D.Moore

Eleven minutes and you don't really learn anything. What happened, to whom and why? If it were a one-minute trailer, I could perhaps understand the secrecy, but at this length it's an unforgivably annoying mistake, and it bothers me far more than the non-actors who are (not) in it, and the fact that none of the characters are interesting in any way. But at first it had atmosphere, yes.

A silent film based on a script so wordy that it couldn't possibly fit a single bare sentence? It worked because Karel Noll is a great Švejk, the screenwriters chose well from Hašek's draft and Martin Frič managed to skillfully edit the existing films into one that has a beginning, middle and end - in short, it works together. Among the other actors and actresses I really liked Antonie Nedošínská as Mrs. Müller and also Karel Lamač as Lieutenant Lukáš (and the innkeeper Palivec). It is a pity that no one dared to compose a more attractive musical accompaniment. Why does the conservative piano still win for silent films when it can be done differently? Check out The Lovers of an Old Criminal with excellent music by Nekonečno, and then it's immediately something else.

I could still understand that the pervasive naive nerdiness of Nick Fury was meant to evoke the spirit of the original comic by Stan Lee and Jim Steranko. But what good would it do when the film is so uninteresting, so lackluster from start to finish, and the acting "performances" of everyone are so amateurish (true, David Hasselhoff is the type for Fury, but that's where it ends). I can't deny that I was amused, but it was because of how silly it all seemed to me. I also didn't know that one of the Hydra's leaders was based in Prague.

It is lemonade, but unfortunately not the light, sweet and full of bubbles kind. It opens with a wonderfully dynamic carnival scene, and the mysterious romance it sparks is also interesting, but alas - in the second half, the film becomes boring, the character of Lída Baarová becomes almost contradictory, and the viewer often cannot help but marvel at what a naive red library it has become. That’s too bad.

The look of Christopher Lee (unfortunately not his voice, as it is dubbed in Italian), the madness of Klaus Kinski (an exemplary Renfield, though referred to as Reinfierd in the credits), the charisma of Herbert Lom and the great music of Bruno Nicolai keep this Count Dracula afloat and make it at least a little interesting. Unfortunately, the direction didn't come up with anything amazing and neither did the script, unless you ignore the attack of the stuffed animals, which made me laugh to tears.

Although I don't have the most pleasant memories of this performance of Requiem (my butt is simply not religious enough to sit comfortably in a church pew for two hours), the recording is of 100% quality. It should be appreciated, also considering that it was a live broadcast. St. Bartholomew's Cathedral is a beautiful building and the combination with Dvořák's genius enhances its beauty, the philharmonic, choir and soloists (especially Alžběta Poláková and Miroslav Dvorský) are all professionals and the typical conducting of Tomáš Brauner, which at other times seems too economical, even bland, is also suited to the work that Requiem is.

Leonard Bernstein's hands are certainly among the best that have ever taken over “Holst - The Planets". Moreover, this is not an ordinary concert, but actually an educational concert (but don't be afraid of that word). There are young children and teenagers in the audience, whom Bernstein introduces to the Planets, and he does it very cleverly - he presents interesting facts lightly, humorously, in short, in the most accessible way possible, explaining why a piece has a given mood, "what the composer wanted to say"... And of course, when the master picks up the baton and the music comes in, it's simply riveting. It's a great pity “Saturn" is omitted, but we do get “Pluto" again, which Holst never set to music - but that's fine with improvising philharmonic musicians :) I'd love to see the next parts of this series. After all, classical music need not and often should not be serious, although the prejudice is still there, God knows why.

"You don't like people! You don't want to talk to them! You're a bad fellow traveler!" That's a concert again, man. Grumpy Jaroslav Marvan, unpredictable Pavel Landovský, less than 25 minutes, one tiny compartment... And such drama fit into it. I will remember this sensational comedy, which becomes more bitter from minute to minute, every time I travel by train from now on.

A sensational film about the Titanic, and please don't use the annoying crutch of "for the time". Those who might fear that the two-hour film from 1958 will be long-winded or even boring need not worry. The wait for the iceberg lasts about half an hour, followed by an hour and a half of very impressively chilling spectacle, which is not based on a few obviously flamboyant heroes with whom the viewer can identify, but on a cast of more ordinary and therefore more believable characters - from the sweaty guys in the engine room to the passengers of all classes to the commanders on the bridge and crew members of other ships. The gimmick aspect is a chapter in itself, as it greatly succeeds and is spoiled only by a few unpleasantly and unnecessarily used "authentic" shots of the departure from the harbor ("authentic" because they don't even show the Titanic, but the Queen Elizabeth from 1938), and the cinematography is also beautiful. No wonder James Cameron borrowed so many shots - especially the night shots. Although the film doesn't have a generous widescreen format and doesn't have any stars in it, it wouldn't be lost on the big screen and I'd give a lot to see it in the theater today.

I didn't expect that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be so well adapted. And yet! The screenplay sticks to the book as lovingly as it can, and when it adds something new to it that (perhaps) Douglas Adams wouldn't have thought of, it's completely Adamsian, funny and feels natural. In short, you can tell that the film was made by people who really wanted to make it. This is also true of the actors, the absolutely amazing set design, which combines Jim Henson's puppets (the Vogons as the living) with charmingly colorful computer effects that would surely suit, say, a full-length Red Dwarf in the future (I still haven't given up hope), and the playful music. The only flaw is the completely incomprehensible failure to explain the fundamental importance of the towel. I didn't mind, as a loyal reader I would have taken at least two towels and forty-two other backups to hitchhike through the universe, but the uninitiated viewer must surely have wondered "What the hell do they keep doing with that?"