Prague Journal

Sunday, July 10, 2005.

I headed off to the airport with a small but heavy suitcase to give to Kyle and Steve to take back to Denver for us. Normally, we could take it back ourselves when we return at the end of the month, but the airlines are now weighing the carry-on bags as well as the checked bags, so we are concerned about being above the weight limit for our luggage. I was surprised that there were no lines for Lufthansa, unlike the last trip Rick and I took, so we had time for coffee and a last conversation.
I had arranged to meet Bill and Peggy at Old Town Square at noon, so I had time to pick up a few groceries on my way back from the airport before I headed downtown. One of the nice things about playing tour-guide to out-of-town friends is that I get to see things I might not ordinarily come across. For the first time today, I was able to go inside the Tyn Church. The Church of Our Lady before Týn (Kostel Panny Marie pred Týnem) is the Gothic church whose 80m high steeples dominate the skyline of Old Town Square. It was built in 1365 on the site of an earlier Romanesque church. Entry to the church is through an arcade; the Gothic northern portal with its original preserved sculptural reliefs is accessible from Tyn Street (Tynska ulice). The entrance portal is decorated with scenes of Christ’s passion and there is a huge Rococo altar on the northern wall. To the right of the altar there is a tomb of the Danish astronomer Tycho de Brahe who worked at the court of the Emperor Rudolph II. A gilded statue of the Madonna dating back to 1626 stands in the late Gothic gable between the two towers. Between the early 15th century and the year 1620 it was the main Hussite church in Prague. The interior was reconstructed in the Baroque style after a fire in 1679. The Týn church has a grand pipe organ and occasionally it is a concert venue.
We continued walking through the Ungelt, the quaint courtyard that originally served as a marketplace for foreign merchants bringing goods to Prague, toward St. James church. This attractive Baroque church began in the 14th century as a Minorite monastery church. We couldn’t go in, but we could see inside about 20 altars decorated with works by Jan Jirí Heinsh, Petr Brandl and Václav Vavrinec Reiner. The guidebook says that a tomb of Count Vratislav of Mitrovice is the most beautiful Baroque tomb in Bohemia. Hanging to the left of the main door is a mummified forearm. It has been there for over 400 years, since a thief tried to steal the jewels of the statue of the Virgin. Legend says that the Virgin grabbed his arm and held on so tightly that it had to be cut off. Because of its excellent acoustics many concerts and recitals are given in the church.
I took Bill and Peggy to Kolkovna for lunch, and we then headed toward Vyšehrad. This trip had a dual purpose: I wanted to show them view from the Nusle bridge and the old castle and also to transport them back to the Holiday Inn to get their bags before heading to the airport for their afternoon flight back to the US. Their taxi picked them up at 3:00 and I was home before 4:00.
For the first time in a long time, Rick and I had a quiet evening at home, just the two of us. Marty and Harriet had loaned us several DVDs, so I suggested we watch Pupendo, a movie about the difficulty of life in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s. Apparently, “Pupendo” is a child’s game in which a joker promises something mystical and pleasurable to his victim and then delivers a sharp slap on the stomach. Pupendo is another period piece from the collaboration of Hřebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovský, who also produced Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat) and Cozy Dens (Pelíšky).
Pupendo is a story about two families set against the backdrop of art and politics. A talented artist Baedrich Mara (Bolek Polivka) is blacklisted by the Communist government following the Russian occupation. Since he can’t live from his art and he won’t take a day job, his family has to make kitschy ceramic piggy banks to get by. A chance encounter with an art historian combing through a garbage can brings the artist back into contact with a former student and lover. She’s more ambitious than principled and can make life easier for him in return for some gesture art. The artist can handle making a wall mosaic for her husband’s school, but a hideous statue of a Russian marshal is naturally more problematic. Eventually it doesn’t matter. Through the art historian, their names land on the Voice of America, and as a result, both families end up in the drink together.
Rick was so tired from his yachting trip that he fell asleep after the first scene and woke only to see the last half. Then he stayed up to watch the first half that he had missed! It may take him a few days just to feel like he’s on level ground again.

posted by JWinn @ 10:22 PM