Belle and Sebastian (orig. Belle et Sébastien) [2013]

MPAA (UR would be PG)  LaCroix (3 Stars)  LeMonde (2 1/2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allociné.fr listing*

LaCroix.fr (F.  Lebreton) review*
LeMonde.fr (N, Luciani) review*
Filmreporter.de (T. Niezel) review*
Filmovie.it (F. Mangiò) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (E. Bartlová) review*
Variety review

Belle and Sebastian (orig. Belle et Sébastien) [2013] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Nicholas Vanier [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, along with Fabien Suarez [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and Juliette Sales [IMDb] [AC.fr]*, based on the children's book [en.wikip] [fr.wikip]* by Cécile Aubry [en.wikip] [fr.wikip]* [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) is a lovely, beautifully-shot children's-oriented film about a 6-10 year old boy named Sébastien (played by Félix Bossuet [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) growing-up as an orphan and being raised by a "step-grandfather" named César (played by Tchéky Karyo [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) and his family in a small village in the French Alps near the Swiss border during Nazi Occupation.  During the course of the film, Sébastien befriends a previously abused wild sheepdog that he names Belle.  Together, of course, they eventully "help take on the Nazis" ;-)  The film played recently at the 2014 Chicago French Film Festival held at Chicago's Music Box Theater, a festival cosponsored by the French Diplomatic Mission to the United States.

It's a lovely film.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful.  And even the Germans in the film are played with texture (they're not all portrayed as uniformly evil...).  The film even _lightly confronts_ one of the biggest post-War shames of not just the French, but of _all_ the European nations that were occupied by the Nazis: the way the populations of these countries dealt, after liberation, with their young women who did (often only after some time...) fraternize with the young German soldiers of the previous occupying force.

Indeed, one of the subplots of the film involves late teen, early 20-something Angélina (played by Margaux Chatelier [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) presumably the daughter or granddaughter of César who still lives in the home of César and Sébastien but has a boyfriend Guillaume (played by Dimitri Storoge [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) in the resistance.  Throughout the film, she is repeatedly hit-upon / arguably at times harassed by a young German lieutenant named Peter (played by Andreas Pietschmann  [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who turns out to be actually a pretty good guy.  His interest in Angélina involved more than just that she was an attractive young french woman living in the same town where he, a German soldier, far from home, found himself stationed in. 

That all noted and said, IMHO the greatest difficulty in marketing this film in the United States would be that the film is that it is clearly intended for children -- the story's central protagonists are a 6-10 year old boy and his dog -- Yet, of course, it is filmed in French.  There's no real tradition in the United States to dub such films (and if it was dubbed, the film would probably look awkward to American audiences).  Yet, obviously, a six-year old is not going to be "reading subtitles" ;-).

My sense is that the film would be best utilized (in the English speaking world) as a film shown in French language courses from the secondary school level (7th/8th grade) upward.  Again, the French Alpine scenery is absolutely beautiful and would probably encourage students to "keep with their studies" ("Yes, kids learning French is worth it ...").

So... this is a lovely film, it's just one that very few Americans are probably ever going to see, and IMHO, that is a shame.


ADDENDUM:

It turns out that this film is available in bilingual (French w English subtitles) format IN CANADA.  North Americans can purchase it through Amazon.ca at a (more or less...) reasonable price and it can be shipped anywhere (including the United States).


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Films that I did not see in August (in support of our Archdiocesan campaign)

August was a month of travel, weddings / quinces for me as well as of our annual Annunciata Fest.  So there were actually a lot of movies that I missed both intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.  

As I've written before, as part of my contribution in our parish's participation in the Archdiocese of Chicago's Campaign "To Teach Who Christ Is," I've decided to forgo seeing (and therefore not reviewing here) one or two movies a weekend and instead contribute the money I would have spent to the campaign.  Here the list would seem longer than normal and admittedly some of the films I probably would not have seen anyway.  However, others I probably would have seen if not for time constraints and the campaign.

In any case as per my custom, I'm providing a list along with links to the usual line-up of reviews that I also consider as I write my own.

So in the past several weeks, these are the films that I did not see in support of the parish / Archdiocesan campaign:
 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2014] - MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+) - I was already "not a kid" when the original toys / series came out.  To be truthful, I never understood the appeal except that one would never imagine "turtles" to be "like ninjas," so perhaps the appeal is "don't judge a book by its cover" - even someone "nerdy" / "slow" could actually be "quick" / "really cool."

Into the Storm [2014] - MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (C+) - This summer's Hollywood disaster movie

Let's Be Cops [2014] - MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B-) - This summer's (wannabe) cop "buddy movie"

The Expendables 3 [2014] - MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+) - Silvester Stallone is actually a very talented screenwriter (the original Rocky [1976] and Rambo [1982] were both his creations) and he can honestly make just about anything work.  However, I've never particularly liked this "merceraries can be regular folk / good guys" story line.  His talents could be better used elsewhere.

When The Game Stands Tall [2014] - MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RE.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (C+) - This summer's pretty good inspirational high school sports film.

Land Ho! [2014] - MPAA (R) ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  - Two older guys go on a "road trip" to Iceland.  Kinda like this year's The Bucket List [2007].

To be Tokei [2014] - MPAA (UR)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (3 stars)  AVClub (C+) - Documentary about the life of George Tokei, the Japanese American actor who played Sulu in the original Startrek Series.  He spent a good amount of his childhood growing-up in one of the Japanese-American internment camps set-up by the U.S. government during WW II.  That would have been a compelling enough story as it is, but it turns out that he's also gay.  So he was playing his role in the series / subsequent films as a gay man from the 1960s through the 1980s as a gay man without the public realizing this.

Love is Strange [2014] - MPAA (R)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (4 Stars)  AVClub (B+) - Story of a gay couple that after many years together finally get married, only to have one of them fired by the Catholic Archdiocese for which he worked for not complying with / living according to Church Teaching.

As Above-So Below [2014] - MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  RE.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+) - Another "found footage" horror film, this time set in the catacombs under Paris, France

The Identical [2014] - MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-I)  ChicagoTribune (1 Star)  RE.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C) - A faith-based film about the identical twin to a Elvis Presley-like superstar from the South of the 1950s.


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The Trip to Italy [2014]

MPAA (NR would be PG-13)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RE.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review


The Trip to Italy [2014] (screenplay and directed by Michael Winterbottom) played this past spring at Chicago's 17th EU Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chciago.  More recently (late-August/early-Sept 2014), it has been released/playing through the "Landmark Century" theater chain in the United States and is also available for streaming on iTunes.

What to say of the film? 

First, I pointedly didn't see the film when it played at Chicago's EU Film Festival because I was wondering "Why see a British film about two Brits going down to Italy when there are several very good Italian films made by Italians about Italy playing at the same said festival..."  I also remember that Brits haven't had necessarily a good reputation in Italy (at least among older Italians), because they have had a reputation of approaching Italy with a certain "The sun still doesn't set on Our Empire" arrogance (think Tea With Mussolini [1999]...).  (Seriously, during my three years as an American seminarian in Italy, I heard from countless Italian Servites and parishioners: "Well at least you Americans are not British."  Italy and Britain were, of course, on opposite sides of a war (WW II...).  And Britain and the various states of Italy were also on opposite sides of centuries of religious wars.  The British would pride themselves for being honest, if also admit that their food was generally lousy and that they themselves were traditionally often quite cold as people.  The Italians would pride themselves on their food, warmth and style, even as they would admit that "financial clarity" was never exactly "a strength" in Italy (and especially "in the South..." ;-) ).   So seeing a British film about a "trip to Italy" ... in 2014 ... seemed to me somewhat "retro-imperialistic."  Again, why not just let Italians present themselves ...

That said, the film could really be entitled "A Trip to simply Somewhere..." (and Italy seemed to be a nice/worthy place to go) as the film was intended as a sequel to the film The Trip [2010], both films (The Trip [2010] and The Trip to Italy [2014]) actually condensed versions of a British sitcom television series featuring two British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden playing lightly fictionalized versions of themselves doing in the first case a restaurant tour of Northern England and in the current case a similar restaurant tour of largely (Mediterranean) coastal Italy.   In both cases, the locations and even the food, as beautiful/tasty/picturesque as they were, were largely irrelevant to the often hilarious conversations between them.

For these are two _very talented_ and THANKFULLY SELF-EFFACING actors, who let loose, spend two nearly hours, poking fun at themselves, their profession and other actors, even as they eat REALLY GOOD FOOD and STAY AT SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES IMAGINABLE.  That they do poke, laugh-out-loud, fun at themselves (and the "perks" that come with being "rich and famous" ...) makes the film not only bearable but honestly worthy of a thumbs-up (or two ;-). 

Honestly, watching them eat splendidly prepared calamari and linguini (and many other dishes that I'd honestly not have the vocabulary for, even if I did spend three years out there in Italy...) while going through rapid-fire impressions of Dark Knight Rises [2012] characters played by Michael Caine, Tom Hardy and Christian Bale or through everyone of the Bond actors (Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, etc ...) is priceless. 

So despite my initial reservations (back in March), I honestly have to say that this film was a blast.  And the scenery was beautiful as well.  Good job ;-).


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Frank [2014]

MPAA (R)  ChicagoTribune (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RE.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

TheGuardian.co.uk Article by writer Jon Ronson

Frank [2014]  (directed by Lenny Abrahamson, screenplay by Jon Ronson [IMDb] and Peter Straughan based on British writer/journalist Jon Ronson's experiences with Frank Sidebottom and his band) is a surprisingly poignant movie about a simultaneously shy and arrogant "alternative rock" musician going by the stage name of "Frank" (played magnificently throughout by Machael Fassbender, even as for 95% of the movie he wore, and spoke through..., a giant, goofily "Bob's Big Boy" expressioned papier-mache mask over his head).

Frank and his band who were so completely "out there" that one really couldn't really call them "avant-garde" (out-in-front) as that would suggest that they were actually interested in pursuing direction.   Instead, they purposefully _chose_ to "follow their bliss" to the point of repeatedly facing being kicked-out onto the street (for having run out of money) while _not_ recording (they were too busy re-inventing every constituent component of music -- from their instruments to their instruments' sounds, to rhythm and to notation..., to bother with actually finally producing something ...) and _not_ touring (they proved too depressed or otherwise immobile for that either).

Yet they were utterly sincere, convinced of their genius, especially of Frank's, and absolutely unwilling to "sell-out" by conforming in _any_ (even practical / even self-preserving) way to the world outside their group.  This is post-modern / contemporary artistic narcissism at its grandest / goofiest.  And yet, one can't but feel for this group, so utterly unwilling to step-out of its self-imposed / fake? (papier-mache-like) "shell." ;-)

The film is told through Jon Burroughs (played by Dumhnall Gleeson) whose character is loosely based on writer Jon Ronson [IMDb] himself.  Working a clerical job, but fancying himself a song-writer and keyboardist, he accidentally runs into Frank's band one morning while walking along the beach somewhere in Southern England.  The band's keyboardist had run out of the band's van and was trying to drown himself, quite unsuccessfully, in the sea while the police were trying to grab a hold of him, pull him back from the water and eventually take him in for a psychiatric-evaluation.

Watching the police chase the very much "gone" keyboardist down the beach, the band's apparent manager Don (played by Scoot McNairy) laments, "Well that's just great!  We actually have a gig tonight and now we have no keyboardist."  Jon standing next to Don and hearing his lament, responds: "Well ..., I'm actually a keyboardist ... but ... I wouldn't know any of your songs."  Taking a look at Jon, Don answers "Can you play C, F and G?"  "Well, yes."  "Okay, you're in!  The gig's at ... come by around 5, we'll teach you what you need to play."

Jon comes by the club at 5, meets the rest of the band, and of course, Frank, with his giant papier-mache mask covering his head and quickly realizes that this was both "a real band" and a _really odd_ one.  The gig didn't go well.  Half-way into the first song, an amplifier caught fire and über- volatile band-member Clara (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) stormed off in disgust.  A brawl broke-out as patrons at the bar, where they were playing, realized that the band was walking off the stage 30-seconds into their first already admittedly strangely-techno-sounding song.

It would have made for one heck of a "one strange night" story for Jon, if he did not get a call a few days later from manager Don asking him if he'd like to join them for a gig in Ireland that weekend.  "Sure!" he answers, thinking he'd be back home in England by Monday.  Only when the band arrives at a very out to the way "retreat" somewhere by a lake in rural Ireland does he realize that "the gig" was actually an extended (and really open-ended) one ... the group was going to record a "new album."

Okay, Jon's going to have to walk-away from his job back in England, BUT this was always "his dream" to be part of "a real band." And he could be part of their recording of an album.  However, as time progresses, it becomes clear that the band's "creative process" was a rather _long one_.  They arrived with nothing prepared, and spent the next period of time, "reinventing themselves," reinventing EVERYTHING (except apparently Frank's mask...) ABOUT THEMSELVES and their music, up to reinventing their instruments, their musical notation, etc, etc.  That period only ended, 11 months into the project, when they ran-out of money ;-).

... Or so they thought that they ran out of money.  Here, Jon actually stepped up, offering the "nest egg" that his grandfather had left him.  And though nobody in the band except for Don and Frank particularly liked Jon -- Clara, paranoid and generally angry throughout, thought Jon was a loser who actually had sought to insinuate himself into this band, and their French base-player Baraque (played by François Civil) and his girlfriend Nana (played by Carla Azar) the band's drummer, pointedly refused to speak English to him for those 11 months (even though Jon spoke no French ;-) -- they happily took his money, blissfully spending another year or so "on the creative process."  And at the end of said "process," Jon with some growing resentment, noted that not a single new song that they had recorded was "his" and none of them featured any more of him than him banging-out a few notes in it.

No matter, Jon _still_ felt that he was "living the dream" ... AND he was tweeting about it, and quietly posting videos on YouTube about the band's progress.  The result was that though the band largely hated Jon, it had actually gained something of a following as a result of him, enough so that the band got invited to the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX to play there.

But was a band that took two years to produce an album that they weren't particularly concerned about anybody hearing, much less liking ..., really interested in playing (or able to play...) for a real audience no matter how "avant garde" that audience would perhaps be?

The rest of the movie follows ... ;-)

I found the film to be a kick and I've enjoyed Jon Ronson's work in the past.  And I do think that the story does touch on a concern that we should perhaps have in our society today: If people really do all just drift-off to "follow their bliss" (with total unconcern for "The Other") does this really mark the end of society?

The band's stuff, no matter what THEY THEMSELVES THOUGHT OF IT, in this film was pretty awful.  And yes, they were free to do it for a while ... until (repeatedly) their money ran out.  But honestly, what then?  Is there still a place in society for "common sense" or will the bounds of society be determined in the future PRIMARILY (or even SOLELY) by economics?   You can do anything you want, but once your money runs out, you're dead?

Hmm, that actually was the theme of a recent sci-fi-ish thriller starring the musician-turned-actor Justin Timberlake called In Time [2011] ;-).

Anyway, a good / thought provoking if also often anguished film ;-) and though playing only "in select theaters" it's also already available for a reasonable price on Amazon Instant Video.


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Innocence [2013]

MPAA (PG-13) ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (1 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (C. Darling) review


Parents should note that Innocence [2013] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Hilary Brougher along with Tristine Skyler based on the novel by Jane Mendelsohn [IMDb]) is a rather mislabeled story.

Okay, yes, it's about a rather innocent 15-year-old girl named Beckett Warner (played by Sophie Curtis) from somewhere on Long Island, who after the rather strange death of her mother (due to an aneurism while surfing) moves with her father (played by Linus Roache) to Manhattan, where he enrolls her in a rather odd/creepy prep school where apparently her mother had also gone.

The school is run by women, all apparently her mother's age (late-30s to mid-40s).  They are all good looking and very competent, like her mother was.  But they all also seem to be rather emotionless to the point of seeming drugged / sedated.  And they all seem to know her father, a writer, from their "book club."

Also despite their quite fashionable attire and quite modern bordering on trendy demeanor, these women running this quite upscale prep-school, that's been "around for ages," seem surprisingly "puritanical," obsessed with blood and protecting their students' virginity.

Well there's, of course, "an explanation" to this. And it's actually a quite amusing one, though it more or less requires a BIG SPOILER ALERT to cuntinue further.

But (PARENTS DEFINITELY TAKE NOTE...) let's just say that the film offers one of the more "original" (unconvincing but _original_) excuses that a young girl could give to her parents for NEEDING to LOSE HER VIRGINITY _QUICKLY_ that certainly I've ever heard ;-)  ...

DON'T READ FURTHER if you accept the warning and don't want to have the film otherwise "spoiled' for you, but its final act really is kinda a hoot.

BIG SPOILER ALERT: "But dad, I HAD to lose my virginity because OTHERWISE the WITCHES who run my school would CONTINUE TO SUCK MY VIRGIN BLOOD TO KEEP THEMSELVES 'FOREVER YOUNG.'"

Unconvincing as an excuse, yes, but certainly quite original ;-).  Would I recommend the film to your teen? Probably not.  But I'm sure that most readers who've read this far will be amused.


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The Remaining [2014]

MPAA (PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing

Nerdrepository.com: Interview with the director


The Remaining [2014] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Casey La Scala along with Chris Dowling) imagines the sudden arrival of the end of the world according to the sequence outlined in the Biblical Book of Revelation

The film begins at a lovely "garden wedding" (but note here, not a _Church_ wedding ;-) of a lovely,  even somewhat sassy couple, Skylar (played by Alexa Vega) and Dan (played by Bryan Dechart) both of whom could have easily starred in some CMT / GAC music video.  They do have someone there to officiate ("Pastor Shay?" played by John Pyper Furgeson, whose character gets more important as the film progresses).  They've written their own sincere if somewhat cheesy vows.

We viewers get to endure then the typical "rites" that go on at the lovely Reception that follows including the "toast" by the Best Man (played by Shaun Sipos) where he talks about "Commitment" to the irritation of his 7-years-and-going GF named Ally (played by Italia Ricci) who then asks, "Why then has HE not proposed (to me) yet ...?" ;-), the "first dance" (that "starts slow" and then "suddenly" becomes a "hip-hop" number, "oh what a surprise" ;-), the "rigged bouquet toss" (all dressed-in-white and sassy Sky knows her BFF Ally's "pain ...").  There's even a somewhat creepy (or simply nerdy...) friend named Dan (played by Bryan Dechart) who's videotaping it all.

And then, as Dan's videotaping Sky's parents' well-wishes to their daughter, telling her (into the tape) that her "wedding was perfect" (even as they note that they still would have preferred a Church wedding ;-) ... SUDDENLY ... both of Sky's parents DROP DEAD (apparently Raptured...) and ... THE END OF THE WORLD BEGINS ...

The rest of the movie follows with many of the torments described in the Book of Revelation, including storms of fire and ice and fearsome flying beasts who sting like scorpions, ensueing...

To the its credit by film's end, it is clear WHY these torments are occurring: It's a LAST CHANCE for those who Remain to choose between God, and ... non-God (unbelief, selfish pride, etc). 

That's NOT an altogether bad understanding of the Book of Revelation whose dream-like, hallucinatory imagery, of course, DEFIES EASY / HONEST interpretation (though certainly, there have been various sects for 2000 years, who've insisted that "they know...").

The Catholic Church has insisted that the imagery present be understood as being BOTH PREDICTIVE of a future time AND ALREADY PRESENT.  That's why ANY TIME can feel LIKE "THE END TIMES."  And let's face it, there have been PLENTY OF TIMES during the Church's 2000 year history, that "THE END TIMES" seemed quite "Nigh" -- during the Roman persecutions of the Early Church, during the Barbarian invasions that sacked the remains of the Roman Empire after it had become Christian, during the Crusades / Black Plague, during the Religious Wars that plagued Europe during the time of the Reformation (culminating in the Thirty Year War in which HALF of Central Europe's inhabitants DIED as a result of the wars), to the wars/plagues of the modern era (WW I, the Spanish Flu, WW II, the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War ...).  Every one of these historical torments had MANY sincere believers believing that The End was Near.

One can ALSO interpret the Book of Revelation as the grand-apocalyptic struggle FOR ONE'S OWN SOUL during _one's own life_.  The struggles, the toils, the failures that occur in one's own life could be interpreted as being as painful as "scorpion bites" or being hit on the head by "hail of fire."

And ultimately, the whole drama centers around the fundamental question: Does one (come to) believe?  If one does come to believe none of these torments ultimately succeed ... and one reaches the blissful peace of the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation (interestingly LEFT OUT OF THIS FILM).  If one continues to struggle, thinking that "one is in charge," well the final plagues wipe everybody out.

Anyway, IMHO this does make for an interesting film.  I would also note here that BOTH fundamentalist Muslims and fundamentalist Protestants arrive at basically the same conclusion: One ultimately has to _submit_ to God (Allah / Jesus).  And I would also note that interestingly enough, though the Muslims DON'T accept Jesus as God's son, THEY DO BELIEVE that it will be JESUS (and _not_ Mohammed) who will come back to earth (as Prophet if not as God's son) to judge it at the end.

Something to think about as one munches popcorn while watching the Final Days play-out on-screen: We often may not like each other, but we all have more in common than we think.


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The Don Juans (orig. Donšajni) [2013]

MPAA (R)  iDnes.cz (4/10)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD listing*
FDB.cz listing*

CervenyKoberec.cz (E. Bartlová) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
Lidovky (M. Kabát) review* interview w. director*

Expats.cz (J. Pirodsky) review
Variety (R.. Scheib) review

Czech that Film [official site] [2014 line-up at GSFC in Chicago]

The Don Juans (orig. Donšajni) [2013] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* (written and directed by Jiří Menzel [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) was the Czech Republic's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film competition at the 86th Annual Academy Awards (The Oscars).  On the flip side, the film caused something of a stir (and not necessarily a good one...) back in the Czech Republic where the film scored a 30% from viewers on its CSFD database, the continued sanity of the director (of Woody Allen's age and demeanor) was questioned and the film was even labeled as "possibly the worst Czech film made since the fall of Communism."  In other words, as one of Czech parents, who grew-up on films like Menzel's Oscar-winning (best foreign language picture) Closely Watched Trains (orig. Ostře Sledované Vlaky) [1966] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* and Secluded by the Woods (orig. Na Samotě u Lesa) [1976] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* (filmed in the rolling Bohemian countryside near the village where my dad's family was originally from) as well as more recently I Served the King of England (orig. Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) [2006] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*, I had to see the film ;-) ... and it played recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago as part of 2014 Czech That Film Tour cosponsored by the Czech Diplomatic Mission to the United States.

The film then, which runs very much like a contemporary Woody Allen [IMDb] movie (one honestly thinks of Allen's most recent Magic in the Moonlight [2014]), is definitely on the parternalistic / sexist side (and this is exactly what Czech critical opinion, above, was most irritated with).  Yet it does have quite a few, ever-gentle laughs.

Set in a Czech provincial town (one thinks of Český Krumlov, Pardubice or Tábor ) at the center of the film are two protagonists: Vítek (played by Jan Hartl [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*), male, and Markéta (played by Libuše Šafránková [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*), female.  He's a bored if still good-natured said-provincial-town opera director.  She's a still quite enthusiastic children's drama coach lifetime resident of the same provincial town.  Interestingly, they are roughly of the same age both presumably in their late 50s to early 60s.  Yet also tellingly, they are NOT romantic interests to each other in this film.  Vítek, bored though he may be with staging "provincial opera," nonetheless "takes solace" in bedding a veritable parade of young soprano women looking for lead parts in his productions.  Markéta, on the other hand, raised a now late 30-something daughter as a single parent, having allowed herself to be seduced by a dashing (then) "leading man" opera singer who passed through the provincial-town (readers, count the years yourselves ...) some decades past.  She doesn't necessarily have regrets, but she does admit that she has had a love-hate relationship with "Donšajni," that is, "Don Juans" in general and then with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni in particular.

Now it turns out that Vítek, whose opera company has been struggling for years, decides to go for broke and stage Don Giovanni at his opera house.  And he even invites the once dashing leading man "baritone" superstar, now thanks to age and attendant wear-and-tear reduced to "bass" voiced Jakub (played by Martin Huba [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*) to "come back from America" to sing the part of Don Giovanni's great nemisis "Il Commendatore" (Don Pedro) in the opera.  And poor Jakub, who gets a free trip "back to the old country," accepts.  Now who is this once great, now whiskey and cigarettes ravaged Jakub?  I think most readers here will guess ... ;-) 

Much, often very funny ... in a typically light-hearted, Allenesque (the Czechs would add Svěrák-Smoljak-Cimrman-esque), "petite bourgeois" sort of way ... ensues ... ;-)

Folks, this is a goofy movie, but people who've ever liked the stories around "small town theater" would probably very much enjoy this light-hearted Czech-provincial "Baroque" version of Garrison Keillor's "Prarie Home Companion" [2006] ;-).


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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