Lima

What else to expect from Vojtěch Jasný, a man with a big heart, than a pure poetic film. The first thing that catches the eye after a few seconds is the rousing music by Svatopluk Havelka, which runs through the whole film. All four short stories are simple in plot, it's the atmosphere and visual experience that's important. In the first story, about a little boy waiting for his mother to arrive with his newborn baby sister, the camera conjures up beautiful images of wide meadows, billowing white sheets on a grassy hill, it's a visual delight. In the second story, the beautiful Jana Brejchová, the greatest young acting star of her generation, shines like a bright star, and it is her and the beautiful scenes of nature around the raging river that simply don't disappoint. The third story is probably the most ambitious in terms of plot, it’s about unfulfilled love at first sight, but under the surface Jasný lightly sketches the contradiction between the agricultural cooperative and the simple peasant woman who feels intensely they are bullying her. In the fourth story, an old mother and the sad eyes of a dog play a major role. So sad it almost smacks of kitsch, but beautiful. Essential, clear. And as the film begins with the birth of a human being, so it ends, the circle of life has come full circle.

It’s too colourful, too CGI-laden, and Jennifer Lopez runs around with her big ass at the beginning and admits in one of the dialogues that she has wrinkles and covers her grey hair because nobody gets younger, and for that she gets my nod because her Botox colleagues in the industry probably see it differently. You can easily watch it while doing the ironing; I played GWENT while watching it, so the film is kind of half an ear and one eye. Towards the end Jennifer makes it into a kind of existential drama, where big tears are shed on camera and all that's missing is a big kiss on the broken windshield .... but whatever, I still like you Jennifer, you've been making a lot of shit for the last quarter century, but you're a hardworking girl and I can appreciate that.

Already ridiculed in its day, this film is based on a derided novel by Maurice Sandoz, interesting perhaps only because it was illustrated in 1945 by Salvador Dali himself. It's hard to write about this film and not to spoil the plot twist at the end that is the only memorable thing about the whole film. Until then, or rather until the 'intermission' two-thirds of the way through (yes, even such a short film had its 'Intermission'), we are in a drab castle setting with five actors and only two bats on strings and one gimmicky view of a maze out the window to break us out of our lethargy. There's woefully little to work with here at all, we only see one entrance corridor for almost the entire film, but it's understandable, there wasn't much money involved (it was only 2 months from pre-production to final release). Well, at the end, a monster appears... well, let's say a monster, but one you won't forget till the end. Even in its time, which was rich in naive films, it provoked volleys of laughter from the audience. It may have been meant to be scary, I don't know what the filmmakers intended, but you want to feel sorry for it, hug it and pet it. That's all I'm going to say :o) The film was shot in simplified 3D, which was just beginning at the time, so in some scenes the objects and actors "throw themselves in your face" (the opening dancer, the bats, the monster jumping out the window). Summary? I'll give an overrated 3 stars, I actually miss oldschool naive B-movies like this nowadays. They don't scare or disgust you, they caress your viewer's soul