The Ear

A despotic anonymous regime carried out in constant meaningless celebrations, speeches, and gestures. Its representatives, degenerated by alcohol and permanent fear. The insecurity of everyone in their current position. The personalized camera capturing the events of a party infiltrated by undercover cops, where nobody knows how to talk to whom and what is really going on, is my favorite conception of communism as totally insane chaos and generator of mental illness under the surface. (12/09/2008)

All kidding aside. It is indeed sympathetic that to this day Bohdalová can still bow to Procházka, but was there really only one film that was worth so much that she would throw away her entire previous career for it? The Ear soon became the reason for her varied efforts in film (since 1937) with considerable results, and she quickly turned into a stereotypical constant on the television screen. Later, she did try to return to the big screen, but the small amount from the 1990s can never make up for the wasted two decades in which she could have fully capitalized on her mature acting. Brzobohatý and Kachyňa were of course lucky in their misfortune, as they continued on much more smoothly... (07/04/2011)

Probably the best film showing the communist 1950s not as an exhilarated working class era, but as a time full of fear and widespread snitching. Brzobohatý as a high-ranking communist official and Bohadalová as his wife give the performances of a lifetime. After the Russian occupation this film went into the vaults, of course. Kachyňa made a humiliating apology and survived, but Jan Procházka, with his script, set up his professional suicide. (11/05/2003)

An extraordinary film by Karel Kachyňa, which the director then had to smooth over with the authorities for a long time, while the film went straight into the vault. A top-notch screenplay that perfectly captured the essence of the era and the regime, and a superbly crafted atmosphere, culminating in the final scene. Excellent casting led by Jiřina Bohdalová and Radoslav Brzobohatý. It is simply a unique, although somewhat oppressive experience. This is not a film for pleasant entertainment, but rather a haunting nightmare of recent Czech history. Overall impression: 100%. (16/06/2006)

This story never happened. The things that really happened were much worse (as Jan Procházka noted in his screenplay). “The most banned of the banned" or another busy night for the Minister’s private secretary. A thick atmosphere hand in hand with incredible tension-rise. A psycho(logical) portrait of life in Czechoslovakia in the nineteen fifties (i.e. during the Stalinist period). Kachyňa’s best ever picture. Those are the main ingredients of the best Czechoslovak movie about the impacts of Communism on regular people. (16/03/2022)