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Starci na chmelu (1964)
Summer Love In Fields of Green Gold
Spoiler Alert! This review contains a spoiler.
If you are a West Side Story fan and you loved the singing and dancing mixed with youthful rebellion and angst, then you'll enjoy Czech-made Starci na Chmelu (Called Green Gold or The Hop Pickers in English), a 1964 musical filmed in the hop fields of then called Czechoslovakia.
The film feels very West Side Story-ish and about the harvesting of hops by the hop brigade. The hop brigade was mandatory. High school students had to attend and no one was exempt. The hops used to be town off their tall pillars manually. One brigadier would tear and cut it down, while two others, sitting on a cart pulled by a tractor would break down the hop vines. Others would then carry on the next steps in much like an assembly line.Called zelené zlato, or green gold, the hops are harvested to make famous Czech beer.
The hop brigade students were separated with boys in one area and girls in another. Their teachers were the most likely chaperon's. They slept on mattresses and mats in the gym and there was a strict curfew at 10 pm. They were served breakfast, lunch and dinner and they dined communally, using their stack-able metal lunch containers to eat from.
Often referred to as the first Czech musical comedy, this film deals with adolescent morality and the accompanying bureaucracy without being overly forceful or heavy-handed. It takes place in the summertime where a group of teenage boys and girls have been sent to pick hops for the summer. A very nice communist way of making forced child labor feel more like summer camp.
When we heard about the film, we were expecting a communist musical, whatever that may look like. But it's a sweet love story so typical for the youth of the time, wherever in the world they may be.
The film is about a boy named Filip (Vladimír Pucholt) who prefers great writers to hanging out with the other boys up to no good takes refuge in the attic where he has made himself a wonderful room, a kind of secret hideaway where he plans to spend the summer. Being different than the other boys, the teacher (Irena Kačírková) is always suspect of him and he has the unlucky habit of showing up at the wrong time, usually placing him at the scene of trouble.
He has a jealous classmate named Honza (Milo Zavadil) who is always trying to beat him up. Honza seems to have all the luck, riding his motorcycle around, having visits with his "aunt" and getting other people to do his work. He is the resident bad boy pretending to be a good guy. Honza spends most of his time being a bully with the help of his two friends. Eventually, he tells the teachers about the boys hideaway, jealous that he didn't make it his own. The jealousy undoubtedly springs from the fact that Hanka, of of the prettiest girls in school (Ivana Pavlová) favors the boy and his brains over Honza's brawn.
An innocent puppy-love blossoms in the attic while the other students sing songs about making beer, dance to catchy pop tunes with their comrades, pick hops and try to figure out what is really going on in the attic. Their behaviors invite both conflict and debate among the other characters and we see that emerge in each member of the school as well as feel it in Czech society.
By the end of the film, the two students are suspended from school and sent away from the camp. The punishment leads to them forming a stronger bond and you see them happily leaving the place, heading back to the city. Meanwhile, the jealous informant who is even more jealous to see them go while he remains stuck at the camp literally has everyone at the camp turn their backs on him as he is ostracized for his behavior.
The film is directed by Ladislav Rychman, who went on to be cited as being "indispensable" as the founder of Czech music clips which were basically very short films with a central musical performance very similar in length and style to modern music videos. The three guitarists who start the movie off and then pop up throughout the film look so contemporary and reminded me of so many MTV videos that came many years later.
This is a wonderful and quirky film that takes place during the swinging 60s and it has the vibe of the typical American musicals of the time. It's filled with music, singing, dancing, color and emotion and even has the voice of Karel Gott singing the male lead. Choreographed dance scenes dominate the film and make it look like one big summer party!
We thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful technicolor journey back in time to Czech innocence and are so happy my mother decided to share it with us, along with her memories. And of course, we're happy that the films ending is more positive than in West Side Story.
We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the harvesting of the hops used to make world famous Czech beer and the beautiful blue sky of summer in so many of the colorful scenes and upon dosing some research we found out that while these days most of the work is completed by machines, certain parts still require a human hand and summers still look somewhat the same near the hop fields. Students and others can now attend willingly for a three week stay. Some women attend, but most of the work is done by young men. They still have lunchboxes and sing songs to make the time pass by, and who knows maybe they even find love under the summer sky.
Pod Jezevci skalou (1978)
Grandfather and Grandson Have Adventures in the Bohemian Forest
We are introduced to Straka (Gustáv Valach), a cranky gamekeeper who lives alone in umava (The Bohemian Forest).
*Spoiler Alert*
Its immediately obvious that this man has become accustomed to his solitary life. He has a daily routine and a trusty hound who is his best friend and only companion. We learn that he had a son, but he has not spoken to him in many years, unable to forgive him for abandoning his beloved forest and settling at a desk job in an office somewhere in Prague. He also has a grandson, Vaek (Tomás Holý), whom he has never even met because he cannot come to terms his own son abandoned him (and his wishes that he too would be a gamekeeper).
Following an illness, little Vaek has been told he needs some country air to get well again so his mother, Jarmila (Jana Brejchová), takes him to her father-in-law's cottage where she plans to drop him off for the two-month summer break. Straka is not pleased and he expresses his anger openly. Vaek also does not want to stay, yet they are both in for a surprise when Jarmila leaves and they are both stuck in their situation.
A series of comedic things occur making Straka more angry, and Vaek quickly learns that life is the forest is not at all like his life in the city. Soon, the two become the best of friends, respecting each others boundaries while filling each other's hearts. Some of the greatest scenes are perhaps when we see the joy and verve into which Vaek throws himself while having new adventures in the landscape the forest provides. It's also warming to see Straka open his heart to this most lovable little boy.
Za trnkovym kerem (1981)
Beautiful Scenes of the Bohemian Forest
In the last part of the trilogy from the beautiful Bohemian Forest known as umava, the focus is once again on the gamekeeper Straka and his grandson Vaek. Sharing adventures involving poachers, badgers and battling storms, the two have formed a strong bond and now view each other as heroes. Once again, Vaek has a memorable summer vacation.
Previously we saw Vaek with almost a naively enraptured view of nature, mainly because of his age, his grandfather's protection and his innocence. The primary lesson in this conclusion is that it's time for grandfather to teach him about understanding the life and laws of nature, and his innocent becomes replaced with a more sympathetic view when Vaek realizes that nature must be protected at all costs. Of course, being the cute little boy he is, this causes a whole series of comic situations while teaching the viewers about the importance of environmental protection.
Na pytlacke stezce (1979)
The Gamekeeper and His Grandson In the Bohemian Forest
This film in the series begins with a distraught Straka, believing that he will not get to spend time with his grandson because little Vaek is supposed to go to Bulgaria during his summer vacation for a holiday with his parents instead of going back to spend the summer with his grandfather.
Being a tenacious boy, he plans in advance, hiding his suitcase with a neighbor and saving enough money for a bus fare. On the last day of school Vaek picks up his final report, but after that he takes his already packed bag and sets off for the Bohemian Forest without telling his parents. By this time, we already know that the little gamekeeper, knowledgeable and appreciative of the forest just like his grandfather, finds the prospect of spending the summer with his gamekeeper grandfather far more tempting than the seaside and we're happy to see him take this adventure. A friendly bus driver helps to deliver him to the right place and Straka is pleasantly surprised when Vaek appears and is happy to have his grandson at his side again. In the evening, a call comes from Vaek's mother, and the trip to Bulgaria is postponed.
Once again, Vaek and his grandfather have various experiences in the forest together. There is even a poacher on the loose and they work together to hunt him down. The film has more action than the first in the series and it ends with his mother coming a week before the end of summer so they can still have their family trip to Bulgaria. As they are saying their goodbye's, little Vaek receives a cute little gamekeeper's hound of his own announcing "but now I can't go to Bulgaria!"