gudaulin

A thought-provoking and emotionally powerful animated short film that uses a rarely used puppet technique. We are taken to the front line of trench warfare, where a medic treats and heals his comrades with the help of letters from loved ones at home. It's not just any ordinary animated film, but rather a small yet impressive piece of art. Overall impression: 80%.

It is professionally made, with a sense and ability to capture the inner drama of the protagonists, but on the other hand, it seems more like a cutout part of a larger film and one subconsciously expects it to have a more significant plot culminating in a powerful point. As a final graduate film school project, it would be awarded 5 stars, but I'm giving it a sober three. Overall impression: 55%.

A charming film anecdote about how in a foreign environment and protected by apparent anonymity, we can let loose somewhat more than in a familiar environment, and we don't even need a dose of alcohol or drugs for it. A dialogue with an apparent stranger conducted in a foreign language leads to the consideration that I will never meet this person again in the future, and so in an incredibly short time, a passionate debate about favorite sexual practices gets going. Overall impression: 80%.

For someone interested in the Paris bohemian scene, simply noting the prominent figures of early 20th-century painters and artists can be rewarding, but for most potential viewers, Kiki of Montparnasse is a pointless short film lacking any dramatic arc or conflict. In other words, it lacks a screenplay. The only positive aspect (which can understandably play a significant role for some) is the visual design and animation, which somewhat resembles the total animation seen in Pavel Koutský's work. Overall impression: 25%.

I call this category of festival films "Rohypnol" for their fascinating ability to reliably put you to sleep after just a few seconds. Imagine the sea waves, pebbles on the beach, and calming sounds, and the disaster is complete. I would like to mention many other things I saw in the movie, but unfortunately, I don't remember anything else. Overall impression: 5% - and don't ask me what it's for.

The well-known Czech traveler and cactus collector, Alberto Frič, once had a conversation with students from a primary school in Prague. While describing his experiences living among Native Americans, he received several questions from the audience that he did not understand and found absurd. He tried to correct the distorted ideas that the schoolchildren had about the life of Native American tribes, but he encountered a wall of contempt. He was exposed as a bold fraud because each of these children already had a clear idea about Native Americans from the novels of Karl May. Although May had never been to America, or the Balkans and Asia where he placed his adventure novels (actually, that's not entirely true; in his old age, as a result of criticism that he wrote everything without knowledge of reality and without sticking his nose out of Germany, he traveled to the places where his literary heroes had been), he managed to fulfill the imagination not only of the schoolchildren but also of what a romantic adventurer and entertaining story should be. It's not so much that May's stories have practically nothing to do with the reality of Native American communities and the Wild West, but rather that, from my present perspective, they are so naive that they even cross the boundaries of self-parody. I read Vinnetou's stories, as well as the book series "The Shadow of the Padishah," between the ages of nine and twelve, and by the age of thirteen, I found them somewhat amusing and moved on to other works. Vinnetou was simply part of a certain age group, although it is appropriate to speak in the past tense here as well because, for my children's generation, these heroes are "totally out." I am surprised, however, by the exceptionally high rating the film has earned, which is the result of an exceptionally strong dose of nostalgia in this case. This phenomenon is typical not only for the May novels of the 1960s. Adults simply remember how amazingly these stories influenced them in their childhood, although I strongly doubt that they would be willing to re-read the Vinnetou stories today. I remember how, at around fifteen years old, I watched The Yellow One and swore it would be the last time I watched May's films. From the Vinnetou series, only the musical motif, the beauty of the Croatian limestone mountains, and childhood memories remain. Overall impression: 40%.

If Happy End was filmed today, it would become a sensation and would tour a few festivals, eventually entering the Oscar race. There would be talk about it in superlatives and international feedback would surpass domestic praise. However, at the time of its premiere, the audiences in movie theaters rewarded it with polite disinterest and saw it more as a curiosity, without any significant reactions, and surprisingly, even the film critics let it fizzle out. In the following decades, it was not utilized by television either, so it remained hidden from the wider public for a long time. It is a clever playful experiment, where the story is told in reverse. It has finely crafted and coordinated dialogue that, when juxtaposed with the events on the screen, usually gains a secondary ironic meaning. The biggest mystery associated with Happy End for me is why I don't feel like giving this entertaining game of cruelly punished infidelity the highest rating. Overall impression: 85%.

The script just dusts off a real scandal that stirred the stagnant waters of American journalism a few years ago. The curious editor of an online newspaper was inspired to follow in the footsteps of a successful journalist from a prestigious magazine who had made a name for himself with a series of witty and captivating articles from an attractive environment and extract more material from his exposure. To his surprise, he discovered that his colleague from the industry had apparently "pulled the story out of thin air." Subsequent investigations revealed manipulation of facts and blatant lies in dozens of other cases, shaking the trust in the entire journalistic community. However, the film is not an analytical probe into the current state of affairs in American journalism, nor does it generally contemplate the question of journalistic ethics. It simply seeks to maximize the specific case and tell the story of an ambitious liar and manipulator who hides the pathological traits of his character behind the facade of a cheerful guy. A decent but not exceptional television film was created about the fact that it is good to trust, but from time to time it is also necessary to verify. Overall impression: 65%.

Recently, I visited a museum where I could admire ladies' dresses from leading tailor salons of the First Republic, which were intended for women from higher society. I say "could admire," but I didn't, because it was clear that the ravages of time had worked relentlessly not only on the faded colors but also on the once bold patterns and cuts. What used to dazzle is now just an item in the museum's inventory. I have a similar feeling about the early Bond films. The series about the unbeatable agent of Her Majesty has always been considered by me as a purely marginal part of cinema, and above all, the films from the 60s and 70s are fixed in my mind as museum exhibits. Bond films from the 90s started to become interesting with their sets, special effects, and action, but I only fully embraced their universe with the arrival of Daniel Craig - he became the first Bond whom I believed in as this invincible action hero. The trashy nature of From Russia with Love is evident, but not significant enough to make the film entertaining in and of itself. Some detachment is noticeable in the film, but it is not sufficient. It takes itself too seriously considering how naive the whole plot appears today and how clumsily it works in terms of the action. While I can choose from four genres in the film's header, the only one that would hold up today, namely comedy, is missing and unfortunately was not intended this way. I almost dozed off during the most dynamic action scene, the attack on the gypsy camp. I give the claim that Sean Connery is the only authentic Bond the same weight as the claim that little green men from Mars control us. Overall impression: 45%.

From the royal chambers and noble palaces, we move into the despair and filth of the trenches of World War I, where the Black Adder, as a cynical experienced professional of the British colonial army, tries to maneuver among the limited British officers who attempt to apply combat experiences from long-fought colonial wars of the past on the modern battlefield, facing the deadly German machinery on the other side of no man's land. The humor becomes even darker - such joking before the firing squad or just before an attack against the wall of enemy machine guns truly becomes gallows humor. Yet it is precisely thanks to the proximity of death that traditional light banter takes on a more serious tragicomic dimension. The final scene, where all the characters rise for a senseless attack and then through editing, the war-torn field, riddled with grenades, transforms into a meadow densely covered with red poppy flowers, is one of the strongest scenes I've ever seen in a sitcom. Overall impression: 95%.