Alois Nebel

What is the best thing about "Alois Nebel"? I want to say that it is the song "Půlnoční" by Václav Neckář. There is a lot of talk about this film, mainly because of the animation, which is incredibly well-crafted, but I have to admit that I don't feel like watching it in the cinema. It makes my head spin a bit. However, I acknowledge that it takes courage and determination to create something so demanding. In this aspect, "Alois Nebel" did not disappoint. What is an absolute disappointment is the rest of the film, mainly the story. The performances are good. Miroslav Krobot employs absolute minimalism for his role, but people will remember Leoš Noha as Wachek, who is a perfect example of a cunning Czech, who would do anything to improve his situation. Alois Švehlík also plays brilliantly. But what do they play? "Alois Nebel" basically has no plot, but it is a collection of interconnected scenes, which are linked by the character of Alois Nebel and his fate. There are flashbacks, there are episodes, but everything is just a demonstration of what a similar film with a proper story could look like. It is just another example of our alibism. We give it a great form, which should be enough. It's not enough. It simply isn't enough. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/07/happy-feet-2-bobr-cislo-4-musketyri.html (23/02/2013)

A grief-laden look back at Czech identity and history in the negatively formative period between 1945 and the early 1990s. It is simultaneously amazing and unfortunately sad that the most thought-provoking reflection on how this era shaped not only individual lives but also the identity and morality of the nation is provided by a unique animated project. (29/03/2020)

A foggy film in every way. Whilst in terms of atmosphere and rendering of the environment of the "normalization shift", this fog is of benefit, but in terms of storytelling and characterization of the characters, there is more of it than is necessary. There's no clearer motivation, no continuity; in fact, the story is missing. It's clear to me that Jaromir 99's advertised "the fog fucks the forest" is fun when drinking a bottle of beer from the mountains, but you can't make 87 minutes of film out of it. Moreover, something is done wrong in the rotoscoping of the faces of the actors, because they look different all the time - sometimes the comic-book look suits them, sometimes they look like ugly painted faces on cardboard. I feel a certain sympathy for Alois Nebel because it tries to be a different Czech film (silent, allusive, based on the feeling from a place), but I can hardly forgive the film for not offering much besides effort. (28/09/2011)

A film that pretends to have a script, but is just a sort of existential character study that is more another foggy Jesenice hill than anything else. The form triumphs, and it makes it all too clear that it’s about the atmosphere – otherwise I can't explain why the corridor of the sanitarium is still in the shot nearly 10 seconds after one of the characters has passed through it. However, it was clear to me from the start that I wanted to see the film live-action, in color, and shot on roughly the same material as Wolf's Hole, where that atmosphere would be on full display. Otherwise, the horribly overheated trend of throwing singing songs into the film to "enhance" a scene is really in poor taste here. And someone kill Muchow, his "melancholy" strumming is making my adrenaline boil. P.S.: the orderlies in the madhouse were funny -) PPS: the comic is about ten times more atmospheric (06/10/2011)

I would like to go back to the original trilogy because otherwise, I have to say that the film Alois Nebel passed me by. The beauty of Prague's, formerly Wilson's, train station is unusually opulent and Krobot's minimalist acting is in perfect symbiosis with the pace of the narrative, but I miss the point of the memories of the German expulsion in 1945 and the present around 1989. (27/05/2012)