D.Moore

Here we go again. A good film in every respect, but I have one major problem with it: Its main character is an anti-hero. On the one hand, of course, I bow down to Daniel Day-Lewis, who made the initially somewhat sympathetic Plainview convincingly and utterly disgusting to me with his brilliant performance, but on the other hand, I take no pleasure in watching a man who deliberately hurts, abuses and despises his fellow human beings. I know that such people exist (and that there are lots and lots of them), I just don't have to watch them in realistic dramas. So from about an hour ago, I wished Plainview the worst possible ending... And that's probably why I didn't enjoy There Will Be Blood as much. Otherwise, of course, I praise the unusually but sympathetically slow direction, the strange but impressive music, and the beautiful cinematography.

A nice and gently funny film, during which I had a permanent smile on my lips from the beginning to the end. I especially adore the scene when Josef Bláha sits down at the piano in his apartment and starts to play an incredibly dramatic piece he composed for Jana Brejchová. And there is not a single flaw in the final confrontation in the Tomáš family's apartment, which traditionally makes me giggle like a fool. I'm rounding up three and a half stars. Gladly.

Adelheid is an extremely impressively presented simple story. However, the mentioned simplicity of the plot is in no way detrimental, on the contrary. Everything we watch feels very believable thanks to, among other things, the sparse dialogues and fantastic performances by Petr Čepek and Emma Černá. The fact that František Vláčil decided to make this film in color, unlike others, doesn't bother me - scenes like the candle-lit dinner have an almost magical atmosphere thanks to the use of color. Zdeněk Liška, who is listed here as the composer, did not compose this time, but took care of a selection of Strauss and Bach pieces. And because he did it with professional flair, there can be no reservations. Three and a half.

"Oh, very well. If you choose to play the leopard... I shall hunt you like a leopard," says Count Zaroff in an icy calm voice, mentally nodding under the sinister flame that flares in his eyes, and the incredibly exciting hunt can begin. The Most Dangerous Game is a great movie. The creators of King Kong did not deny themselves and (actually, even before the story of "the big ape") used the action-adventure-thriller premise like probably no one before them. In a year when visitors to Czechoslovak biographies were roaring with laughter at the comedies, the fanatical Count was organizing harsh hunts overseas for the unsuspecting surviving passengers of shipwrecked ships, shooting them with bows and rifles, loading their heads into alcohol or hanging them on the wall as trophies... In short, this was something unbelievable. Thanks to timeless direction, magic special effect helping to create the exotic island jungle setting, and Max Steiner's bombastic score, it's an adrenaline rush that still has energy after an incredible eighty years. Five pure stars.__P.S. And I want it on DVD, YouTube isn't enough.

Convincing acting performances, a pleasantly ordinary script, which is composed of a series of episodes tightly held together, fine music and a dramatic-comedy mood that flows through the whole film, which on the one hand does not make you cry with laughter, but on the other fortunately not with sweetly painful emotion either. That is what Imaginary Heroes is all about. It's just a shame about the stretched out ending.

This film, with Iva Janžurová excelling literally to the letter, is unfortunately too long for my taste. Due to its excessive runtime, the pleasantly written, simple script, contains several completely unnecessary scenes (especially the boring and drawn-out misunderstanding in the cabin) and lacks the momentum it has at the beginning and end. Of the actors, apart from Iva Janžurová, I most liked the wonderfully civil Vladimír Brabec and the natural Zuzana Bydžovská. Radoslav Brzobohatý, on the other hand, gave off an even more repulsive impression than when he played the role of the wizard Mrakomor. Three and a half.

A well-written crime drama set in an unconventional environment. The walking charisma known as Vladimír Ráž investigates a murder that happened in the Komořany mine, Michal Pavlata gives an excellent performance, and many scenes are chilling thanks to the black and white picture and Fišer's music... And the revelation of the killer at the end is really unexpected and nicely suspenseful.__P.S.

For a film made to order, there is pleasantly little talk of communists and heroic comrades in general (of course, the main heroes are party members, but at least no one points that out - there is even a mention of General Patton's army in the film, and at the end there are only Czech flags flying everywhere in the streets, no red flags) and offers an interesting dramatic patch with the always likeable František Němec and my favorite Jana Gýrová. If the filmmakers had dropped the tired scenes of fighting on the barricades (which they couldn't) and if they had dropped the plot line with the constantly approaching Russian soldiers (which they also couldn't) and the whole film had taken place inside the gymnasium, it would have been even better. By the way, the music by Petr Hapka, which is almost heroic in places, is worthy of attention.

"The steam cars will run and crush with their wheels all the pettiness and selfishness of your life." Another good biopic starring Vladimír Ráž. It's a pity that, compared to (filmed a few years later) The Secret of Blood, this film didn't completely distance itself from the time of its creation, which means that even though it has momentum, a great period atmosphere, excellent music and boasts sensational actors and actresses, it gets disturbed every now and then. First of all, I'm thinking of the conflict of the upper class vs. the people, which culminates in the uprising in the factory, and then the blatant (but fortunately short) scene when, on hearing about Napoleon fleeing from burning Moscow, some poor guy in the street starts dancing the Cossack joyfully. Still, it gets four stars.

Miloš Kopecký as an irresistibly choleric brute, who faces the pitfalls prepared by an ingeniously and wittily written script, and who so beautifully screams at so many bastards in eighty-three minutes that the heart of every misanthrope and angry person must simply leap in joy. I liked the film very much, but I admit that with anyone else in the lead role it would certainly not have been the same.__P.S. If this film was playing in the movie theatre, I'd send everyone who says I don't like people there. A medium-sized hall would probably do.