Reviews

I have watched it with small expectations, but I like it, and I am convinced it can be worth viewing for many a person.

It is a fast-paced movie, with many characters, and many quick dialogues. You have to keep track a little of all the things that happen, in order not to lose the thread off your hands.

After seeing all this, the question "What is the point of this story?" may appear in your mind, but I think you just need to think about it a little, and you will see it. The main character has had some men in her life, not many, but all wrong: unfaithful, selfish, married, awkward guys Now the right one turns up in an unexpected way, but her eyes are blind. She does see something, but she gets carried away by her thoughts, and she plays the hard-to-get one.. Moreover, she wants to please everybody, to understand everybody, to excuse everybody and to get everybody to like her. She is not even able to say no when she is asked for information in the street, about a place she does not know, and in the wrongest moment of all.

This film cannot be boring in any way, despite what you expect. For some reason, it has stood in the shadows for many years, and I hardly understand why. We see good acting, good directing, tasty dialogues, and plausible characters. And no politics. Give it a try!

I've come across this film by chance, because I would never have looked for it, otherwise. People like me, who know a little the Soviet cinema, know that this is not the usual Soviet stuff. You think you are watching a Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks movie in Russian! Quick and ironic dialogues, a good plot, not a moment of rest, a litlle of social satire, and that kind of humour which today is very rare to find: subtle and understated, but nonetheless effective. The actors are all good, and you see that they believe in what they are doing. Yuriy Yakovlev became later a star in the USSR. The director is particularly inspired and makes no mistakes. It should be dubbed in other languages and known abroad.

It is funny that my favourite Ryazanov's film is one of the lest popular in Russia. Unlike other films of the director, it runs seldom in television, and never in prime time. But I like it very much, because it is very well done, and it is ....true. The characters are depicted in a very realistic and human way. Their mistakes are pointed at without pity, sincerely, especially the mistakes and the cowardice of the man. Moreover, we can see a constant comparison between what he thinks and should be, and what he is and does in reality. At this purpose the director shows us flashes of his imagination, when he imagines what he would like to do in that moment, which sometimes would be really right. He would like, he should, he wants, but he is weak and unable to do it. Then, Ryazanov shows us what he really does, as a coward, or as a hypocrite. The man, following his passion, very soon finds himself with two women, a situation with no way out. At that stage, there can only be much sorrow for everybody. The two women are all in all the victims of his incapacity to live, to choose, to be faithful, sincere, and coherent. His wife is a good woman who loves him, and does not deserve in any way to be abandoned. His sweetheart has the only guilt of giving in to the insistence of a man who is not able to dominate his passions. I find very good the visions of the afterlife he has in his coma. The Soviet materialism has already melted away in the years of perestroika. Of course, the movie is well acted and directed, and has a good pace. There is also room for some humour, but very subtle, the way I like it. If you like movies about feelings, right and wrong, and personal responsibility, and about how much sorrow can cause someone who lets himself be led by the passion of a moment, well, you will certainly like it. Maybe it is not loved by the big audience because it is too frank and true, and many people do not like to see the bad side of themselves in a movie.

For me it was a pleasant surprise. I expected the usual would-be great movie, which television and trailers try to push to the public. But I was wrong. Soon I noticed that everything is verosimilar, true, original, not the usual fiction written by experts of the expectations of the public. The same can be said about characters, which are far from the usual schemes and masks. You cannot guess the plot as well, it goes its own way. After watching it, I learned that the plot is authobiographical for the director, a piece of information that is an explanation and a confirmation of my impressions; he is the little boy who comes with his father to spend some weeks by his relatives in the hot summer of the year 1970. Though the movie is based on dialogues and psychological descriprion of characters, the director is able to keep our interest alive and awake, or he can make it right because of that. We want to know, in fact, how the family is going to settle after the earthquake that has shaken it. The characters have both petty-minded and good sides; they may sometimes say terrible things to each other, but after that there is always an open door to make it up again. I was impressed with the old head of the family, who, as a faithful Soviet man, is unable to accept the emigration of his daughter to Israel. But after the furious argument with her, his Jewish roots and his being a human before a Soviet citizen seem to come to new life inside of him. I find very intresting the father of the boy as well. He rejects the girl, but not completely, in the illusion of controlling his heart and impulses. But such passions can be won only with a clean-cut, otherwise they overwhelm their victim. The actor who interprets him is very good: some of his sad, helpless, angry, pityful or helpless looks impressed me. Anyway, all the actors are good; they seem like live characters. The movie can be included with other films in the group "remembering a summer of my childhood/youth". It is a far memory, but it seems to be still vivid and alive int he heart of the director, as all the memories which leave a mark in us.

It seems like not many viewers know this movie, but, believe me, it is well worth the while and it is different form many other soviet movies of that time. Though, right in the sixties we start to see some changes in the monolithic soviet cinema. This film is personal, sincere, deep, poetic in some moments, and it depicts a realistc picture of the situation and of the characters. Funny that it is only a TV-movie, but it does not matter much. When there is a director and a writer who have something to say and believe in what they are doing, they are closer to shooting a good movie than other ones who only follow indications and do not worry much about what they are doing. On top of this, director and writer do not intend, or they are not asked, to put political propaganda into the film, which ususally spoils it. One of the reasons why this little gem is almost unknown may be that it talks about a tender subject, that is to say a man who left his family and children, and started a new one with onother woman. One day he regrets it very deeply and tries to go back and have himself forgiven by the first family. The film shows the sorrow he has brought to the one and the other woman, to those and these children. And to himself. When he left he did not realize what he was doing, he did not bother to question himself, he just followed his impulse. But sooner or later the truth will out. There are good and evil, they are different, they do not change while time passes, and we must cope with them, maybe after a long time we have tried to ignore them. As to the technical aspects of the film, the director shows not common skills of placing the camera, and choosing the frame and the angle. Some scenes are impressive even whren they are silent and still, as for example when husband, wife and children look at each other, speachless but full of thoughts and feelings. The actors are good, especially the two wives and the elder daughter. Let us blow the dust from this movie, and let us watch it, even if it may be painful for some, but nonetheless true.

It is not what everybody expected to see from a show-man like Dmitriy Nagiev, including I. Therefore it was a pleasant surprise for me, and for the same reason a delusion for others. So, the movie is well done, is corageous, both in the sense that Nagiev is a star as entertainer of the small screen, and in the sense that today, doing a movie which investigates feelings, motivations, the sense of justice, the right or not-right to take the law into one's own hands, death and mourn, is not the way to become a block-buster. The director makes the choice of making a movie about the inner self of the main character, about how he copes with a tragedy which struck and swept away his beloved family from one day to the other. A tragedy which was due to human mistakes, and human carelessness, I may say. More than the death of his wife and children, he is tormented by his feeling of guilt (true or imaginary) for having invited them to Spain, and by the refusal of the man who was responsible for the tragedy to beg pardon. He just cannot accept that the company wants to get away with it only by giving him a compensation, like for having stained his suite. Here the director and the scriptwriters are able in representing the executive of the company as not interested at all in the human sorrow they have caused, but only in getting rid of the whole matter, preserving their appearance in front of the public opinion. On top of this, the man who made the awful mistake is so haughty that he will not say he is sorry, even if he puts the whole company into an embarrassing position and even if with that few words he could get rid of that irritating man. His haughtiness goes beyond even his self-interest. This refusal to ask for pardon hits the widowed more than anything else, and maybe we can understand him. This does not mean sharing his deed, which is after all difficult to interpret: is it revenge, though not planned, or "only" a moment of wrath? Be it the one of the other, it is the result of his not being able to cope with the sorrow which struck him. The inner motivations play their role, but I keep myself from approving self-justice, even if for the detestable behaviour of somebody. Anyway, it is a movie which stimulates the spectator to reflect and build his own ideas and opinion on what goes on on the screen and happened in reality. The pace is slow, the action is minimal, the atmosphere the feelings are more important than the plot. And the budget is low. But the film is more than respectable, the director has a secure hand and a precise look, and the show-man who plays in it is a true actor.

I bought the two DVDs because of one name: Herbert Reinecker, who is the writer of the series "Derrick" and "Der Kommissar", which is in my opinion the best detective series ever. Well, I wasn't disappointed at all. It is a collection of "TV shorts" - if I may call them this way - about strange and funny things which happen to the main character (played by Lilli Palmer). Basically they are stories about love, betrayal, feelings, family problems, mean behavior, good deeds, and right "punishment" of people who play the smart guy. They grant also an interesting insight into human psychology, and its differences between the two sexes. Often the plots are almost paradoxical, but all the same believable. Not seldom they raise a smile or even a laugh. Other times they are bitter, but they have much sense, and something to teach to us. The soul of the whole thing is Reinecker and his pen, a never-ending mine of curious plots, wit and unpredictable solutions. And of course, Lilli Palmer is a good actress, who succeeds in playing the feelings and the behavior of many women. The directors don't give a bad impression, and in some cases they are well known and appreciated cinematographers of the German television in its best years. On the disks there are four series of shorts; one is written by somebody else (I forgot the name), and you soon see the difference. They are not bad, but conventional, and they flow away without the Reinecker's print into your soul. Anyway, the DVD case is very well worth the time and the money, above all for the ones who love the detective series I mentioned at the beginning. In the meantime, television has become flat and boring; I wish we saw something of the kind these days!

It is a an East-German comedy, and yet it is funny, satiric and ironic. The Germans are not renowned for their sense of humour, and the Germans of the former GDR even less. Therefore this movie is a notable exception which deserves consideration. The satire is a very difficult field, because it is not easy to keep it on that thin line without falling into a spoof or a send-up, but this film manages to square the circle. What most struck me is the light touch of the director and his care of having actors play naturally like it would be in real life. Many funny situations are generated only by hinting at something and without saying it too clearly or roughly. The director is so smart in this sense, and he is so gentle in satirizing the customs of the leading class of the German Democratic Republic that the movie did not run into censorship. And yet, there could be a reason for it. Favouritism is openly practiced and taken for granted in a communist country, where everybody is called "comrade" and egalitarianism should be a pillar of society. If you are a politician or a high-up member of the Party every door is open to you and you are treated with more deference than rich people in capitalistic countries. You are not even obliged to respect the law. If you are just a common citizen, then you have to toe the line, stand in the queue and wait without complaining. The inventiveness of the script also attracted my attention. Starting from a simple cue, the writer finds out many funny situations which are always different and have something to say. I sincerely laughed, and I can hardly believe this if I think that the sense of humour of East-German movies - where any - is rough and can be hardly got by a stranger. Those who lived in GDR will also find in this movie what is called "GDR all day life". For others like me it is an useful small window on a country and a time I know very little about. Although I already knew that egalitarianism and social justice is one of the many false myths of communism.

Director Konrad Wolf shot a very good movie, as usual, though without his habitual screen-play writer Wolfgang Kohlhase. The original drama was written by his father Friedrich Wolf; it had already been turned into a movie in the Soviet Union in 1938, with strong USSR-propaganda features. Unlike this movie. The East-German director tells a fascinating story of resistance against Nazism. The environment and the setting do not act less effectively than the story itself. The plot is set in 1933, when towns are ravaged by Nazi-paramilitary squads, which with their raids comb streets and buildings to find individuals whom they consider inferior and harmful. Among them first of all are the Jews. The movie depicts some figures of the opposition to Nazism, that is to say some communist activists and some common citizens who do not intend to bend their neck to the arrogant one, and to serve Nazi-ideology. In the same sense, we see a professor Mamlock as a staunch opponent of the regime, but on a exclusively humanistic basis unlike his communist son, who resists in a ideological way. His father is no political activist, but nevertheless he opposes with steadiness the principles that the regime wants to lay to everybody. His opposition is straight, fair, distant from any political ulterior motive. An interesting point is that the communists and the professor's son himself are depicted in a slightly shady way, although they are fighting for the just cause. They are rather impulsive, a little fanatical, and act disorderly like in the grip of a fever. Because of this uneasiness they lack of the clear-sighted look and the wisdom of the professor. This contrast deeply affects the relationship between father and son. Konrad Wolf's ability is to represent these views and this opposition in a soft, though clear way, which does not leave room to an allegation of anticommunism. The director seems to plead the cause of humanity, which in his views is the only effective way to oppose to an inhuman regime. It is true that the Nazis are violent and arrogant, but not because of this they can prevail: rather for the acquiescence, the compliance, the cowardice and the expediency of many people. What distinguishes Mamlock from his colleagues is his moral fibre which enables him not to give in, whatever are the consequences. For his colleagues they can be at most dismissal, for him death. All this is represented in a very accurate way: good actors, fluent plot, remarkable black and white cinematography and a technique to learn from. Konrad Wolf was the best East-German director, and one of the kind who never disappoints you.

What a pleasant comedy! The style resembles the Italian pink Neorealismo, like its characters and situations. One could think we are in the Rome of the movies of Dino Risi and Mario Monicelli: cheerful and big families, neighbourhood love affairs, street boys, jealousy and gossip, merry wives at the window who mind the others' business, solidarity, a kind of background high spirits and good heart which soften small sorrows. Besides this, the director is good in making fun of some fads of that time, but after all of the people of all times, only the object changes. In this case it is the fixation for a car, which is nothing else as a way to show off and be envied by neighbours, and seem rich and high-ranking. The irony on these human failings is gentle and jokey, and the movie is pervaded by a light humour, interrupted here and there by some belly-laugh. Actors are all good. They do not take themselves too seriously, and this is maybe the reason why they produce laughter when they give themselves airs of rich and polite persons. Despite the plot, which could at first seem a mockery of western capitalism, the target of the movie is not this one. On the contrary, one can see here and there a sally to the Yugoslavia of that time, between high import custom duties and inland inflation. The movie was shot in the beautiful and sunny Piran, with the shop signs in Slovene and Italian. Of the same director I recommend the film "Vesna" (1953).

Its a quiet TV-movie and it is set in the daily life of a grey and foggy East Germany in 1975. Common people with common families, but with a little unusual problems. In my opinion, the film is a timid attempt to say something against abortion. Timid, because the director knew very well that his work had to go through the communist censorship, and abortion was practiced by state hospitals. I think that the plot was accurately built up to convey its message without saying it clearly and openly. The censors may not have noticed it; or if they have, they could find no evident reason to reject the movie. Furthermore, I have seen some hints to faith and Jesus Christ, in a way not to be noticed, or to be exchanged for something else. The protagonist girl in a scene opens her purse, and on the reverse of its flap one can notice a small cross on the leather. Later, the two lovers go to visit a church, where there is also a speaker who tells the story of the building, like in a museum. It is like saying to censors: you cannot object, I did show that the church is now only a museum. But to other people, believers above all, this can be an allusion to the exintence of God and Christianity. From a cinematographic point of view,this movie is not a masterpiece. Let us say that it is not at all bad.One can see it with interest. Dialogues are good, the actors very good; with the expression of their faces they convey peculiar feelings and sensations. His and her parents are credible figures, with credible thoughts and behavior. The plot slows down a couple o times too much, but all in all the film flows well. There are many scenes where the young woman gets in touch with children and with friends who have already some. They are not shown as a tragedy or a plague to be avoided, and these are the lights which lead her on the path of her decision for a possible pregnancy. It is a work worth to be seen, also as a testimony of a country and an era which don't exist anymore. Apart from this, it is also a study on how a young unmarried couple cope with the wait for the outcome of a pregnancy test.

It is a wonderful example of what television can be, in the best tradition of the Czech TV series: this means fantasy, inventions, humor, good ideas; here, instead of fairy tales, we find science fiction. Director Ota Hofman and Jindrich Polak were provided with big means as for scenarios and special effects (big for that and today's time), but after all the value of their work lies not here. It is their direction itself, the good and cute actors, the rich screenplay, and the many original inventions scattered throughout the series. Everything is made more pleasant by the Czech sense of humor: this means that you are led to laughing not by someone who makes the fool of himself, by dirty jokes or by exaggerations of any kind. The humor is placed in the delicate double meaning - or absurdity - of some dialogs and situations. The main trigger of fun and laughing is the diversity between the visitors from the future and the people of 1984. Habits, conventional attitudes, laws, taboos, good manners are quiet different and often the visitors cannot help seeming strange and funny to the world of the past. Generally speaking, this is a further proof that vulgar jokes about sex are not at all necessary to make people laugh, and not the best means either. It is a good entertainment both for children and adults. Now that it is available on DVD there is the possibility of taking a chance, especially for those who were not enough lucky to see it on television (Czechoslovakians and Germans) when it was first broadcast. As in most Czech series and movies there is no political propaganda. There are only some hints to workers upheavals and protests in the Western World, but in a light way that one can forgive. The series was shot with great efforts between 1981 and 1983, and one can observe the changes in the aspect of the adult actors, and big changes in some children. Anyway, the seventies and the eighties were the best years for Czech television (and for other televisions too). Today's TV series should only blush of shame in front of this one. Furthermore, there is no sex whatsoever; though, there is some innocent erotics when the camera catches some shots of Dagmar Patrasova. In my opinion, she is one of the most beautiful women ever appeared on the screen. For male audiences it is almost impossible not to be amazed by her.

This is a Czech fantasy TV-series, therefore I decided to give it a chance. It is settled in West-Germany (Köln), but troupe and actors are Czech. As I expected, I wasn't disappointed. The Czech have (or used to have, I don't know) a unique talent to produce funny and intelligent movies or TV-series based on fantasy or fairy tales. They were able to achieve a difficult equilibrium between amusement, good taste, humour, and wit. Nowadays most TV series for children are banal, stupid, flat, and they can barely entertain small children, not to talk that not seldom they convey negative values. These Czech series, on the contrary, wonderfully amuse children and adults maintaining high quality levels and, above all, innocence. Czech directors and producers also had a virtue unknown to their colleagues of others communist countries: they did not put in films any hint of political propaganda. Luzie, Der Schrecken Der Straße is based on one single good idea, which although is developed in a very inventive way, that is to say enriched with a thousand other ideas. Luzie steals (but she repents later!) in a shop a box of plasticine in two colors. In 1980 I was the same age of this child, and I remember well how in those days we used to play with plasticine... Anyway, she steals this box and the plasticine becomes two little and funny men. They are playful, bungling, curious, and have sweet tooth. They also have a good heart and get the protagonist and her friends out of many troubles. Most of all they amuse the children with jokes, acrobatics, imitations. In fact, when necessary, they assume the form of any living being or object. Sometimes they briefly show themselves to adults, who gape at them and don't believe their eyes. These are usually very funny scenes. Special effects are very good, like the two German actors who lend their voice to the puppets. Though I didn't have the luck of seeing it as a child, this series brought me back to the atmosphere of my childhood, when children, games, parents, school, teachers, amusements were different, more innocent, more intelligent, better. Moreover, TV broadcasting started at 5 p.m., and children could not spend too many hours in front of the screen. And programs were much more quiet and harmless. I had a great fun in watching this series. I amused myself and also laughed a lot. The DVD is available also in German. Make a good present to your children and to yourself!

Here is another very entertaining TV-series, of the kind that only the Czech - and Vaclav Vorlicek in particular - are able to make: fantasy, humor, irony, fun both for children and adults. The story is fast-paced and full of characters and funny situations, so that following the plot is pleasant and never boring. There are many occasions for laughing: it is a humor based not on clown-acting or farce, like many today's movies. It is light and subtle, instead. It is often made up of a fantastic event placed into reality as if it were the most common thing in the world, or unusual but not impossible. Funny is also the reaction of characters when they see unbelievable phenomena like flying children or children turned into adults in front of their eyes. In Vorlicec's films there is always the place for serious reflections on human beings or the problem of evil in the world, which the director succeeds in taking out of the fantastic and funny situations he depicts. Often in his movies, and also here, he ridicules the people who claim and pretend to be important and respectable, no matter if they really are so. In this series there is also the usual character who tries to steal a good idea, an invention, a new discovery to get for himself all the honor and money that somebody else deserves. But some smart children give him quite a lot to do. Special effects are not digital, but surprisingly good. Even better I daresay, if I think that everything you see is real, only you do not see everything... Thank God I know German, and I could watch "The flying Ferdinand" in this language on DVD, because in my country, Italy, the series was never dubbed nor subtitled. Anyway, it is too bad that it is no longer broadcast on TV on the prime time, or not at all, and today's children are deprived of the fun. Why? Because these series are "old". What a silly excuse!

It's very entertaining, like almost all the works of the director Vaclav Vorlicek. Only perhaps the first couple of episodes are this time a little slow, but then it gets on very well. The sense of humor of the Czech and of this director in particular is unique. It is based essentially on putting fantastic events into the real world and make them interact in a very realistic way, as if everything were true. On the one side you get surprised by the fantasy and the original ideas of which the series is full; it is also very interesting how every idea is represented and developed. On the other side you get very amused by the whole thing, and you laugh often, especially when the film shows another trick or another piece of fantasy in the real world. The object around which the action of the series turns is a device that can make things and persons very, very small, and then big again. Another machine which came out of the prolific mind of director Vorlicek is a kind of a bike, with some strange objects hanging on the handlebars. You don't get anywhere with that bike, because it has no wheels, but if you pedal very strange events happen around you, or your dreams may come true... This is just to have an idea of what is all about in this very good TV series. Actors are all good, and some of them are funny too. There is also a pretty co-protagonist girl (just to speak from the viewpoint of a man). Special effects are good and witty. It makes me almost think that they are better than the modern digital effects, very sophisticated indeed, but poor of ideas. This series is good both for children as for adults, and none of the two will be disappointed. It is much, much better than most modern and/or American TV-series; I daresay that they should show it on TV still today, and in many countries, instead of the usual silly teen-movie or teen-sitcom, or idiotic cartoons for children, which makes them stupid and bored. I don't know the Czech language, but thank God I know German, and this TV series, like many others, was dubbed at the time in West Germany. Now it is available on DVD. For people who fear to find political propaganda - like I did - in these Czech TV series because they are from the former communist Europe, I can assure them that there is none. Czechoslovakia was an exception in this sense. We are glad about it, because political propaganda contained in the fairy tales of USSR or GDR spoils half of the fun. On top of this, they say that the Czech sought in such fantasy movies an escape from a depressing political situation.

Very entertaining this Austrian screwball comedy. It is not very different of the best American comedies of the Thirties. You have to follow the plot with some attention because it is full of characters and situations that slowly build the many misunderstandings, lies, and, obviously, a couple of romances. A tailcoat taken by mistake is in this entertaining movie an element of the utmost importance. There is also the well known but still very funny situation of the lover slapped by his sweetheart, who believes to be cheated by him (but she is not). The young Heinz Rühmann gives his best, together with the other actors. Director E. W. Emo confirms and improves the skills he showed in Himmel Auf Erden (1935). Do not brood over the year 1936 and the black and white, and watch this funny comedy. You will not be disappointed.

What a funny movie! The first part is not so entertaining, but do not worry, because it just builds the complicated situation of lies and misunderstandings that is just about to make you laugh a lot. And I laughed to tears! The director is very good in leading the scenes in a fast paced and well ordered way. In movies like this the rhythm means a lot, and characters must enter and leave the screen on that very moment. The actors are all good, also the raising star of the German speaking cinema Heinz Rühmann. This movie is very similar to the American screwball comedy, and reminds also a lot the films of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Some good (and short) songs give this work a little humor and cheerfulness more. See also the 1936 movie of the same director E. W. Emo "Ungeküßt Soll Man Nicht Schlafen Gehen".

I think this is one of the best TV series ever. Unfortunately - as far as I know - it was seen only in its country (Czecoslovakia) and Germany. It was also dubbed in German, thank God, a language I know. Anyway, it is very entertaining both for adults and children, where none of the two has less fun than the other. In its plot the real world and the fairy tales world meet, and produce a third world which is full of incredible and unforeseeable situations. Fantasy and humor play the main role, and we are constantly surprised and amused by always new events and inventions. The director Vaclav Vorlicek gives a further proof of his talent with fairy tales full of humor and original ideas. What maybe is most entertaining are the many spells and transformations of people, animals and objects. Special effects are simple and yet surprising, and made me regret the time when digital techniques where not in use: one had to think out something really interesting and find out good ideas. I would also like to lay stress on the fact that, although the film was shot in the communist period in CZ, there is no trace of political propaganda, which would have spoiled the whole fun. Somebody wrote that one of the reasons why the Czechs were so good in the fairy tales genre, was just the fact that it was a way of escaping from a depressing political situation. Neither are there negative messages which could harm the innocence of children, because characters and situations have the good and the evil in the right place, with no confusion between the two. On top of this, male spectators could fall in love with the fairy bride, the very pretty Jana Nagyová. Take the opportunity of buying the DVD, and enjoy the thirteen episodes of this marvelous TV series, you and your children. It is almost impossible to be disappointed.

What a beautiful movie! I understand the reason why it is considered one of the best Slovenian films. The quiet and introspective plot sets us in a pleasant mood and presents a series of interesting characters, first of all the two protagonists. But good is also the definition of secondary characters, such as the people of the village. The rural world of the end of 19th century is depicted in a very effective way. Among small and big tragedies, and simple joys, we find essential and unsophisticated people, who live a life close to nature and far from the frenzy of the city. In this world there is still place for friendship and solidarity, and for church on Sundays. Really beautiful is the character of the country girl in which the lawyer falls in love. The excellent and pretty actress Stefka Drolc conveys her character the innocence and shyness which many city girls loose very soon, especially today. The representation of their romance is delicate and sensitive, and keeps away from high and melodramatic tones. This notwithstanding, the two of them love each other very deeply. The green and gentle landscape on Slovenian mountains is filmed in a lyric and peaceful way. And yet one can glimpse in it a light melancholy, at which the title itself hints. There is absolutely no political propaganda; what more, there is a sort of nostalgia for the old times, when Slovenia was under the catholic Habsburg Empire. Telling a story which takes place in the past was sometimes in East-European communist countries a way to put in the movie elements which wouldn't have passed through censorship in a plot set on today. I'm referring not only to the positive hint, in the dialogs, at the emperor in Vienna, but also to a religious element. A peasant woman talks the people of the village out of lynching her husband with hoes and forks by evoking the Passion of Christ. It is a sweet, romantic, melancholic movie, which sticks in our mind, also because it is so different from modern block-busters. It is available on DVD with English subtitles.

What a fun this movie! It's a continuous flow of gags from beginning to end, a mine of ideas and fantasy. The "theme" - a beginner witch is trying her first spells – has nothing to do with the real witchcraft, because it's a mere narrative handle to build funny, hilarious, ironic situations. A very successful handle indeed, because the plot runs riot with very entertaining scenes. What makes this film so funny is its not taking itself seriously and its joking without malice on persons and themes. The school teachers turned into rabbits and locked into a hutch, the pupils who suddenly get donkey ears and their she-teacher walrus teeth, the boy who "looses" his head and tries to replace it with a clay head of Napoleon.... these are just some of the situations of this movie. I kept on laughing almost the whole film through. Special effects are simple, but not at all childish and unsuccessful. After all, with good ideas, modern technologies and heaps of money are not necessary for making a good movie. The Czechs were great in the fairy tale genre, and had at least one precious quality which the other Eastern Europe countries did not have: the absence of political propaganda. The Russians or the Germans of GDR couldn't refrain from putting it in almost every movie. And the political propaganda spoils the magic and the lightness of a fairy tale. In this one you will find none. Somebody says that it is an ancestor of the Harry Potter saga. Nothing of the kind! The child wizard takes himself tremendously seriously, and pushes the poor children of the real world to emulation. This is just an innocently funny movie, where spells are almost laughed at, because they are only a way to.... laugh.

The movie is not bad, or maybe a little more than that. It hasn't the freshness and the richness in ideas and fantasy – and the absence of political contents - of the Czech fairy tales, but it flows pleasantly towards the end. It has bright colors and good actors. Its main problem is another. Like most East-German and Russian fairy tales movies, it can't refrain from political propaganda. In other cases it is overwhelming; here it's not too strong, though it can be seen without difficulty. The people from the higher classes are, without exception, lazy, false, two-faced, disdainful. The king and the queen are the most disagreeable. The "people", instead, is likable, honest, united, sympathetic.... So it is a very good thing that "the people" has demolished the upper classes and brought the "justice" of communism. This is the idea. The final revolt in the square of the village is a clear hint to the communist revolution. I have no doubt that political propaganda spoils the magic of a fairy tale. Apart from this, the movie is not a bad entertainment. Simple but good special effects.

I was attracted by the DVD in the shop because the label said "acclaimed by critics as the best Slovenian film". My knowledge of Slovenian films was zero, so I decided to give it a chance. I am Italian, but the DVD edition offers subtitles in many languages, among which mine. Anyway, I wasn't disappointed. On the contrary, I very much liked this unknown (to non-Slovenian audiences) movie. It's the story of two people who meet and fall in love. He is one who likes to shift from one woman to another, and maybe he has never known love, like many others. She is a good woman, unlike many others. She's in her late thirties, and older than he. She falls in love with him and has the most serious intentions. They go on meeting for some time. Love is on both sides, but he lingers in front of the final decision. She waits for him to make up his mind, but he remains trapped in many thoughts, above all considerations on her age (he lays much importance on sex for itself, which is a deceit), and maybe that she is very different to what he had always expected and waited for. Though, she is the one for him. Will he grasp this truth, will he see clear in his heart? Time goes by quickly and this brief occasion can be lost forever. It is a melodrama, and a very intense one. Moving and well-depicted is the figure of her: the director describes finely her feelings, her fears, her sorrow for a man who can't understand his own heart and is bound to too many common places about how a love relationship should be like. The actress is perfect. We suffer with her, when he, who won't accept his feelings towards her, offends her in the most brutal way by mentioning her age (though not beyond 38, I guess). The movie also shows in a very effective way dreams and some pieces of imagination of the characters. It's a striking movie, which touches one's heart and remains in it. It is a pity that it is known by not many people in Slovenia, and almost nobody elsewhere (among which me). Though belonging to the former communist Europe, it does not even mention politics or have any kind of political propaganda. It is a very good melodrama, with surrealistic elements. That's all what it is. Now let's wait for the first Slovene to post a comment about this Slovenian movie.