I CAN JUMP PUDDLES

Czechoslovakia, 1970, 95 minutes, Colour.
Vladimir Dlouhy.
Directed by Karel Kachyna.

I Can Jump Puddles - Alan Marshall's autobiography is a widely-read classic. Czech film-makers have transferred his story to their own setting and have produced a film which is fine family viewing and which an audience of youngsters seemed to me to appreciate very much. The family setting and love of horses take up the first part of the film. The second part is sombre yet full of hope and joy as the boy and his parents face the reality of polio and its disabilities and move to finding how some of them can be overcome. Worth seeing for a family outing. Czech dialogue with easy sub-titles.

1. Was this film made principally for children or adults? Why?

2. How did the film re-create the period of the early decades of this century: costumes, vehicles, the band. the village, the slow rural pace of life etc.? What did this authenticity add to the film?

3. What was the purpose of the prologue about Adam's birth and the talk about horses and riding?

4. How did Adam relate to his father? Why did he admire him? (Was his father an admirable man - his horse-skills, yet his drinking and being dismissed from Imperial riding, his clashes with his wife?) Why did he love him and want to be like him?

5. What was the significance of his dream about the gala day and the riding - with the band, the people so well dressed, the riding and the hurdles, his father etc.?

6. Why did he want to ride so much? The significance of so much time spent on his trying to jump on to the fence?

7. How was the first part of the film made from the young Adam's point of view, a child's view of his world - eg. the monochrome colours as he looked through his different coloured toy?

9. Did the first part of the film build him up as a normal boy (eg. firing at the blacksmith and running) so that the impact of the polio was stronger?

10. How did the tone of the film change when Adam contracted polio? How moving were these sequences? Did the film convey well the effect on Adam?

11. How did the polio affect his parents? Did the film show this well?

12. Why were the dreams interspersed more with reality at this stage of the film?

13. Was the hospital seen from Adam's point of view? If so, how?

14. Comment on the impact of the hospital and its inmates on Adam - the nuns, the bath attendant, the doctor, Ambrose.

15. How courageous was Adam? Did his young age help him?

16. How moving were the sequences with his chair (the girl skipping, the sweets on the ground), with the crutches, his home-coming?

17. Were you glad that he learned to ride again and that everyone helped him (plus the comic touches with the priest in his carriage)?

18. How effective was the final sequence with the riding, the boots, the crowd, the dream fulfilled and his parents joy and pride?