Vaaleaverikön rakkaus

Even though Miloš Forman did not have sufficient resources in Czechoslovakia to make big-budget films, he managed with what he had and was able to shoot small but powerful movies that excellently depict what the Czech people are like and what trivialities in our lives we deal with without realizing that we are harming someone in the process. (13.12.2015)

A story with three emotionally disparate segments: the first steeped in the awkwardness of the situation and bachelor excesses, the second marked by youthful romance and lover's platitudes, and the third on the ground of parental domination and lost illusions, and they are combined into a complex contemporary account of the fleeting and false effects of love from the position of the fairer sex. Especially in this day and age, when we see posts on Facebook from 14-year-old girls whose sensitive little hearts have been broken by their 18-year-old boyfriends, it is more than obvious how timeless and apt the film is; but that’s the case with almost all Forman’s movies. (30.05.2016)

Miloš Forman is one of the most talented people ever to have anything to do with Czechoslovak cinema. It’s a pity that the commies drove him away. PS: The best bed scene ever :) (08.06.2011)

The hapless and clueless Brejchová has so much of that cutely goofy esprit of rural naivety and pure femininity here that she steals every scene, even when she’s just sitting there looking confused. The rest (especially the party scene with the soldiers), as is usual with the duo of Papoušek-Forman, I finished watching practically from under the table, I felt so embarrassed. A painful study in the inability to communicate, which I would have shot into space to prevent a possible alien civilization from making its first attempt to meet humanity from anywhere outside of Žďár. (04.09.2019)

One of the most awkward films in Czech history. Of course in the best possible sense. Forman has civilized his form to the very limit of his possibilities, Ondříček's camera sometimes feels quite cumbersome, and the dialogues (which Forman allegedly played for the actors beforehand) are absolutely realistic and completely free of any stylization. They are simply snippets of intercepted speech, put together in situations picked up by watching that seem to lack comedy, but as soon as one listens to the stream of banalities and gray phrases, the extraordinarily rich and poetic core of the film breaks out. The film has a perfect undertone of communist uniformity, stupid brass band music, stupid melodies from television, the hum of a factory, etc. The naivety and surrender of Andula, who is adolescently naive, but at the same time beautifully cheeky and full of ideals, stands out from the monotony. However, I consider the Pucholt-Šebánek-Ježková "bed" scene to be the absolute highlight, which is an example of new wave humor. A very inconspicuous and very beautiful film. (10.02.2007)