"The Firemen's Ball" was the fourth in a string of Czech films that received Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations between 1965 and 1968. (Two of them, the sensational "The Shop on Main Street" and "Closely Watched Trains" won the award). I saw this film on TCM, where Alicia Malone in her intro talked about both how funny it is and how controversial it was at the time for its criticism of the post-WWII Czech government. I spent the entire running time of this film feeling like I must have to be Czech myself in order to understand why any of it was funny, and not having a clue about what it was criticizing because of my lack of understanding about Czech culture.
In both instances, I'm more than happy to concede that the fault is with me rather than with the filmmaking, but it doesn't change the fact that I found little to enjoy about this movie. It's interesting to see another example of the Czech New Wave that hit screens in the 1960s, and it's always interesting to me to see which films the Academy singles out for recognition in any given year, but my predominant thought while watching this movie was that it had just about the ugliest cast ever assembled, not exactly a rousing recommendation.
Milos Forman, who would go on to achieve mainstream fame by directing such major American releases as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "Ragtime," and "Amadeus," directed this film as well.
Grade: C
In both instances, I'm more than happy to concede that the fault is with me rather than with the filmmaking, but it doesn't change the fact that I found little to enjoy about this movie. It's interesting to see another example of the Czech New Wave that hit screens in the 1960s, and it's always interesting to me to see which films the Academy singles out for recognition in any given year, but my predominant thought while watching this movie was that it had just about the ugliest cast ever assembled, not exactly a rousing recommendation.
Milos Forman, who would go on to achieve mainstream fame by directing such major American releases as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "Ragtime," and "Amadeus," directed this film as well.
Grade: C