After making plans to watch one Czech movie from the Cold War era a day over April,I talked to a fellow IMDber on the European Cinema board,who told me about a Czech Comedy which they suspected I would really enjoy.Getting home late last night,I started thinking about what Czech film would offer a swift viewing,which led to me deciding that it was time to see how happy the ending could be.
The plot:
Getting beheaded, (what a happy way to start the movie!) Bedřich Frydrych's life starts to run backwards,which gives Frydrych the chance to un-murder his wife and bring his father in law back from the dead.Becoming younger with each passing day, Frydrych discovers that death offers the opportunity of a re-birth.
View on the film:
Going backwards as attempts to introduce a New Economic Model were taking place in the country,co-writer/(along with Milos Macourek) director Oldrich Lipský holds a satirical timer to the courts and police,with the manipulation of film speed/sound undermining everything that the law does.Working very closely with cinematographer Vladimír Novotný & editor Miroslav Hájek, Lipský locates a dazzling middle ground between Silent and "talkies" cinema,where the ultra-stylised manipulation of film speeds and tints joyfully make the title look like a Silent Movie that really went off the rails during production,whilst the (mostly) overlapped soundtrack gives the film a delightfully quirky mood.
Casting the film across the screen backwards,the screenplay by Lipský & Macourek displays an extraordinary attention to detail,thanks to the writers making the witty one-liners ones that show the absurdity of Frydrych's backwards life,whilst simultaneously building a picture to what led to Frydrych's beheading. Firing the one liners and visual gags at rapid speed over a petite 70 mins, Lipský finds time to drip a philosophical note which explores death as a way of re-birth,and makes the final scene a happy end.
The plot:
Getting beheaded, (what a happy way to start the movie!) Bedřich Frydrych's life starts to run backwards,which gives Frydrych the chance to un-murder his wife and bring his father in law back from the dead.Becoming younger with each passing day, Frydrych discovers that death offers the opportunity of a re-birth.
View on the film:
Going backwards as attempts to introduce a New Economic Model were taking place in the country,co-writer/(along with Milos Macourek) director Oldrich Lipský holds a satirical timer to the courts and police,with the manipulation of film speed/sound undermining everything that the law does.Working very closely with cinematographer Vladimír Novotný & editor Miroslav Hájek, Lipský locates a dazzling middle ground between Silent and "talkies" cinema,where the ultra-stylised manipulation of film speeds and tints joyfully make the title look like a Silent Movie that really went off the rails during production,whilst the (mostly) overlapped soundtrack gives the film a delightfully quirky mood.
Casting the film across the screen backwards,the screenplay by Lipský & Macourek displays an extraordinary attention to detail,thanks to the writers making the witty one-liners ones that show the absurdity of Frydrych's backwards life,whilst simultaneously building a picture to what led to Frydrych's beheading. Firing the one liners and visual gags at rapid speed over a petite 70 mins, Lipský finds time to drip a philosophical note which explores death as a way of re-birth,and makes the final scene a happy end.