gudaulin

For me, this is probably the strongest film of Italian neorealism and Vittorio De Sica. Its attractiveness and power lie in the naturalness that comes from the use of non-actors, knowledge of the filmed environment, and the difficult social reality of post-war Italy, which is struggling with a severe crisis, mass unemployment, and poverty. It is a film that is not burdened by artificial layers of commercial cinema, wherein emotions are conveyed alongside film images only through film music. It is a powerful film that is also emphasized by the black-and-white material. It is incredible how many unforgettable shots fit into just 90 minutes of footage. How many events can be fit into a single day of an ordinary municipal officer who is existentially dependent on his bicycle? The most interesting passages depict the existence of a large Roman lumpenproletariat. Overall impression: 95%. A classic film that is part of basic film education.

I didn't expect anything from this film, and I didn't get anything from it either. Perhaps the only thing that surprised me, although I expected something like this, is how much the film is banal, small, and amateurish compared to the enthusiastic reviews. The satisfaction with Once is largely related to the ability to appreciate and accept the musical component on which the film is based. The screenplay is minimalist, the dialogues are trivial, and the acting performances are wooden in many cases. It's not the fact that the film uses non-actors; it's that these non-actors have minimal prerequisites for acting - and this applies, among other things, to Markéta Irglová in the main role. By coincidence, I had just seen Bicycle Thieves before Once, where the majority of roles were played by non-actors, including the protagonist, but the difference in quality was vast. The music in the film bypasses me with a wide arc, so only the film aspects remain, which is difficult for me to digest. The love story is clichéd, and simple, and even in its simplicity, it plays with kitsch. Just as it is possible to build a film's reputation on great cinematography and top-notch special effects, it is also possible to build it on independence, ordinariness, and "purity." Once is a film where it is essentially possible to use any evaluation based on the approach to the music used and the theme. My 25% overall impression is understandably one extreme and the opposite of enthusiastic uncritical comments and five-star accolades. The objective truth is usually somewhere in between; however, I cannot shake off the impression that Once is significantly overrated.

Writing about how Pixar is at the forefront of technological development in contemporary animation and that films from its workshop are an experience from this perspective would be like carrying firewood into the forest. From Pixar, a spectacle is simply expected, and in this regard, its latest film did not disappoint. While Ratatouille had a few scenes that approached live-action films, there were significantly more here, and Pixar shows how an animated film can replace a live-action film in every way. The scenes of the dead planet were both captivating and chilling. As for the story, the film can essentially be divided into two parts. The part set on Earth is much more accommodating to adult viewers and plays out a story that seems to have emerged from Philip K. Dick's unsettling visions. It is a post-apocalyptic vision of a devastated planet full of ruins, dusty storms, and remnants of a once-functional world. Little robot WALL-E represents a small island of cybernetic life, and even though in this part of the film, he has no opponent other than nature, the viewer is never bored, and the necessary dose of sentiment is bearable. The film's creators likely wanted to try something new, and an atmosphere like the one they were able to create in the first half of the film had not yet been seen in a mainstream family film. It's not that the creative team ran out of steam afterward, but rather the safety brake was applied, with the knowledge of how Jan Pinkava's innovative approach with Ratatouille turned out, in the second half of the film, they diligently catered to the ideas of the Disney studio on how a classic children's spectacle should look. To be frank, there is something to it because I saw WALL-E in the movie theater with my six-year-old son, who was somewhat restless in the first half but smiled happily and enjoyed the film in the second half. The rest of the film set in the distant universe is a bet on traditional certainties of a feature-length family spectacle focused on young viewers. The story is not bad and is entirely engaging, but it is done in an exceedingly banal manner. Compared to Ratatouille, it is a step back in terms of the content of the film. Disney Studios certainly did not invest sinful amounts of money in the acquisition of Pixar to increase prestige by making top-notch films that experiment with form and content, but rather to fill their coffers. Throughout Walt Disney Studios' existence, its owners have a perfectly ingrained idea of what a children's animated film should be, and it is naive to think that Pixar would rebel against this model. Overall impression: 80%. It is still a very decent spectacle that will please children and not offend adults. I just humbly believe that if the creators had the courage to fully develop the darker elements of the story, it would have been a disproportionately better film...

A series that rises and falls with the main character, a cynical and highly idiosyncratic doctor who, while making accurate diagnoses and achieving undeniable success in treating patients, tramples on those around him with numerous quips and rough behavior. Upon longer viewing, the problem arises that the blueprint on which each episode is based is actually always the same... Overall impression: 80%.

Just an average film, but nonetheless a showcase of colorful characters portrayed by a whole array of well-known and talented actors. The three detective stories about small Czech crimes are otherwise easily forgettable. Fortunately, the film is helped by a slightly ironic detachment with which Jiří Vala, as the husband, comments on the events and characters around him ("we don't have heroin here, so we'll at least take some alginate"). Overall impression: 50%.

I have had, have, and will have one fundamental problem with Mel Brooks, or rather with his films. Poor Mel had the misfortune of encountering clueless people, for whom hinting, directing, and pointing is not enough. Many of his jokes have decent potential, but he presents them so exaggeratedly that they lose all charm for me. He can't capture that delicate line between parody and awkwardness. But maybe the fault is in me, and I have set my boundary too high. In High Anxiety, where he takes aim at poor Hitchcock, he still holds back and thankfully doesn't push the envelope as much as he does in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but even so, I can't give this film an overall impression of more than 40%.

Jan Švankmajer's homage to his lifelong love - puppet theatre and old puppeteers, such as Matěj Kopecký. The text is based on the original puppet play of the same name, performed in the first half of the 19th century in Bohemia. The intonation of the excellent František Filipovský as the narrator and the music, which includes motifs from old peddler songs, aim for the most authentic imitation of old theatrical production with a slightly parodic exaggeration ("now I'm dead"), wherein the film highlights the libations of theater actors to their folk audience and the endearingly absurd text of the play. Rather than being Švankmajer's lifelong love for surrealism, the visual concept is influenced by expressionism (details of the puppets' faces). Impressive ideas (blood spurting from a "stabbed" chest, a sword cutting off the facial part of a puppet as a symbol of death), combined with music and lighting, create an unforgettable atmosphere. Overall impression: 95%.

Thanks to artistically successful puppets, lighting, and colorful styling, an impressive animated film about the pride of Prague councilors who killed the creator of the Prague Astronomical Clock. The dark character of the film is underlined by the use of a choir and musical motif. Overall impression: 80%.

A bizarre bit of screenwriting that is influenced by Tarantino's famous film Pulp Fiction in terms of mixing genres, and shuffling the chronology of the story with several parallel character stories that get roughly the same amount of space in the film and are endowed with cool characteristics. Humor, as typical for Tarantino's films, is combined with violence and human suffering. There are also several crimes, dead bodies, one severed penis, and somewhat raunchier language - basically, everything that a cultured viewer nurtured by Bergman and Fellini likes. The film has a very reasonable runtime and fast pace, but it does not have as well-written dialogues as early Tarantino films, lacks black humorous lines, and the director's inexperience is noticeable in the film. Overall impression: 65%.

Johanes Doktor Faust was one of the first films in Jan Švankmajer's phenomenal work - he has just finished school and his collaboration on a film, where he was one of the puppeteers, led him to Emil Radok as the film's director. For Švankmajer, it was a decisive meeting, as Radok greatly influenced and directed him in the beginning. Švankmajer later thoroughly developed many ideas and techniques that Radok suggested in his films. Radok's film is based on an old play that itinerant puppet theaters performed in the 19th century and is a tribute to classic Pimprlové Theaters. The film uses only the simplest animation and achieves its effect through a combination of elements used in Laterna Magica (after all, Radok was one of its co-creators) and in classic puppet theater. The static camera often focuses on the details of the puppets, especially on the expressive expression of their faces. The principle of black theater and human hands interfering with the action is taken from Laterna Magica. The puppets mostly do not do much, as the narration drives the story. The changing of the scenery reminds of the performances of fairground troubadours. The film is valuable primarily in terms of visual artistry and from a historical perspective as a starting point for Švankmajer's Don Juan. Overall impression: 75%.