SCFZ poll: Frantisek Vlacil

[flip]

Polling the films of director Frantisek Vlacil

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Vlacil films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: umbugbene, greennui, evelyn, bure, m arkadin, mrcarmady, nrh, brian d, mesnalty, kanafani, st gloede

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

we'll definitely use the extended rules for this - we might need all the votes we can get, so i hope people will consider voting for the max number they can, if they think the films are deserving:

- if you have seen an odd number of his films, you can round up instead of down when determining the length of your ballot (so if you've seen 7, you can vote for 4 instead of the usual 3)

- if you have seen more than 10 of his films, you can vote for more than five, so if you've seen, say, 13, you could vote for up to 7 films

[flip]

Valley of the Bees

seen two

[mesnalty]

Seen 2:

1. The Devil's Trap

[ofrene]

seen 2

Marketa Lazarova

[Umbugbene]

Seen 2

Valley of the Bees

[Joks Trois]

Seen 8.

Marketa Lazarova
Valley of The Bees
Adelheid
The Devil's Trap

[liquidnature]

Marketa Lazarova

[MrCarmady]

Only seen one but very keen to see more.

The White Dove

[brian d]

seen 5

marketa lazarova
the devil's trap
valley of the bees

[Holymanm]

This is 0.1% likely, but I don't suppose anyone knows of the existence of "The Legend of the Silver Fir" with English subs anywhere...? I see a fine looking rip of it on youtube, but without no subs, and nothing at all on KG

[thoxans]

seen just one (marketa lazarova), which was spectacular, but i don't really like putting in my two cents, when i haven't seen even two flicks from a particular dir

looking forward to seeing more in the future

[Curtis, baby]

will watch more for this poll, but for now:

seen 11

The Devil's Trap
Marketa Lazarova
The Town in White
The Valley of the Bees
Shadows of a Hot Summer
Sirius
White Dove

[...]

Seen five

Marketa Lazarova
Adelheid
Valley of the Bees

[FLABREZU]

seen 3

marketa lazarova

[ralch]

seen 7

1. Valley of the Bees
2. Marketa Lazarova
3. The White Dove
4. Adelheid

[St. Gloede]

Seen 13:

1. Dáblova past / The Devil's Trap (1962)
2. Údolí vcel / Valley of the Bees (1968)
3. Marketa Lazarová (1967)
4. Mág (1987)
5. Adelheid (1970)
6. Holubice / The White Dove (1960)
7. Hadí jed / Serpent's Poison (1981)

[wba]

01. Valley of the Bees (1968)

Vlacli seen: 2

[Mauries]

Seen 3

Marketa Lazarová
Valley of the Bees

[karl]

I thought my ten was a lot for this director, yet there's 11 and 13 above.

The only (fairly) weak ones I've seen are the ones about musicians: Albert and Concert at the End of Summer.

1. Valley of the Bees
2. Marketa Lazarova
3. Adelheid
4. Sirius
5. Shadows of a Hot Summer

[john ryan]

Seen 3

1. The Valley of the Bees
2. Marketa Lazarova

[cinesmith]

yeeeeahhh... I'm probably way shy on the number of Czech filmmakers outside of Forman, Chytilova and Svankmajer.

1. Marketa Lazarova (My one and only)

[flip]

i'm considering taking a short break from polls, have a few other things i want to focus on, so it might be a bit random when i tally the open ones and when i start up the next one. if whoever is eligible to nominate can figure out who they are and suggest a new director, that would be great, and otherwise i'll figure it out a bit later

[Curtis, baby]

Ofrene is up

[niminy-piminy]

seen 14...

The White Dove
Clouds of Glass
Adelheid
Markéta Lazarová
Valley of the Bees
Chase (No Entrance)
Shadows of a Hot Summer

-----------

notes...

1/ the first film of FV i remember watching was "Shadows of a Hot Summer". i watched it on TV and i was still an infant. and as a result i got (for a very long time) heavily shit scared about the possibility of becoming a hostage at home (by a group of strangers). it was still in the late iron curtain era and Soviet troops were still on the "visit" in Czechoslovakia (staying there since 1968). so it was not completely unrealistic in the infant's imagination that some stray foreign soldiers would come uninvited to your home and take you as hostage (following the plot of "Shadows of a Hot Summer"). i guess, it was a similar "home invasion phobia" some other people might feel after watching Haneke's "Funny Games", Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" or getting to know about Manson family entering the mansion of Sharon Tate. i didn't dare to rewatch it since then. but maybe it is not that scary for an adult viewer (especially if no foreign soldiers are present in his/her country).

2/ the other (for me subjectively) noteworthy FV film is his short "Clouds of Glass", because it was the very first film i dared to subtitle. the KG economy forced me to consider subtitling, there was a demand for "Clouds of Glass" subs, it has only few lines, so seemed to me as ideal to learn the basics. i did it on Subtitle Workshop (which i used for the next film too and only then i switched to Visual Sub Synch). the girl who uploaded the film did proofreading, added a line for credits (i NEVER subtitle credits) and added my signature (i NEVER sign subs). i wholeheartedly recommend to watch this short via KG. or as a substitute, here is the unsubtitled version...
https://youtu.be/R2oJpypoPFo
and here are the subs...
(as there are only few lines, you can just read the subs in advance and then watch the film without subs, the whole speaking is basically just the voiceover intro)
1 - 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,279
Next centuries will elapse,
2 - 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,268
while birds will continue
to fly out from their nests.
3 - 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,639
And they'll be seen and heard
throughout the wide world.
4 - 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,909
Because there will never be a time,
5 - 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,873
when it could be truly said:
6 - 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:35,430
This is the last bird,
7 - 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:40,675
the last song of a bird's nest.
8 - 00:00:50,676 --> 00:00:55,031
Ceskoslovensky armadni film
presents the poem "Of Eternal Longing"
9 - 00:00:55,632 --> 00:00:59,609
Clouds of Glass
10 - 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:05,870
Grandpa!
11 - 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,230
Grandpa!
12 - 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:49,358
Dad, wait!
13 - 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:07,790
Wait for me!
Wait!
14 - 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:16,393
Dad, wait!
15 - 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,795
Frantisek!

errata: i overlooked the yt video of "Clouds of Glass" (Skleněná oblaka) is only the snippet (it has 18 min in full).
if there is anyone desperately wanting to watch it (after seeing the yt fragment) with no access to KG, i am willing to upload it on wetransfer and post a link here (making a wetransfer week-loong freeleech).

3/ as you can read in the subs above FV did that short as a member of the film unit of Czechoslovak Army. the other film (somewhat longer) done under these peculiar conditions was a segment called "Chase" of the double bill summarily called "No Entrance" (the other segment is rather lame flick by another director). i was curious about this rarity, found it, watched it and for the reasons i don't remember clearly i uploaded it as a listed video (i hope, you are able to play it) to my yt (otherwise i don't do this with films). it is not subtitled, but you can get a glimpse how it looks...
https://youtu.be/9HL9Qu8T_NQ
the film is an agitprop portraying the tough job of the brave dudes doing the border patrol. the plot is rather trivial, but the film is highly atmospheric, with catching visuals, and after a long deliberation what title to include in the poll as my sixth (the last) entry, i decided to give it a vote (instead of "Shadows of a Hot Summer" - EDIT: as i watched two more from FV oeuvre, i included both). this film is also noteworthy for Jan Němec (later czech new wave director) being casted as the "young border guard".

4/ votes for "Markéta Lazarová" or "Valley of the Bees" don't need much elaboration (not to speak of "The White Dove"). i have only to say that what i hate most about Nazis (as if only "one thing" could be hated about them) is the atrocity of killing Josef Čapek (painter, figure unrelated to this poll) and Vladislav Vančura (filmmaker and novelist, he wrote Markéta Lazarová). i would wish to see the oeuvres of both of them to continue. if anyone likes Markéta Lazarová, Vladislav Vančura is someone to put under investigation... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Van%C4%8Dura

5/ there is a line of Czech films dealing with the issue of expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after the WW2. lately additions to the subject are f.e. "Habermann" (2010) by Juraj Herz, or the fresh new "Shadow Country" (2020) by Bohdan Sláma. i guess, the "Adelheid" will always stand out among all of them.

6/ "The Little Shepherd Boy from the Valley" i almost subtitled too. i started, got somewhat stuck cuz the protagonists speak a Moravian dialect which a Bohemian native speaker can 98% understand but there are some specific words which a Bohemian has to google (many times with no avail). besides, this film is rather schematic and thus at one point i got quite annoyed and disclaimed the subs pot. for a long nobody claimed it instead, so i started again considering to reclaim it and bite the bullet. fortunately enough, some other subtitler appeared and i felt relieved. "Clouds of Glass" or "The White Dove" surpass by far "The Little Shepherd Boy from the Valley" in terms of FV making a film from a childhood perspective.

7/ despite i watched "Sirius" or "Serpent's Poison", i don't have any specific feelings about them.

8/ film which however i perceived as highly irritating is "Shades of Fern". i watch films in any resolution, in any degree of pixelation, i fancy glitches (it proves the thread called "Last Accidental Video Glitch You Saw" some of you might remember from the bygone ages of SCFZ), any sort of watermark (however big or small) can't chase me away from the film (contrary to my fellow triumvir WBA), etc. etc. etc. BUT this film has as two main protagonist Polish actors who were dubbed in Czech (by two Czech actors). it is nothing extraordinary and i don't have inimical feelings to Polish ppl, but in this particular case it sounds somehow creepy to me and while watching the film all my attention was consumed by the "uncanny dubbing". so all i can say about this film is: there are two guys who speak freaky there. tho if you are not a Czech native speaker, you won't even notice. English subtitles will provide a sweet nescience and you will be able (contrary to me) to follow the plot.

9/ doc "Art Nouvea's Prague" is unfortunately rather talkative. But if you were never in Prague so far, watching this doc can't hurt.

10/ for some strange reason i didn't watch yet "Mág" and "The Devil's Trap" despite i intended to do so since the time immemorial. (if i would watch them, they might appear within my votes maybe)

[ofrene]

Can we do John Cassavetes? (seen 7) If not then go Chris Marker (seen 6)

[niminy-piminy]

FV: Art Nouveau's Prague (no English subs)
https://youtu.be/CdSvR5Yy18c

[greennui]

9 Cassavetes
16 Marker

[rischka]

castevets - 6
marker - 11

[Holymanm]

Wonderful stuff, all! Thank you in particular for that Chase upload; didn't even know the film existed!