The Cremator

"Tender," said Mr. Karel Kopfrkingl to his beautiful dark-haired wife at the entrance to the reptile pavilion, and a light spring breeze ruffled his hair, "so we are here again. Here in this dear, blessed place where we met seventeen years ago. Do you still remember, Lakmé, in front of whom it was?"

The characteristic manner of speech of the main character in Ladislav Fuks's novel The Cremator became inseparably intertwined with the diction and acting style of Rudolf Hrušínský in Herz's film adaptation. The grotesquely horrific study of a character obsessed with power resonated at the time of its release in March 1969, given the current political and social experience, even more intensely as an allegory of the treachery of conformism - and several weeks after the premiere, the film was withdrawn from cinemas.

Digitally restored film.