SCREEN IN SILVER, LOVE IN COLOUR, MIRROR IN BLACK-AND-WHITE
Julie NovákováI saw Adele’s life.
Cigarette smoke, clatter of glasses, muffled voices, laughter. Closing my eyes, it’s as if I’m transported right there from the quiet of my Toronto home. I linger on the steps of Café Černý Kocour a little too long, soaking it all in. I relive that evening of early March 1938 again . . .
I. Waiting to dance in ruins
I came to Černý Kocour late that evening, delayed by a small row with my landlady; money again. All the stamgasts were already there: Rakhel, drinking her lost dreams away bottle after bottle and providing a cautionary tale for the rest of us. She never forgave the world for the injustice of ending her promising acting career in Berlin. At the table next to hers sat Herr Winder wit
