gudaulin

A professionally filmed and decently edited documentary about a noble family that perhaps most significantly influenced the history of Central Europe. Its only disadvantage is its relative shallowness, meaning that the documentary will not enrich avid history enthusiasts, as it is specifically geared towards providing popular educational content for a wider audience unaffected by intensive studying of historical events. The series is approached in a nostalgically positive sense, as a narrative about the fates of monarchs and their empires. Pleasant commentary by Jan Kačer. Overall impression: 80%.

Detective series of this kind are produced by many British television stations, and their appeal usually depends on the team of investigators - usually a pair of detectives, where one can choose between a white and a colored colleague, a fat and a thin one, an experienced one and a beginner, and finally, in this case, a man and a woman. The cast didn't impress me this time, although the TV series maintains a certain level typical for this genre and place of origin. Overall impression: 45%.

Hanussen is the third film of a loose trilogy - it was preceded by the films Mephisto and Colonel Redl. I have a feeling that the essential aspects have already been covered by István Szabó in his previous works, and in Hanussen, it just repeats itself to a large extent. Klaus Maria Brandauer is still great, but the screenplay is, from my point of view, slightly weaker. Perhaps it is also because I have thoroughly explored the era of the rise of fascism through other films, and the screenplay deviates from the real fate of the well-known clairvoyant in a difficult-to-digest way for me. Overall impression: 65%.

Biographical films are either historically accurate but uninteresting from a dramatic perspective, or they are interestingly written and filmed fictions that have borrowed the name of the main character from real history. István Szabó's Colonel Redl is not a biographical film in the true sense of the word, because it is based on a play by British playwright John Osborne, who was only loosely inspired by the fate of this officer, who was once convicted of espionage. On the other hand, it does not deviate significantly from Redl's life path, and Szabó can perfectly capture the atmosphere of the time period. Under his direction, a film was created that is not necessarily flashy, but a powerful and gripping story about an ambitious man who was able to discard many inhibitions in his desire for a career, but due to his low-born background and relative poverty, he encountered much stronger and more ruthless opponents, and the wheels of history ground him down. The film's story speaks volumes about the dubious morals of the powerful at the time, and about how things work in high politics. For me, it is the pinnacle of the director's work. Overall impression: 95%.

Alain Delon had already made his best crime films by the time The Fighter was filmed, and his performance now exudes routine and stereotype. However, he has not forgotten how to act and has not lost his charisma, so thanks to his presence, the mediocre script, which is occasionally quite shaky, stays afloat. Another positive aspect is the presence of the young Anne Parillaud, who later shone as Nikita in Besson's famous film.

One of the better action crime films with Alain Delon in the lead role, which draws inspiration from the complex political situation in France in the late 1930s and the influence of rising fascism. I saw Borsalino & Co. again after a long 12 years, and I am lowering my rating from a weaker four stars to a fair three. After all, this older film has a certain template-like quality and routine direction. Overall impression 55%.

An intimately tuned trip to the Swedish bourgeois society of the early 20th century, where Ingmar Bergman projected his childhood memories mixed with his extraordinary imagination into the film. He filmed it as a mature creator who learned from his mistakes and who cared about the acceptance of his work by the wider public. Some of his previous works brought artistic critics to ecstasy, but for viewers, they were on the verge of bearability. The director abandoned the harshly pessimistic view of the world and, although he does not avoid the topic of death and the loss of a loved one here either, optimism prevails, and the final family celebration ends completely idyllically. The story can be considered a confrontation between the thinking and values of the liberal bourgeois upper middle class and Protestant intolerant bigotry. The clash between the bishop and the little Alexander can be seen as a conflict between modernity and remnants of medieval thinking. Love for the theater (Bergman considered himself much more of a theater director than a filmmaker) is inserted into scenes from the family theater environment, which is directly related to the plot, where the little protagonist's mother works as an actress and his father is a theater director. It is no coincidence that Alexander's father dies on stage... The film is dominated by excellent acting performances - thanks to his position, Bergman was able to work with the best Swedish actors, and he also raised a number of actors himself, who knew well what their boss wanted from them. The film has excellent camera work and carefully chosen costumes and sets. In my opinion, this is Bergman's best film. Overall impression 95%. The best scenes are the ones with Alexander's stay in the house of the Jewish merchant, where the exoticism of the environment merges with the child's imagination and creates a surreal atmosphere.

This anarchistic mix of nonsensical characters, humorous pranks, and surrealistic plots tries to continue the tradition started by Spike Milligan and developed by Monty Python. Compared to its predecessors, this show is noticeably weaker. Indeed, it is a very uneven series, but it still represents non-mainstream, occasionally provocative humor that refreshes what we see on television. Overall impression 55%.

Once upon a time, I adored this movie - it perfectly corresponds to the tastes of a ten-year-old boy, and it is purely undemanding entertainment in the style of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, meaning lots of fights, one-liners, and cheap jokes. Overall impression 25%.

The Soviet film school essentially produced war films on an assembly line, but 9th Company follows more so the style and content of American war films from the 1980s. In other words, it is a combination of Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, which is also mimicked in the film's title. It is not a cheap imitation, but rather a very solid piece of craftsmanship and, truth be told, one of the best war films of the last decade. Thanks to the large investments in Russian cinema in recent years and coproduction, it is not a financially deprived film either, so viewers can enjoy the military equipment, generously conceived shots of the military base, and large-scale battles. As for casting, acting performances, and directing, I have no significant objections, and for about 70% of the film I thought I was watching a five-star film that stood out for its exceptionally high level of authenticity. I had the opportunity to speak at length with an eyewitness of the Afghan war, who spent eight years in the war zone, and his narrative aligned with the atmosphere of the film. The attack on the transport plane or the ambush of a military convoy in the pass perfectly fits the way the war was fought at that time. The plane destruction scene is also visually impressive. However, the final grand battle comes, which, from the perspective of a popular culture viewer, is again gratifyingly filmed and directed, but it is unrealistic and reminded me of heroic images from the Soviet era, like "the last heroic defenders of Sevastopol resist the fascist superiority." Ultimately, the closing credits depict the nature of this conflict far more soberly when it comes to the number of casualties. Similar open battles were exceptional in the Afghan war because they demonstrated better tactical preparedness and greater firepower of the Soviet army. It is similar, after all, in present-day Iraq. Otherwise, it is interesting to compare this Russian film precisely with American films about the Vietnam War. American films - even those with an anti-war orientation - depict their soldiers as winners, and if an American soldier falls, he must almost inevitably shoot at least ten Vietnamese soldiers before he dies. Russian soldiers die like flies. Bullets find them much more often than they do the Afghan rebels. The primary goal of 9th Company is to portray Russian soldiers as men who are not afraid to die but fulfill their mission and at the same time show that this war was not theirs. Their deployment was decided by the elders of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Today's Russia is not so much following the era of the Soviet Union as it is emphasizing pre-revolutionary Russia and particularly highlighting service to the country and self-sacrifice. At the same time, there is not a single scene in the film where an Afghan civilian clearly dies. The goal of the film is not self-flagellation like in American production; Russian soldiers, after all, fulfill the tasks assigned to them....Overall impression: 80%.