| Hollywood Fight Director to Stage Fencing Scenes for Romeo et Juliette (06.11.2014)
Fight director Pavel Jančík does not yet have an official web site, even though he has worked on many famous films such as Quantum of Solace with Daniel Craig, Luc Besson’s The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc with Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich and Vincent Cassel, and Patrice Chéreau’s La Reine Margot with Isabelle Adjani. Pavel says he does not need Internet popularity, as he is well-known in the artistic world from Hollywood to Bollywood. He always has a lot of work to do. He has done over 400 films and almost the same number of theatrical productions. Whenever there are fighting scenes or difficult stunts to be staged, they call Pavel. It is only natural that Romeo et Juliette’s director Arno Bernard has invited Pavel to work on the fighting scenes in the Novaya Opera Theatre’s new production of the opera. One of the ideas of the production is to show the cruelty of the world through a romantic love story. This requires fierce clashes and duels. The fighting scenes will be performed by professional fencers. They will be armed with Renaissance rapiers and swords, and there will be real daggers and a swagger stick. Pavel Jančík: “As soon as the curtain goes up, fighting begins. The overture does not start until the first death happens. In this way we emphasize the dramatic nature of the events, setting the tone of the production. When the fighting is over and everyone dies, Romeo meets Juliet. The show gives a clear message about confrontation between the two families, utterly pointless violence, useless deaths…” Decades of highly professional work in theatre and cinema have made Pavel Jančík internationally acclaimed as Maestro of Arms. When he was young, there were no schools for training specialists in staging stunts and fighting scenes. In his home country, the Czech Republic, he studied martial arts and, later, athletic and artistic fencing. When he was 18, he gathered a team of like-minded fencers and began to stage fascinating fighting shows, which he toured across Europe. Young and bold Pavel was noticed by stage directors and he began giving lessons in theatre schools. “I specialized in doing stunts in hand-to-hand fights, fights with arms and vehicles. I performed as a stuntman. Working in the film industry, I learned to shoot and edit and became a fight director. It also helped that I studied directing in Switzerland, where I live at the moment.”
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