Summer Cinema — Journey into the Depth of the Student's Soul

Fol­low­ing on from his stu­dent com­e­dy Ško­la zák­lad živ­ota (School is the Foun­da­tion of Life, 1938), Mar­tin Frič’s next pic­ture drew on the ​“Joe Col­lege” texts by author Jaroslav Žák. Ces­ta do hlu­bin študákovy duše (1939) went beyond its inher­ent­ly patri­ot­ic theme, and beyond the lim­its of mere unde­mand­ing enter­tain­ment. The sto­ry frame­work con­sists of the nar­ra­tive of a gram­mar school physics teacher named Rabiš­ka, who has long, and with an exact­ing pas­sion, taught his pupils. The cen­tral char­ac­ters are the sen­si­tive sev­enth-grad­er Vaněk (Rudolf Hrušín­ský), who is a tal­ent­ed pianist, and the kind­ly old nat­ur­al sci­ences teacher Mat­ul­ka (Jindřich Plach­ta), who, due to cold feet, has him­self yet to pass the final state exam. With the help of their young Latin teacher Voříšek (Fran­tišek Vnouček), the stu­dents employ a small ruse to help their favourite teacher.