EMPTIES directed by Jan Sverak, written by Zdenek Sverak, with Zdenek Sverak, Daniela Kolarova and Pavel Landovsky. A Maple Pictures release. 100 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (June 5). For venues and times, see Movies.
It’s the morning after the first public screening of Empties at the Toronto Film Festival 2007, and director Jan Sverak is a teensy bit less stressed. Why? Because the crowd laughed in all the right places.
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“It was almost the same reaction that we had in the Czech Republic,” he says over coffee. “I was watching carefully to see if only the Czech people were reacting. But I realized the laughs were coming after reading the subtitles, not when the words were spoken. So they were Canadians.”
Sverak’s nervousness is endearing, especially for someone who already has an Oscar on the mantle at home in Prague. Back in 1996, he directed the heartstring-pulling international hit Kolya, which, like Empties, stars his father, the gruff, bearded actor Zdenek Sverak.
Empties, a dark comedy about a cynical retired teacher of literature (Zdenek) who takes up work in the bottle-return department at a Czech supermarket, is the third collaboration with Jan directing and Zdenek writing and acting.
“We know we have the same goal on a movie,” says the scholarly-looking director. “Nothing we say is personal – it’s for the good of the movie. My father is such a good writer that I won’t change his dialogue. But I sometimes have to cut jokes because a scene is too long. I’ll ask him what he wants to cut and he’ll tell me, You do it – you choose which jokes you want to kill!'”
In the Czech Republic, Empties demolished box office records, which surprised everyone involved. Young viewers were going twice – the second time dragging along their parents.
“I remember at one point during the filming, we were thinking, because it was about older people, Oh shit, we are making a film that no one is going to watch!’ But then I remembered Driving Miss Daisy and what a surprise that was. There are millions of people who don’t go to movies because there are no films for them to see.”
Still, Empties wasn’t easy to make. Midway through pre-production, father and son came to an impasse. Zdenek’s script just wasn’t working.
“I gave him comments on the script while I was working on pre-production, and he just made small changes. So I had to stop production. If I directed a film I didn’t believe in, I’d hate him for making me do it.”
For months, Zdenek was so upset that he wouldn’t even shake his son’s hand. What made it worse was that their squabbles were being captured in a documentary – co-directed by Jan – on the making of the film.
“Finally I got him to say he would take six months and try the script again,” says Sverak. “It took him a year, but it worked out.”
After Kolya’s Oscar win, Sverak received about two American scripts per week. Most were appalling.
“I was afraid to do something that wasn’t close to my heart, just to make an English-language picture.”
Plus, there was the pressure. “It was like a gold-medal winner going back to the Olympics. The silver isn’t good enough.”
Not that Sverak’s an art-house snob. He had a ball directing Empties’ climactic balloon sequence, a bravura bit of filmmaking.
“I’d love to do a Bond pic one day. I love playing with toys.”
On Czech politics and arts funding:
On the movie’s title:
On avoiding sentimentality:
glenns@nowtoronto.com
