NinadeL

The five films that Vladimír Vlček made independently are all in color, which is a significant fact for Czech production of the 1950s. He gained experience as an assistant on colorful imperial blockbusters, which became the best school for him. He finally crowned his career with his first widescreen home movie and then there were no more milestones left for him to achieve. Advent, based on the book by Jarmila Glazarová, is one of the best ten color films of 1956, and the bar was set quite high given the four children's films and fairy tales that are now classics, as well as the first part of The Good Soldier Schweik. Advent builds on the peasant dramas that enjoyed their greatest success in the mid-1930s with the onset of Rovenský's film Maryša. Glazarová in fact wrote her works from 1936 to 1940. The book "Advent" from 1939 is a ballad-prose set over the course of one night. The characters speak to each other in the North Moravian dialect and the whole expresses the author's affection for the Wallachians. Several of the main roles are played very suggestively by Nina Jiránková, who has a specific fragile grace and a beautiful soft diction, as well as Gustav Hilmar as her older, stubborn landlord and Marie Vášová as the most monstrous figure in Czech cinema ever - the whore Rozina. Zdeňka Baldová and Jarmila Kurandová created the counterpoints of two older women, one a herbalist and the other a grandmother. The child actor Vojtěch Rosenberg's performance falls into the standard of the time, and the then-young Otto Lackovič does not surprise us with his lyrical hero. It is no wonder that the next adaptation (The Wolf Trap) was made the following year. Today, we can only regret that the creators did not go on to adapt her other works.

Historically, for color and co-production. As a co-production comedy, it's more palatable than The Star Goes to the South, and it's also better overall than a similarly trying attempt at a contemporary film, Nezlob, Kristino!, which was two years older. However, in the context of the first Czechoslovak-Polish sound co-production, What Will My Wife Say to This? remains as un-inventive as Burian's The Twelve Chairs. Only the position of the Czech has changed from a fumbling foreigner to a loving enthusiast.

I made myself watch it and I feel like it's matured a little bit. I don't always let Gaiman get to me. There's still the contrast between genuine horror and pleasingly button-grotesqueness, but it's still great regardless. The stop-motion animation is also incredibly rich and imaginative. So why not?

This was a blockbuster that was one of the highlights of Poly Negri's comeback to German cinema. Is the history of great quality films only composed of those that were at least a technical revolution? There’s no need to expect this, although Negri's name is associated with countless milestones, and in many interpretations of film history, she stands out as almost the only icon of all the actresses who made films in the 1910s to the 1940s with great success all over the world. Does that make you think that every one of her films has been a diamond in the rough that impresses everyone without distinction? But what does it matter that Tango Notturno is "just" very good and impressive? Let's go back down to earth.

On the few occasions when I can watch multiple versions of the same film, I have exceptionally found tome for the French version of Three from the Filling Station. It's great to watch Lilian Harvey in French, sometimes in English, and of course in German. Persons with these types of linguistic talents were especially needed in the early 1930s and those people often reached the very top. In the case of Lilian, conquering the whole of Europe was further supported by several Hollywood productions. It's really refreshing to see the same story with a diverse male cast because, for example, Olga Tschechowa was one of the women left besides Lilian.

Compared to the drama of Schicksal am Strom, the story of Glück unterwegs caresses the soul. This exuberant old Prague comedy is without exaggeration one of Miroslav Cikán's best films. The four Czech actors give it the right comedic dimension. Zita Kabátová plays the cutest maid in the world, Bedřich Veverka babbles in equally spicy German as in Czech, František Černý keeps up and Vladimír Majer has lost none of his usual serious tone. The magical Karin Hardt is not overshadowed by anyone in the lead role, and as noted, it's all just so sweet! :)

A likable, civil conversational musical comedy with Hans Söhnker and Hertha Feiler from a circus setting. But where did the information that Lída Baarová and possibly also Anny Ondra are in the film come from? It’s not true for either of them, who both took a big break in 1939 after the previous years when they were going from film to film.

After Ita Rina and Hedy Kiesler, Machatý's most significant discovery was Maria Ray, the star of Nocturne, who also became his first wife. Machatý made no secret of his fondness for Marlene Dietrich and liked to style his wife in her role. From the photographs, this is likely, from the documentaries it is noticeable, and from Nocturne we get the impression of a clear mirror of the work of the Dietrich-von Sternberg duo. However, the result is not just a mechanical imitation of Blonde Venusbecause in Nocturne we find equal reference to both Ecstasy and Eroticon, and the whole mixture creates a new work of its own. It’s formally perfect and aesthetically arresting.

The Countess of Monte-Christo is the story of two extras, Jeanette and Mimi, played by Brigitte Helm and Lucie English. Through their desire to become real actresses, a nice civilian plot from the filmmaking environment take place but with only a very light touch of the adventures of the real Edmond Dantès. The substitutions culminate and the obligatory love couple (Helm and Wieman) fall into each other's arms at the end. However, the scenes from the bathrooms (with lesbian overtones, of course) and nightlife are surreal, as was a great custom of Weimar cinema.

This is a great historical affair starring Lilian Harvey, who at the time was reunited with German cinema after her trip to Hollywood. After that, she only had an active career for a few more years and she changed a lot from her first sound films. Fanny Elssler offered Lilian more romantic exterior scenes, delightful costumes in a post-imperial vein, and above all, horseback riding and a gorgeous ballet as a magnificent solo at the end.