Joachim, Put It in the Machine

František Koudelka is a naive young man coming from the provinces to work in Prague. For the journey he buys something at the station: a biorhythm chart drawn up by computer from his date of birth. The chart says which days are good, which dangerous and which critical. František, whose luck has never held, now knows what to do: he will live by whatever is written on the paper. This Czech comedy, directed by Oldřich Lipský, was very popular in the country in the seventies. The screenplay was written by Ladislav Smoljak and Zdeněk Svěrák, both of whom also act in it; that same pair had founded the best known tradition in Czech humour. The idea is simple and taken all the way: believing a piece of paper makes what the paper says come true. Luděk Sobota has the lead. While the film mocks fate, what it is really mocking is the human wish to avoid deciding anything.