Pavel Hobl’s feature-length debut, Do You Keep a Lion at Home? (Máte doma lva?), was made in 1963, as the Czech New Wave was in the ascendent and there were ongoing attempts to revise established film genres. Czech cinema of the 1960s was defined not only by a surge in auteur filmmaking but also by significant transformations of certain genres: historical films, comedies, and crime films. Children’s film stood on the sidelines of this boom. This is what makes Do You Keep a Lion at Home? such a unique film: it seeks out new directions for children’s film while using the fresh formal means typical of the New Wave.

In the first half of the 1960s, there were constant discussions about the need to develop a new form of fairy tale film. Filmmakers and film theorists came to focus, among other things, on the “modern fairy tale”, in which fantastic motifs (unreal creatures, supernatural phenomena, and magic) intertwine with modern reality. This model can be observed in the basic plotline of Do You Keep a Lion at Home? When Pepík and Honzík find their kindergarten closed, they head out alone on a trip through Prague, experiencing a series of adventures in which unbridled fantasy plays the main role. They meet a speaking dog on the street, get lost at a meeting of ghosts in the Old Town Hall, take over for a policeman directing traffic, and watch an animated helicopter hover over the Vltava River… The film was a true milestone in the modern fairy tale genre in Czech cinema. It was not until afterwards that the films and television series we associate with this genre came out: Pan Tau, The Girl on the Broomstick (Dívka na koštěti), Arabela, and The Octopuses from the Second Floor (Chobotnice z II. patra).

Blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy, or between objective and subjective representation, was a strategy typical of the New Wave. Hobl’s film offers no clues that would allow even the most fantastic scene to be interpreted as subjective. The film builds a fantastical poetic time-space that operates according to its own rules. However, it goes even further in combining the seemingly incompatible. Hobl, who had previously worked as a documentarian and would later create animated films, made the following statement in a 1964 interview for the magazine Kulturní tvorba: “I have the feeling that dividing film into categories is purely artificial, unnatural. The time has come that proves us right, that individual types intertwine and enhance each other.” In his film, black-and-white footage is followed by colour sequences, and live-action passages by documentary footage, with special effects and animated elements interspersed throughout (the art director was Jan Brychta, who played a minor role as a painter).

The film’s narrative embodies the concept developed by screenwriter and dramaturge Ota Hofman, a pioneer of the modern Czech fairy tale film, who praised Hobl’s debut as “a fairy tale of the streets of [19]64”. In works for children, Hofman promoted a type of narrative in which stories are strung loosely in a line like beads on a string; each bead is a story, and excitement is regularly followed by calm. The narrative of Do You Keep a Lion at Home? perfectly follows this model. Where one adventure ends, a new one suddenly begins. Action-filled sequences are followed by lyrical passages, songs, and musical numbers, which intentionally slow the film’s pace down. It was no coincidence that promotional materials for the film and contemporary reviews referred to it as a “musical folding book”. Instead of a coherent plot, it offers a series of episodes linked by the travels of the two young protagonists, each of which brings something new and surprising.

The films of the Czech New Wave also upended the classic dramatic structure. They replaced it with an episodic form, created by loosely connected segments that often remained open. Hobl shot his film at the same time Miloš Forman was making Black Peter (Černý Petr) and Věra Chytilová Something Different (O něčem jiném). They too worked with loosely constructed narratives, but unlike Hobl, they tended towards “cinéma vérité”, a style that in the spirit of verist poetics approached the documentary portrayal of reality. In contrast, Do You Keep a Lion at Home? stands out thanks to its playful stylization, which would become an established element in Czech New Wave films several years later. With a bit of hyperbole, the film could be called Daises (Sedmikrásky) for children. It shares with Věra Chytilová’s work a similar narrative model and the stylistic diversity hinted at above.

The film garnered acclaim both at home and abroad, winning, among other prizes, the Lion of Saint Mark at the 16th International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Venice. Some journalists and commentators even pointed out Hobl’s kinship with the rising generation of auteur filmmakers. Jaroslav Boček, writing for Kulturní tvorba, noted that “he introduces a new tone that runs counter to… the young people’s one-sided focus on cinéma vérité…, which is growing almost dangerous. […] The creative work of this generation thus gains a much broader foundation; it is expanding, and not even talents who are the polar opposites of Hobl will be able avoid his contribution.” Others saw more than just innocent children’s entertainment in the film. Gustav Francl even wrote in the magazine Kino about the disquieting philosophical questioning of the meaning of fantasy and its place in life.

Despite these initial reactions, Hobl never belonged to the New Wave, and today Do You Keep a Lion at Home? is not classified as part of it. It is certainly one of the most overlooked Czech films of the 1960s. You will not even find it listed among the golden Czech classics for children, even though it truly deserves a spot in that imagined collection – whether for its pioneering approach to the modern fairy tale or its original form, which went beyond the standards of (not only) contemporary children’s film. Pavel Hobl did not build on the success of his debut, distancing himself rather quickly from children’s film. Nonetheless, he shot the most experimental Czech children’s film of the 1960s, which also marked a striking evolutionary dead end in the Czech New Wave.

Lukáš Skupa

Synopsis:
When two little boys take a trip through Prague, the city transforms into a space where everyday reality intertwines with fantasy. The 1963 feature-length debut of director Pavel Hobl, Do You Keep a Lion at Home?, is a playful modern fairy tale that combines the child’s imagination with the experimental poetics of the New Wave. This film, one of the most original Czech productions of the 1960s, is nearly forgotten today.