Classic films also inevitably belong to Christmas, and one of them is the Czech fairy tale from Zdenek Troška’s workshop, The Most Beautiful Riddle. The actor Ladislav Potměšil, who played the role of the king in the film, died on July 12, 2021, but before his death he spoke to the editors about the filming of this popular fairy tale.
The uncrowned king of Czech filmography, Zdeňek Troška, has always loved traditional fairy tales, and in the film The Most Beautiful Riddle, he combined the story About Matej and Majdalenka and How the Princess Guessed Until She Lost by the writer Jan Drda. Potmešil remembered the filming very fondly. “I made many TV fairy tales, but only one film. I had many beautiful court ladies around me,” he said with a smile.
However, it was physically demanding. “I was wearing a costume that weighed about fifteen pounds, a wig on my head, a glued-on mustache, a crown on my head, and it was terribly hot. The mustache kept coming off and I immediately sweated out of the costume.” he said. A little after filming the movie Krakonoš and skiers, he refused to work in the winter and declared that he would only film in the summer.
It’s not usual for filming to go without problems, but The Most Beautiful Puzzle was an exception. “That was a wonderful job on a beautiful fairy tale. We even avoided complications during filming, as far as I remember, which is almost a miracle when working on a film. Everyone was accommodating to us, both at Žleby and at the ruins of Kostomlata. It was a joy to work on. And Ládík was great,” recalled Troška. The only problem was finding suitable locations.
Potměšil, known among other things from the movie Diskopribeh, where he played the father, was in great pain during the last years of his life. The actor succumbed to insidious cancer of the spine, which metastasized and began to attack his bones, when he was 75 years old. At the end of his life, he ended up bedridden due to illness and could only move with the help of a walker, but even with that he had a big problem.
Despite this, he did not give up and although he could no longer devote himself to acting, he spent time with his family. He was in contact with his colleagues until the last moment, but he did not want them to visit him. Ladislav wanted to be remembered as a healthy man in full strength.
