Intelectual petrol station

After Jiří Stránský was forced to leave the Barrandov film studios in 1960s, where he worked as an assistant director and screenplay writer, he was helped by the Barrandov director to find work in nowadays already non-existent petrol station in Opletalova Street. „My presence at the workplace spread the rumour it is kind of an intellectual pump. Due to the reputation many diplomats would start coming here because they knew it is the one place they can get by even without the Czech chauffeur. Also it was the first pump where export coupons for Shell oil were sold. I remember the director of Shell stopping by one day. We exchanged a single German sentence and he instantly knew what was going on here. Then he would visit more often and bring gifts to our children. The petrol station in Opletalova Street inspired Stránský to write a movie script to Autorevue, which was eventually premiered in 1966. During the same year Vít Olmer shot a movie regarding the Czech nobility. „Although it was a black and white movie, I had to give a sample of my own blood to prove it was not blue but red.“ The short movie was projected in cinemas prior to many feature movies due to which more people would start going to the pump to see the local nobleman. „There were tourists carrying a map of Prague showing Hradčany, the National theatre, Old Town square and the pump where a nobleman sells petrol. When I refused to enter my signature to approve the occupation of the Warsaw pact armies in 1968, I got arrested again. They accused me of stealing petrol, which was an obvious lie. So I went to prison for another two years for stealing state property. But that is what I can do well; serve a sentence for something I have never done.“