The Ninth Heart

Director: Juraj Herz

1979 / 90min / DCP

Working with the brilliant production designer Vladimír Labský, Herz constructed the world of his grim fairy tale at Prague’s Barrandov studios, from there proceeding to create a work of total (and totally mesmerizing) baroque artifice. An aimless, penniless student (Ondřej Pavelka) sets out to save a Princess (Julie Jurištová) whose life force is waning under the spell of a vampiric astrologer at the royal court, Aldobrandini (Juraj Kukura, sporting an appalling combover), who has survived for three centuries thanks to his use of the black arts. A cloak of invisibility, ashen-faced automaton-like courtiers, magic elixirs, a sinister castle filled with clockwork contraptions, and itinerant puppeteers all have a part to play in Herz’s opulent, elegant, and darkly atmospheric fable, adapted from a 1979 novel by Josef Hanzlík.

North American Distributor: Severin Films

All films restored by Národní filmový archiv, Prague, supported by The Czech Audiovisual Fund. Special thanks to Juraj Machálek and Lucia Petříková.