The End of Old Times

Czechoslovakia, 1918. The newly formed National Assembly makes Stoklasa the administrator of Kratochvile Castle. Stoklasa is not of noble family but he has money, and he wants to buy the castle. To impress his neighbours and the local politicians he arranges a great hunting party. An uninvited guest arrives: a man who says he is Duke Alexej. Stoklasa takes him for a hustler. But before he leaves the man manages to charm every woman in the house. The film tells the ending of an old order through comedy. It is adapted from a novel. Josef Abrhám and Marián Labuda take the leads in Jiří Menzel’s Czechoslovak film of 1990.