Abstract
The chapter deals with the life and work of the female artist and costume designer Ester Krumbachová (1923-1996), whose career was deeply touched by the return of "normal" socialism after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The authors focus on the problem of distinctive female creativity which Krumbachová explored continuously on her own or, throughout the 1960s, together with the film director Věra Chytilová.
The film Vražda ing. Čerta (1970) [The Murder of Mr. Devil], directed by Kumbachová, and its various media mutations (film story, radio adaptation, screenplay) could be seen as a coda to these efforts.
The era of normalization did not help to advance the possible specific feminine creativity and women's subversive power. The chapter also follows the return of the "normal," dull, and banal femininity epitomized by a symbol of the normalization, actress Jiřina Bohdalová, whom Krumabachová engaged in her 1970 film in a clearly opposite, subversive way.
The Murder of Mr. Devil was chosen precisely because it allows the authors to unravel the transitional period in which the creative atmosphere of the 1960s still lingered, but the basic features of normalization were already prefigured.