Lima

A kind of made-in-Brno take on Goddard's Breathless. At the same time, it’s Michálek's weakest film, though the fault is not his. The filmmaking and acting are far from shabby, but the story is terribly empty, as is the main character.

"I want you to get me a sawed off shotgun. We're gonna kill ourselves a coupla niggers." If we ever send an information probe to alien civilizations that would encompass all human activity, we should not miss Foxy Brown as a representative of blaxploitation. Everything is in the right place here. Whites are the biggest cunts, usually mafiosi, drug dealers, or sociopaths, while Foxy and her "niggaz brothers" are the epitome of fairness. B-movie icon Pam Grier is as we all know her best: either naked, or kicking bad guys' asses, or… naked again. Among other things, she takes down a couple of redneck farmers who raped her, deals with a gang of drug dealers, and cuts off her arch-nemesis's pride. Jack Hill made entertaining, brisk films and this is a must for all fans of B-movie poetics.

Guilty pleasure. Historically and with the presented realities, the same travesty as if the Czechs had filmed, for example, the attack on Pearl Harbour in their own conditions. Here, the assassination of Heydrich is not committed by paratroopers, but by a single resistance fighter, a certain Dr. Svoboda. Heydrich is a caricature of evil, and the depiction of martial law and the resistance are almost an unwanted parody. The movie doesn't even focus on the assassination itself; for the vast majority of the runtime, we watch the Czech resistance attempt to blame Heydrich’s killing on an outed confidant, with Ocean’s Eleven-style trickery and subterfuge. The Americans, well… it's all so earnest, so blatantly stupid, but nice. A nice Hollywood recognition of the importance of the Czechoslovak resistance. For the record, this film was a favourite among the top of the SS at the time, especially Reich Protector K.H. Frank.

David Lean is said to have had no sense of humour, so this is one of the only two comedies he made, and his third collaboration with successful playwright Noel Coward. To make this comedy farce cinematically watchable and to wipe away the theatrical gloss, Lean altered it a bit, added locations, but that badly upset Coward, who rejected the result out of hand. I think it was unwarranted. The result is quite a enjoyable conversational movie, with snappy dialogue here and there and, as a bonus, a young and still slim Rex Harrison. I just don't understand the Oscar for special effects, the four short interludes were nothing special at that time and you can see the same thing but executed better in the 12 years older The Invisible Man.

Given the reputation that precedes this famed blaxploitation piece, I expected more. The film is based on a supposedly terrible novel, which may explain things. I was expecting more fun, more B-movie flavour, more violence, nudity and action, which came to the fore only at the end, when the film culminates in a 15-minute chase (which swallowed more money than the rest of the movie together) with two cars, a helicopter and a speedboat. Otherwise, there’s not much going on, really. Now, I’m not saying Shaft is slacking off. In one lean, macho scene, he picks up a bimbo in 10 seconds, then shoots down a helicopter with a shotgun, but otherwise… the expectations were high, but went unfulfilled.

A hollowed-out narrative with pretty pictures of a middle-aged, greying man walking through a town and flats with Art Nouveau furniture, with female counterparts offering themselves to him indiscriminately, as the filmmaker's fancy takes him. Bugger me, I thought artsy, feel good movies where my thing. Well, what gives. Long live enamel stagecoaches!

Unexpectedly good. I enjoyed the high level of unconventional humour (with a few exceptions), the absence of cheap sentiment and pathos (which the premise might tempt) and Epstein's relatively intelligent script. And I demand the Czech Lion for Bohdalová! She was excellent and completely overshadowed all the others. Another interesting thing was the post-film discussion with Epstein and Strache, which confirmed to me that the they approached the film with selflessness and humility. Jiří Strach is a very nice man and a good person, but that’s something I already knew. They also reflected on why the film had a low attendance. And here I would agree with the filmmakers that it is hard to sell a film about two old people in this day and age of a myopic and senseless cult of youth, and that respect for old age is generally at a pretty low level in our society. Michálek’s Autumn Spring had the same problem, it fizzled out in our cinemas without much of a response, while in the US, where old age is viewed quite differently, it was a success.

The famous little brother of all the big movies of old Hollywood. Few films can match this one in terms of production costs (perhaps only the flagship "sandal" films of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Wyler's Ben-Hur, Bondarchuk's epic War and Peace, or Lean's Doctor Zhivago). The director's chair was occupied by David Lean, the greatest master of expensive monster productions. Steven Spielberg referred to it as "The Miracle of Film", which I think is accurate, notwithstanding the not-so-impressive last act, which is more political. Thank God for the careful digital restoration. The widescreen screening at my favourite cinema Hvězda during LFS, with a carefully polished image, was one ecstatic experience. No film has such impressive desert scenery, the production design is unprecedented (the logistics and security of the whole event must have been unbelievable), and the beautiful music by Jarré! Peter O'Toole endowed Lawrence with stubbornness, hard-heartedness, even fanaticism, which makes the character so vital, plastic and therefore interesting. And a film without a single female character it’s not something you see every day :o)

Of course, there is a comparison with Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, both are about the same historical figure, and at about the 40th minute I was telling myself "meh! It lacks the fatefulness and weight of Herzog's masterpiece", but from the violent death of the king's governor the film takes a big turn, delivering twist after twist, betrayal after betrayal. The story builds up nicely in the second half, and authenticity connoisseurs will be pleased with the faithful production design and some strong, unadorned murder scenes. The short post-film discussion with the director was a pleasure, Saura is a very funny man, he apologised for the excessive violence in the film, but said that he was only faithfully processing the chronicles of the time. He described Herzog's film as untrue, saying that Hezgog hadn’t bother much with with realism and facts, and, as an opponent of violence in film, he confided that this is why he doesn't appreciate Tarantino, even though Tarantino himself speaks very highly of Sauro. It made the whole cinema laugh.

A compelling insight into the eventful life of a great warrior in a skirt. Sommer engagingly captures the inner emotional world of Čáslavská while avoiding boring descriptiveness. Listening to Čáslavská talk with great enthusiasm and energy is an experience in itself. And those gymnastics at the end? You can see that Věra still has it in her :o)