them. In order to use shots of tempting goods as often as possible, the creators of the series filmed them fresh from many angles and arranged them in various ways so that they could be used in the course of all subsequent episodes. So it is quite possible that the ham that we see in the last episode is the same as the one that Anna Holubová was cutting in the second episode. Although the environments were quite different from the reality of the time (or maybe because of that), the series was successful not only in Czechoslovakia, but also in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic and even in Mexico.

Source: wikipedia, csfd

WHERE NEXT: Socialist and post-revolutionary New Year's Eve: How did the entertainment on the screens change during the last day of the year?