NinadeL

The gravediggers know what’s fun, but they've overdone it. When the film is put on ice for a while and comes back in about ten years, then maybe. I'll even forget about any of my distaste for school movies in general.

Crime in the Night Club is a classic 1960s hodgepodge. Under the influence of a certain mood, the Škvorecký / Menzel authorial team, the Suchý / Šlitr authorial-interpretive team, performers Grossmann / Smoljak / Svěrák, and Pilarová singing (plus a number of other disparate faces of the time) all came together on one film. According to Menzel, it was supposed to be another crime film written by Škvorecký, this time in a retro version in the style of Martin Frič. On paper, the idea remained halfway between the Lieutenant Borůvka films, which never became a trilogy. Well, that didn't work. Regardless Suchý was grateful for having another film for the people. The withdrawal from movie theaters was primarily due to Škvorecký's emigration, and some people would like to believe that this failed crime drama could perhaps be considered provocative. However, not everything from the golden sixties has to be considered genius.

I’m also a bookseller, so I know what I'm talking about when I say I get it.

An all-encompassing magnificent visual experience. It captivated me, sat me down, and slackened my jaw. I'm probably going to watch all the biopics about classic painters. :) Or I'll stay grounded, thank the ever-improving Colin Firth, move on to another overrated Scarlett Johansson performance, and enjoy one of the many child roles of the now-discovered Anna Popplewell. That's how I like it. Later, I’ll grab a Tracy Chevalier novel, which is written in the first person and is therefore a deeply visceral experience.

A stupid romantic German two-part film.... at first glance. At second glance, however, it's a piquancy for connoisseurs of the Czech crime series Specialisté na vraždy because the three distinctive faces of the series (Hans Werner Meyer, Gudrun Landgrebe and Barbara M. Ahren) appear in this series in completely contrasting and endearing roles.

The backstage remakes bother me. Even if Frič, bred by Lamač, was in a way entitled to a remake. But Nataša couldn't act better than Anny Ondra even if she tore herself apart. Some people are good, some are not. Those who don't know what I'm talking about should watch the original from 1933.

After Adina Mandlová showed the entire tower block the nice things she’d bought from Podolská, my interest waned somewhat. Another way of looking at it is that Catacombs is the less boisterous of the Burian films, and while it is tasteful and mildly entertaining, it is also very moralistic and gives vent to bureaucratic mannerisms and blind following of authority. The melancholic mood is tempered to a lesser extent by the events at the ball and the teachers, but the overall experience is too bitter. This applies regardless of whether we perceive the premiere date or not.

Just as the film The Virgin has no beginning, this one has no ending, and I'm not going to let it go despite my best efforts. I can still remember the first time I saw it and immediately the trauma that came in the first few minutes. Goodbye is about as much as you can find here. And Zorka? She’s a tragedy, even if she's still alive today. It’s unfortunate that the only reputable Čeněk comes from this film.

For the last few years, I've been amused mainly by how many thousands of reviews this particular film is getting. Otherwise, it absolutely stands out in the awareness of the entire classic era of Czech cinema and overshadows all the otherwise supposed highlights like Christian or Eva swaggering with stupidity.

Burian's return after a nearly two-year hiatus was good commercially. The exoticism game is a little too strong, but what more can you ask for, when Novotný had already worked in Hollywood? Also, the film features Helena and Míla, and that makes up for everything.