gudaulin

A typical film product of its time, where it is definitely necessary, even after many decades, to appreciate Katharine Hepburn's acting skills. However, the screenplay presents a characteristic conflict, or rather the idea of happiness of the bourgeoisie at that time, and to be honest, a typically petty-bourgeois film like Alice Adams is difficult to find. The main heroine is poor and feels so very poor in her only ball gown, that it gives her a headache, which she deals with throughout the entire film. Her efforts to marry and climb the social ladder are met with overt elitism from the bourgeoisie, who scorn the common people. However, her family's social status at that time did not necessarily mean poverty, nor would it mean poverty nowadays, by the way. In any case, those who enjoy classic films of that era will not be disappointed. Oscars during that time were given out with some certainty to conventional, but well-made films. Overall impression: 40%.

This film is a significantly emotional, plotless film that is difficult to describe for this reason. It is a film about searching for one's roots and attempting to map out one's childhood and adolescence. As a story, it is essentially about nothing, and the adventures of a group of teenagers from a poor suburb of an American metropolis are completely forgotten in a few days. However, the nostalgic melancholic mood will resonate with me for a long time. It is definitely not a bad film and considering how inexperienced the director was, I consider it more than successful. However, considering the above, it has its limits, for which I can give no more than three stars. Dito Montiel made a film where the combination of music, images, and performances rarely works well. Overall impression: 65%.

The three stars I'm giving the film are justified because I know the play of the same name from an excellent performance at my local theater, where the message of the play seemed more modern and multi-layered to me. The film, of course, benefits from the presence of two great acting stars, but it doesn't deny its theatrical origin or the fact that it is, from today's perspective, more like a TV show filmed in a studio with minimal outdoor scenes. From the beginning to the end, it is driven by dialogues and confrontations between two conflicting characters - an emotional king who has unlimited possibilities but is limited by his abilities, and a rational thinker named Becket who, nevertheless, decides at a certain point to follow his own value ladder rather than power calculations. The latter has much greater abilities, but his options are limited by his subordinate position. For me, this play is more suited for the stage than for the movie screen. Overall impression: 65%.

A classic disaster film about a plane crash in the middle of an empty desert, which brings a group of diverse characters to the screen and portrays their mutual struggle to survive a critical situation. Although somewhat dated in its directorial approach, it is still fully functional and, in comparison to what is commonly seen in the genre today with flaws in the scripts, definitely above average. Overall impression: 65%.

This film reminded me of a joke about a foreigner traveling through Russia by train and after several hours of waiting at the station, he disgustedly asks the train conductor what the problem is. The engine driver is changing the locomotive. For so long?! He's changing it for vodka... Honestly, this is a completely average gangster film, so average that I realized I had seen it years ago, which wouldn't be strange if I hadn't realized it during the last scene. I had perfectly erased the film from my memory. It has an uneven pace with a lot of dull moments, but it scores points with its atmosphere of a country where the state structure is collapsing and general chaos prevails. Widespread corruption, unemployment, and alcoholism. The absurd scene where a wounded gangster stops an ambulance and demands to be taken to the hospital, only to find out that the ambulance has been "privatized" for five years and a small business owner is currently transporting a load of cabbage heads in it, is typical of the film. Overall impression: 55%.

A comedy should entertain and I have no choice but to say that I didn't laugh once during the whole two hours - in fact, I didn't even get the feeling that I should be laughing. Whenever a situation that seemed like humor was approaching, it was usually ruined by some vulgarity, stupidity, or the scriptwriter's failure. This film clearly targets a younger audience in their teenage years, which is the reason for the naivety, insincerity of the storytelling, and cheaper humor. It remains true that the film can convey some timeless differences between the female and male perspectives on the world and relationships, but a film like Barefoot in the Park can sell romance and immaturity of relationships twice as effectively with infinitely greater elegance and style, and any episode of The Simpsons can reveal the struggles of parenthood and marriage in a lot funnier and more cultivated way. The main female characters, led by Katherine Heigl, are a good aspect of the film, as well as the awareness that American studios produce infinitely dumber and more poorly crafted films in the same genre. Overall impression: 40%.

A sympathetic romantic comedy that was created as a hybrid of traditional studio production methods from the US and British humor, along with the performances of several pleasant British actors. The script cleverly combines two parallel stories of the same characters in the style of what would happen "if." The heroine faces her partner's infidelity, who pays for his weakness in both storylines. Gwyneth Paltrow lives up to her star status and sells not only her charm and acting skills but also her artistry. Overall impression: 75%.

The Holocaust viewed from the slightly different perspective of those who had relative luck and did not end up directly in the transport to the concentration camp. Their fate was constant hiding and escaping from the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo, and the local authorities. The story of the Free Land takes place in France, where they moved from occupied Paris to the Vichy part of the country, where the conditions were relatively more bearable, but still, the constant risk of denunciation by local fascists and collaborators persisted. France was soaked in anti-Semitism like a sponge after the rain. An old farmer and his daughter-in-law provide shelter to a Jewish family, who become a rare island of humanity in a crazy time. Although Free Land is not an exceptional film, and yet it does not manipulate emotions as we are accustomed to in Hollywood productions, and it provided me with several solid emotionally intense scenes. My overall impression is 70% and four stars.

Věra Plívová-Šimková made two really good movies during her creative career, namely, Gentlemen Boys and Krakonos and the Skiers. This film belongs more to the average category, but it has a nice soundtrack. I remember that Liška's music from this film once appeared in the opening of the TV news. It is also interesting to see the film beginnings of today's media celebrity Jan Kraus. In some places, when it comes to scenes of children's antics, they should have done more editing, and some of the boys' fights are also a bit confusing. Overall impression (with a touch of nostalgia): 60%.

Bohdan Sláma is a difficult case - on one hand, he is original and can choose topics and look at them from such an angle that other Czech filmmakers are not capable of, but on the other, except for his last film Country Teacher, to which I gave a great review, his previous films seemed to be incomplete in terms of scriptwriting, and the same applies to this film. Sláma is unlucky in that he doesn't film about distant countries but about Czech society, and the situation with abandoned children, for example, simply doesn't work and cannot work the way he describes it. In addition, some of the decisions and emotional expressions of the main character do not seem believable. Otherwise, it is no wonder that foreign festival juries and critics are interested in his work. Sláma can describe love, for example, in a very unique way. He knows well that love contains compassion, sacrifice, and many other emotions. Some moments, like the reconciliation with the dying sister, are extremely touching and deserve two more stars on their own. Overall impression: 65%.