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Larks on a String -
Like Menzel does in Closely Watched Trains, he also successfully mines genuine warmth and humor from a dire situation; i.e., the communist regime that controlled Czechoslovakia for almost half a century, in this entry. That's also what the inmates of the prison camp that is the main setting try to do. Consisting of men suspected of bourgeois activity and women who failed to defect, they spend their days in a junkyard turning the scrap of the past into steel for the future. In the meantime, we see them attempt to comingle - the focus being a romance between the young Pavel (Neckář from Trains) and Jitka - and get glimpses into the home lives of the oppressors.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the movie demonstrates that the main product of regimes like this one is dehumanization. It does this in so many ways with each one being clever; highlights include all the typewriters and crucifixes littering the junkyard, the inmates referring to each other by their former jobs instead of their names and how each of Pavel's attempts to get closer to Jitka have the opposite effect. Conversely, the ways the inmates skirt the rules to feel like people again are all truly heartwarming. A scene where everyone - man and woman - stands around a fire during a freezing rainstorm and puts their hands over it is bound to make you more optimistic about humanity, the capper being when the warden joins them. On that note, I appreciate that the movie humanizes the oppressors more than it villainizes them. While it does not always paint them in an approving light - an uncomfortable scene involving a bath reveals that corruption is another product of oppression - it’s an approach that prioritizes understanding over hatred. The vignettes that break up the moments at the junkyard, especially the one about the warden getting an education about life from his new gypsy bride, are also a treat and never feel out of place.
This movie stands as one of the Czech New Wave's finest and most unsung entries. It's a shame, then, that despite being part of this movement, it did not reach the audience that needed it the most when it was made. While Menzel and other directors like Milos Forman were able to slip similar messages into their movies and get away with it, he was less successful this time around. It was not released until after the regime fell in 1990, and what's more, the director could not make movies for a few years afterwards. Regardless of its release date, like the best movies of its movement, this one also exposes the fallacy at the heart of oppressive regimes in that the greatness they claim to generate comes at the expense of what it means to be human.
Like Menzel does in Closely Watched Trains, he also successfully mines genuine warmth and humor from a dire situation; i.e., the communist regime that controlled Czechoslovakia for almost half a century, in this entry. That's also what the inmates of the prison camp that is the main setting try to do. Consisting of men suspected of bourgeois activity and women who failed to defect, they spend their days in a junkyard turning the scrap of the past into steel for the future. In the meantime, we see them attempt to comingle - the focus being a romance between the young Pavel (Neckář from Trains) and Jitka - and get glimpses into the home lives of the oppressors.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the movie demonstrates that the main product of regimes like this one is dehumanization. It does this in so many ways with each one being clever; highlights include all the typewriters and crucifixes littering the junkyard, the inmates referring to each other by their former jobs instead of their names and how each of Pavel's attempts to get closer to Jitka have the opposite effect. Conversely, the ways the inmates skirt the rules to feel like people again are all truly heartwarming. A scene where everyone - man and woman - stands around a fire during a freezing rainstorm and puts their hands over it is bound to make you more optimistic about humanity, the capper being when the warden joins them. On that note, I appreciate that the movie humanizes the oppressors more than it villainizes them. While it does not always paint them in an approving light - an uncomfortable scene involving a bath reveals that corruption is another product of oppression - it’s an approach that prioritizes understanding over hatred. The vignettes that break up the moments at the junkyard, especially the one about the warden getting an education about life from his new gypsy bride, are also a treat and never feel out of place.
This movie stands as one of the Czech New Wave's finest and most unsung entries. It's a shame, then, that despite being part of this movement, it did not reach the audience that needed it the most when it was made. While Menzel and other directors like Milos Forman were able to slip similar messages into their movies and get away with it, he was less successful this time around. It was not released until after the regime fell in 1990, and what's more, the director could not make movies for a few years afterwards. Regardless of its release date, like the best movies of its movement, this one also exposes the fallacy at the heart of oppressive regimes in that the greatness they claim to generate comes at the expense of what it means to be human.