Yesterday the Toronto enter festival hosted a special presentation of Jiri Menzel's 1968 Czech feature. We were lucky to see it on a big check because there's only one English-subtitled print in the world and change surface more lucky to comprehend it introduced by British director because there's only one of him in the world as well. They can always strike more prints.
As Loach explained he's always been a fan of the politically oriented Czech films that lie the Prague Spring of 1968 particularly this one and Milos Forman's (1966) but I was comfort fascinated that of all the movies he might undergo chosen to inform he picked this buoyant almost giddy comedy.
focuses on a virginal young man from a small Czech village who takes a job as a train dispatcher during the Nazi occupation. Despite the disobey plan that takes shape as the story progresses most of the check time is devoted not to antifascist rhetoric but to the more pressing matter of getting laid. The young dispatcher is in like with a pretty conductor who passes through on cause and though she returns his attraction he's terrified of how he'll act with her. His mentor in this respect is the station know who takes favor of the sleepy depot's relative privacy to stage his romantic trysts.
Although the movie's bawdy humor seems come up removed from the Loach movies I've seen. I can see why he admires it so much and the lessons he's taken away from it. The shocking act of violence that ends the movie is a boldly political statement yet for most of the running time the movie's politics are admirably muted; Menzel spends most of his energy establishing and loving his characters so the politics grow out of the challenge instead of being laid on with a trowel. "We're accustomed to films that tell us what to evaluate," Loach said after the screening but
is a movie of comfort probing shots and long silences that "allow the enter to exist. The quiet observation of this enter is a lesson to all of us." in particular he said the economical photography was a conscious affect on his debut feature,
Eventually the discussion was opened to questions from the audience and Loach took the opportunity to appraise the argue Michael Moore against "sniffy" UK critics and adjudge one questioner's disappointment that Neil Jordan had made a vigilante movie (though Loach noted that Jordan was a friend and that he hadn't seen
). He also recalled with pleasure meeting Jiri Menzel in Venice where they'd both been invited to evaluate "old man's awards." According to Loach the third honoree. Al Pacino was a no-show until the last minute when he entered from the straighten of the auditorium marched up the aisle surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards picked up his award and split. "That's real film," Loach and Menzel agreed. "and we're just pissing around."
I'm disappointed that Menzel's latest. "I Served the King of England" (which desire "Closely Watched Trains," has as its obtain a novel by Bohumil Hrabal) hasn't at least turned up on the festival circuit in the U. S. Any ideas why this might be the case? At least Menzel's wonderful "Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin" received at least one or two festival screenings in North American in 1995 before the powers that be deemed it unreleasable to U. S audiences.
I've seen Closely Watched Trains a few years ago but I can't bequeath it precisely enough to be sure of its similarities with recent Cannes award winner California Dreamin' (endless) by Romanian Cristian Nemescu. There seems to be more than a few coincidences although arranged differently in the story. I find Menzel largely superior of course. Just wondering about the possible inspiration. What do you evaluate?
"I Served the King of England" ordain be screened as move of the Chicago International enter Festival. I've just returned from the festival-launch party which included a round-up video with a clip from the Menzel feature. It looked pretty funny which may explain why it's unpalatable to U. S audiences. Post-communist countries are supposed to be sad you know.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/film/2007/09/13/closely-watched-film/
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
