František Velecký
Also Known As: Fero Velecký, Fero Velecky
Biography: Velecký was a very particular figure of Slovak acting, being antipode to venerated mainstream showbiz celebrities. Although he had never received any formal training in acting, he managed to earn great respect of both filmmakers and audience members. He performed in some 50 Slovak, Czech, German, Hungarian and UK/US movies, but he will be most remembered for portraying the lead character of Mikoláš in the Czech movie Marketa Lazarová. Velecký was born 8 March 1934 in Zvolen. He originally studied civil engineering and worked as a designer for few years. However, since his early age he was attracted by the world of cinema and finally in his 30s managed to get his first major roles. Practically at the beginning of his acting career, after a few minor films including Každý týždeň sedem dní (1964) and Nylonový mesiac (1965), he received the role of his lifetime in Marketa Lazarová (1966). This experience deeply influenced the rest of his life. In interviews, he described with gratitude how the director František Vláčil completely changed his way of seeing the world during the long production of this movie. Despite the impact the role had on the film (widely considered the best Czech cinema) and on his life, Velecký would probably be more recognized by Western audiences for his appearances in The Brothers Grimm (released 2005) and the Academy Award-nominated Želary (2003). For most of his career, Velecký was free of any theatre company ties except being briefly associated with the Theatre of Spišká Nová Ves in the 1980s. During his professional career, Velecký was not limited to acting. He was assistant director to Juraj Jakubisko on the film Zbehovia a pútnici (1968) and he applied his talent in fine arts during the 1990s. Velecký died of cancer 5 October 2003 in Bratislava.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Zvolen, Slovakia
Adult: No
Birthday: March 08, 1934
Age: 91 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: October 05, 2003
Popularity:
Known For:
On the Great River
Overview: Second movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu
Genres: Adventure Family
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1978-11-10
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Bludička
Overview:
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1977-11-18
Popularity:
Marketa Lazarová
Overview: Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1967-11-24
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Rajský plyn
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1970-01-01
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Kto ste, Jozef Gabčík
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1987-01-01
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Na konci diaľnice
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1983-04-28
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Smrť chodí po horách
Overview:
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1979-01-01
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Stopy na Sitne
Overview:
Genres: War Adventure Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1969-01-30
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Šaty
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1972-01-01
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Slečna Dušehojivá
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 2000-01-01
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The Brothers Grimm
Overview: Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. However, they are put to the test when they encounter a real magical curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, requiring genuine courage.
Genres: Adventure Fantasy Action Comedy Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-08-26
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Nebezpečné známosti
Overview: The beautiful, bright and intelligent, but perfectly mischievous Marquise de Mertuil and her charming and equally depraved and ruthless friend, the master of seduction Vicomte de Valmont play a cynical game full of intrigue. The marquise is willing to devote one night full of passion to the viscount. However, on the condition that the viscount first deflowers the innocent Cecile de Volanges, who is to marry her former lover. In the end, they themselves become victims of their own dangerous game.
Genres: Drama Romance TV Movie
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1980-01-01
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Nylon Moon
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1966-02-11
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Husaren in Berlin
Overview: Comedy about the "Husarenstreich", the 1757 Berlin raid during the Seven Years' War.
Genres: Comedy History
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1971-06-25
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Niet inej cesty
Overview:
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1968-09-20
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Čierny gróf
Overview:
Genres: Family Adventure
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1972-01-01
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Pätnásť životov
Overview:
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1974-11-25
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Noc s mačkou
Overview:
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1970-09-04
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Love
Overview: Sixteen-year-old students of a grammar school are supposed to write essays on "Love". The class best student Andrea (Jaroslava Schallerová) writes about a patriotic love to a country as she has no experience with a partner love. She has been living alone with her divorced pretty mother Eva (Milena Dvorská), a dentist, for many years. Recently, however, Eva met her former school-days love at a graduates' party, nowadays a famous hockey goalkeeper Brukner (Frantisek Velecký). Also his marriage fell apart; he leaves the national team and decides to leave Prague for his home town and to share flat with Eva. He takes with him his son Petr (Oldrich Kaiser), in Andrea's age, who gets his last chance to finish a grammar school in the town.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1973-09-21
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The Stolen Battle
Overview:
Genres: History Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1972-07-01
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Noc labutí
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1972-01-06
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Ako listy jedného stromu
Overview:
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1980-01-14
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Prince Bajaja
Overview: The hero of this popular fairy tale is a young prince who, after the death of his parents, goes out into the world. During his travels he meets a magical talking horse and falls in love with the beautiful princess Slavna. On the advice of his horse, he binds one eye and pretends to be dumb and enters into service as the castle gardener.
Genres: Family Fantasy
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1971-12-17
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The Water of Life
Overview: A king was dying. An old man told his sons that only the water of life would save him.
Genres: Fantasy Family TV Movie
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1987-09-30
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Crainquebille
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1982-05-08
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Rojkovia
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 2000-05-04
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Unruly Heyducks
Overview: This film, set at the beginning of the 17th century, is the first East-European "Eastern". Bocskai István orders the free Heyducks to shepherd a huge herd of cattle through the country torn to three parts, to the Dalmatian coast, where he can get weapons in exchange, for fighting the Austrians.
Genres: War Adventure
Original Language: hu
Release Date: 1974-12-21
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Horúčka
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1975-12-10
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Pacho, the Brigand of Hybe
Overview: A funny outlaw tale inspired by traditional folk humour. Pacho is no ordinary outlaw. He detests injustice and feudal oppression and he copes with each troublesome situation with the help of his cleverness and wit.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1976-07-02
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Magma
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1984-01-01
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Sweet Games of Late Summer
Overview: Impressionistic film based on a Maupassant story about five friends who fall in love with the same beautiful girl one summer.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1970-07-21
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Na druhom brehu sloboda
Overview:
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1984-08-20
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Právom lásky
Overview:
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1984-01-01
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Another Love
Overview: A story of a young student of medicine, who arrives in a small mountain village after being accused for carrying out illegal abortion. The film reflects the moral decline of the society, where stealing in secret and making compromises against one's beliefs make up mundane reality. The filmmakers went to perhaps the furthest possible limits in terms of allowed social criticism in the 1980s. The negative picture is enhanced by its rural setting, since the Slovak village had been traditionally associated with strict morals and conservative values.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1986-04-01
Popularity:
Every Week Seven Days
Overview: The film could have been a lyrical evocation of the ČSSR's first generation: the youngsters born during the war, who grew up in a state violently at pains to find and define itself, and were now ready to break away from the nation-builder ethics of their elders – but Grečner turned it into an anxiety-riddled existentialist vision of a whole globe in fear.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1964-08-28
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Prague Nights
Overview: A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius, lonely and looking for a night's diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde. In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In "The Last Golem," a young rabbi struggles to fashion a massive, silent giant out of living clay — until he's distracted by a mute servant girl. In the second episode, "Bread Slippers," an 18th-century countess indulges her passion for sweet cakes, adulterous affairs, and secret kisses with pretty maids until a mysterious visitor whisks her away to an abandoned mansion, where Fate has a different kind of dance in store for her. And in the final story, "Poisoned Poisoner," a ravishing murderess in the Middle Ages dispatches lecherous merchants to the tune of upbeat '60s Czech pop songs.
Genres: Comedy Drama Horror
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1969-06-06
Popularity:
Sentiment
Overview: Sentiment is Tomáš Hejtmánek's intimate documentary portrait of the great Czech director František Vláčil. The film was inspired by encounters with the filmmaker and told through taped interviews, reconstructions of meetings with Vláčil, visits to actual film locations (of Marketa Lazarova, The Valley of the Bees and Adelheid) and Vláčil-inspired film sequences. The result is one of the most unique and personal portraits of any artist – a collage of voices, sounds and images that evoke and celebrate Vláčil’s life and work.
Genres: Drama Documentary
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 2003-11-06
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Palm Sunday
Overview: Epic recalling the early days of the Republic of the councils.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: hu
Release Date: 1969-12-11
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Zločin v Modré hvězdě
Overview:
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1974-02-22
Popularity:
Sons of Fire
Overview: This poetic film presents the ballad of the boys who turned into stags, by the associative means of music, painting and folk art. At the same time it is a memorial to the martyrs of the 1944 Sátoraljaújhely prison revolt and shows its butchery reflected through the fate of three brothers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-01-01
Popularity:
Zlý žart
Overview:
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1993-01-01
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Prípad pre obhajcu
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1964-12-25
Popularity:
It's Better to Be Healthy and Wealthy than Poor and Sick
Overview: A satiric tragi-comedy about two women and their lover Robert who is an emigrant that keeps coming back. This film shows chaotic post-communist Europe after the fall of totalitarianism. Two opposite characters, women, meet during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. Intellectual dissident Nona and a Communist secret police boss’ mistress Ester. They meet at an anti-regime demonstration and become friends. They don’t want anything to do with politics, both want to get married and have kids, but also get rich. Crazy plans and risky attempts to realize their shared dreams land them in many sticky situations in the post-revolution chaos. Too much money gets in the way of the power of friendship.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: sk
Release Date: 1992-09-11
Popularity:
Red Psalm
Overview: Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.
Genres: Drama War Music
Original Language: hu
Release Date: 1972-03-09
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