Mobile Navigation
Capricious Summer (Czechoslovakia, 1968)
Rozmarné léto
Nostalgia infuses many of Jiří Menzel’s films with an ardent longing, perhaps nowhere more poignantly than in Capricious Summer a knowing ode to middle-age reveries of youth set between the wars during the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic. A trio of old friends, a retired army officer, a canon and the owner of the summer baths where they’ve vacationed for years, idle away their hours in pretentious and empty conversation until, on an otherwise rainy afternoon, a high-wire acrobat (played by Menzel himself) and his pretty young assistant arrive in town. Even the canon finds himself drawn to the assistant and soon the friends are competing for her attentions while the bath owner’s wife cozies up to the acrobat. For everyone, consummation isn’t really the question as much as reconnecting with the spirits of their past at a moment that itself has become a lost, idyllic touchstone of Czech history.
35mm, color, in Czech with English subtitles, 74 min. Director: Jiří Menzel. Screenwriter: Jiří Menzel, Václav Nývlt. Cast: Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlastimil Brodský, Frantisek Rehák, Míla Myslíková, Jana Preissová.
Cutting It Short (Czechoslovakia, 1981)
Postřižiny
One of Jiří Menzel’s lightest and most charming comedies, co-written with Bohumil Hrabal, Cutting It Short draws directly on Hrabal’s childhood remembrances of growing up in a small town where the local brewery was the center of everyone’s lives. Francin, a quality control checker for the town beer company, and his wife Maryška lead a pleasant if buttoned up life until Francin’s brother Pepin, a cobbler, shows up for a stay. In short order, the eccentric Pepin turns their home and the town upside down with his unusual quirk of shouting everything he says. It’s a habit that wouldn’t be that troublesome, except that he never shuts up, spinning yarns and spreading gossip to anyone in earshot. Soon the whole town is put on edge and Francin’s job is in jeopardy but what is an irritant to most, has an oddly liberating effect on Maryška who begins to set her sights on life beyond the village.
35mm, color, in Czech with English subtitles, 93 min. Director: Jiří Menzel. Screenwriter: Bohumil Hrabal, Jiří Menzel. Cast: Magda Vásáryová, Jiří Schmitzer, Jaromír Hanzlík, Rudolf Hrusínský, Petr Cepek.
