Too many hands: a bureaucratic screenwriting for the Czech silent national epic Svatý Václav (St. Wenceslas) (1930)

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the Czech screenwriting practice vis-à-vis state-subsidised cinema. It focuses on the silent national epic drama St. Wenceslas (Svatý Václav, 1930) and sheds light on the forms of bureaucratic interventions throughout the formalised writing process. Drawing on Ian W. Macdonald’s concepts of screen idea and screen idea work group, the paper seeks to explain a collective dynamic and deals with the official historiography issue. I argue that academics had frequently altered the screen idea to suit their historical interpretation. Since this was enabled by their prominence in the collective, the article examines the hierarchy of power in the decision-making process and the forms of collaboration, competition and negotiation. In so doing, it helps us to rethink the screenwriting practice by explaining the functions of the screenwriting contest jury and the impact of supervisory voices delineating textual boundaries. The outlined screenwriters’ solutions then illustrate both the creativity in telling the well-known story within the limits and the pragmatic decrease in artistic ambitions.