Czech Cinematic Virtue is Blond: Jiřina Štěpničková 1930-1945
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Czech cinema of the 1930s and early-to-mid 1940s did not suffer from lack of blond stars; on the contrary, blond leading ladies prevailed. But while some of them grew darker as their careers advanced towards quality cinema (Adina Mandlová) and others stayed in the realm of light-hearted comedies (Věra Ferbasová), Jiřina Štěpničková remained a blonde for most of her major film roles without losing her status as national icon. Her blondness, together with other factors, helped to create and maintain a specific star image based on virtues such as strength of character, faithfulness and the ability of self-sacrifice. Štěpničková was thus celebrated as a great actress, embodying ideal rural women and dubbed by the press of the period a ‘Czech Madonna’. |
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