On 28 October, the Ex Oriente Film workshop, organized by the Institute of Documentary Film at Ji.hlava IDFF, hosted a masterclass by award-winning Czech director, script editor and FAMU lecturer Lucie Kralová. During her talk, the helmer focused on her latest documentary feature, titled ‘Kapr Code’ and revolving around the progressive Prague-born composer and prominent communist activist Jan Kapr (1914–1988).
In the film, the documentarian starts “a philharmonic dialogue” with composer Kapr by mixing new opera songs (courtesy of Jiří Adámek) and the late musician’s never-before-seen private archive. The picture has been labelled as “a playful reconstruction of life after death, where the memory of film and Kapr’s music interacts with a story gaining mythological dimensions.”
At ye beginning Kralová touched upon her career, the various courses she teaches at FAMU and her upcoming academic book “Understanding Television,” a research on the institutional and power mechanisms within Czech TV, the country’s most important public broadcaster.
She stated how her contribution was not meant to be “a masterclass” but an opportunity to share her own experience on working on the concept of the film and bringing it into life within the walls of the editing room.
Speaking about how the idea for the documentary came about, Kralová said: “My friend, a violinist and a great musician, just told me about these [Kapr’s] archives, because she’s actually part of the family. She told me that other relatives didn’t care about it at all and asked me whether I knew someone who would be interested in the life of the composer.”
“At the time, I was a screenwriter working for the Czech Television and I wanted to offer it to someone else. Then I met Kapr’s daughter, Magda. […] She asked me to digitise the material,” she revealed.
The first images that caught Kralová’s eye depicted young Kapr eating small flowers such as daisies. She disclosed that the idea of making a film about an unknown composer was much more appealing than working on the biography of a well-known artist, where viewers would expect to deal with more standard archive footage, a voice-over commenting on the images and a “descriptive” style.
Amazed by the archives and reading Kapr’s correspondences with illustrious personalities such as Dutch master Joris Ivens, she ended up being compelled by the idea of making a film, and planned to meet some witnesses “to see what they had to say about him and [listen to] some of their memories.”
“Kapr was such a nice and cheerful man, [they said]. It was such a mantra repeated over again. [At least] in my head I felt it as a mantra,” Kralová said. She started wondering how to approach his biography and the “strange archival treasure.” After some researches, she found out that he used to be bullied, and that the traumas he went could follow the rules of a screenwriting manual. Apparently, his biography was already rich in terms of “classical dramaturgy, structure and conflict with the world.” After an incident which left him almost invalid, Kapr had to abandon his dream to became an accomplished gymnast, and concentrated instead on becoming a composer.
Kralová defined her approach to Kapr’s biography as “hybrid,” thus taking into account the musician’s existence on both personal and artistic levels. What guided her through the making of the film was also the idea of conceiving “life as a composition.” The film itself, she argued, can be considered “a composition” as we see Kapr’s archive intertwined with “the music and the sounds added after his death.” In detail, Kralová’s composition came to life thanks to librettist Jiří Adámek, a ‘New Opera’ artist. Originating from classical opera, ‘New Opera’ has been described by the director as “a very radical genre often covering political subjects,” “humorous” and boasting some electronic influences.
When working on the score, a more “reflexive layer” was added to indicate a degree of uncertainty over aspects of Kapr’s life. “That’s why, in some of the songs, the choir openly says things like ‘we don’t know, we don’t know’ and ‘it’s said’ when referring to rumours,” Kralová further explained. She stressed how this was an honest choice in handling the material, as the information they accessed was fragmentary, and only some of the archives were located, with some other presumably being lost due to activities of the secret police.
Later, an audience member asked whether the choice of putting the woman wearing glasses at the foreground of the choir was deliberate, since she clearly resembles of one of Kapr’s ex-wives. Kralová answered that it was an incredible coincidence. But, somehow, the woman’s personality seemed to mirror that of Kapr’s wife, thus unexpectedly fitting the role.
On the topic of her collaboration with editor Adam Brothánek, Kralová revealed: “We have known each other for 20 years. We made other films together. He really trusts me. He knows I’m crazy.” She said that such trust has been essential to build an intimate relationship with the character. Nonetheless, communication was at times complicated: “Sometimes we were arguing, and once he was editing without me for a couple of days. Then I came and we destroyed everything he did. Out of this destruction, I got some intuitions.”
However, she also blamed herself for being “a control freak,” and thanked Brothánek for his patience, acknowledging how the biggest challenge was to work on this aspect of her modus operandi, reminding how editing is a process relying on co-operation.
