Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet

Czechoslovakia 1977, 103 min.

Director: Oldřich Lipský. Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka, Oldřich Lipský. Director of photography: Jaroslav Kučera. Film editor: Miroslav Hájek. Music: Luboš Fišer. Architect: Milan Nejedlý, Vladimír Labský. Cast: Michal Dočolomanský, Rudolf Hrušínský, Miloš Kopecký, Ladislav Pešek, Naďa Konvalinková, Václav Lohniský, Květa Fialová, Olga Schoberová, Martin Růžek, Karel Effa, Zdeněk Dítě, Vladimír Hrabánek, Myrtil Frída, Jiří Brdečka.

Always ready for everything, famous American detective, Nick Carter, arrives in the picturesque city of Prague to solve a mysterious disappearance. Accompanied by police commissioner Ledvina, he becomes acquainted with the beauty of his surroundings, draught beer, sausages, smelly cheese and the culture of slapping. Together, they follow the trail of the most mysterious criminal of the 20th century, nicknamed the Gardener, and solve the case of the Mozart loving Adele. The grotesque style of Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet beckons audiences into the colorful greenhouse of animation, inviting them to take part in this self-assured parody on shoddy detective stories.

The Audience is sucked along the naturalistically smacking tongue into the very esophagus of tentacled Adele. The animator’s work is brilliant and the actors, eyes sparkling with exuberation from the shooting – half film, half game -are guided with precision by the director who maintains a stylized tone throughout the film. The purity of genre and professional work is truly a rarity.

[Alois Humplík (1978): Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet. Práce 34, no. 241 (12. 10.), pg. 6.]