SCFZ poll: Juraj Herz

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Polling the films of Juraj Herz

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Herz 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

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

[flip]

and let's use extended rules:

• if you've seen an odd number, you can round up instead of down when deciding the length of your ballot
• if you've seen more than 10, you can vote for more than 5

[flip]

The Cremator

only seen two, didn't care so much for Ferat Vampire

[greennui]

3.

Morgiana

[wba]

seen only one, but it's been way too long ago to remember let alone vote.

[St. Gloede]

Seen 12:

The Cremator (1969)
Morgiana (1972)
Pasáz / Passage (1997)
Beauty and the Beast (1978)
Ferat Vampire (1982)
The Night Overtake Me (1987)

HM:

Day for My Love (1977)
Sweet Games of Last Summer (1970)

[Joks Trois]

Seen 9.

1.The Cremator
2.Beauty and the Beast
3.Morgiana

I'd love to see Day for My Love and The Night Overtakes Me, but I can't find them online.

[niminy-piminy]

I'd love to see Day for My Love and The Night Overtakes Me, but I can't find them online.

both exist with Eng subs and will soon appear in Res.

[niminy-piminy]

Cremator
Beauty and the Beast
The Junk Shop
The Magpie in the Wisp
The Limping Devil
Day for My Love
Oil Lamps
Girls from a Porcelain Factory
MORGIANA
FERAT VAMPIRE
NIGHTMARES
SIGN OF THE CANCER
WILLIAM THE BAKER AND CHARMING NADYA
THE NINTH HEART
A GIRL FIT TO BE KILLED
BLACK BARONS

------------------------

1/ about CREMATOR no need to elaborate.
i only have to admit Juraj Herz is not really my favorite filmmaker.
why he is usually well-received abroad is a bit a mystery to me.
and thus CREMATOR (an excellent film) is a sort of proof to me the spirit of the local new wave was so strong that in this period everyone was making better movies than he/she was capable to do otherwise (being out of the new wave spirit "influence").

2/ i watched BEAUTY AND THE BEAST already as a kid and was mesmerized.
maybe not that much by the plot but by the beast!
i always had an affinity to half-human half-animal hybrid creatures (still looking forward to the future full of interspecies cloning so i can meet Ganesha-like individuals in flesh) and the beast from this film is enchanting.

3/ when i figured out (relatively lately) the settings/decorations from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST were recycled in THE NINTH HEART...

The partnership between director František Vláčil and screenwriter Vladimír Körner yielded films including Adelheid (Adelheid, 1969), Pověst o stříbrné jedli (The Legend of the Silver Fir, 1973) and Stín kapradiny (The Shadow of a Ferns, 1984). But it is the historical drama Údolí včel (The Valley of the Bees, 1967) that is widely regarded as the pair’s greatest collaborative achievement. Released in cinemas shortly after Vláčil’s highly acclaimed Marketa Lazarová (Marketa Lazarová, 1967), The Valley of the Bees came about as a result of efforts to reuse the props and costumes from the director’s previous opus – hitherto the most expensive Czechoslovak film of all time.

... a similar story from a decade later...

The film ("The Ninth Heart", 1978, by Juraj Herz) was budgeted together with the picture "The Virgin and the Monster" (1978, by Juraj Herz as well), and the two films also shared sets. In the studio No. 6 in the Barrandov Studios, architect Labský created a multi-functional set that was further adapted and used for the filming of "The Virgin and the Monster", "The Ninth Heart", "Mystery of the Iron City" (or "The Secret of the Steel Town", 1978) and "Cat Prince" (1978).

... seems like the Czechoslovak socialist film industry was (as a by-product of lacking funds) quite eco-minded, indulged in recycling and thus it could serve as a role-model to the film industry in the era of global warming. i guess, the film producers like HBO or Netflix (if they aspire to be perceived as responsible companies) should follow in the footsteps of "Markéta Lazarová" and "Valley of the Bees" and use the same settings and costumes for several series.

... i wished to watch THE NINTH HEART (and did watch) but there were no vibes of the "beast" props there whatsoever and i was rather appalled.

4/ THE JUNK SHOP i watched just a few days ago and it is very good (thanks to the new wave spirit & thanks to Bohumil Hrabal).
it seems to me there is a general rule that when Juraj Herz is adapting a good writer he usually makes a decent film but once he does something that is not based on a good book he comes up with some stupidity.

5/ THE MAGPIE IN THE WISP i watched a few years ago because there is a demand for Eng subs and i thought i will check if it would be worth the struggle. i quite liked this "medieval" film (maybe due to my general affinity to medieval) and thus it is on my shortlist of films i intend to subtitle (but considering my low subbing productivity it will not happen any soon — if ever).
i noticed JH made one more "medieval" flick called RAMBLING ENGELBERT. i expect this musical might be slightly campy and i feel mildly compelled to watch it (in my lifetime).

6/ there are two other "musicals" or music videos (from prior to the MTV era) by JH that i watched for the poll (NIGHTMARES and WILLIAM THE BAKER AND CHARMING NADYA) and both are ridiculous. JH prolly fell under spell of the local pop singer Naďa Urbánková and thus made with her those silly flicks. i was born after both of these films were made so i don't remember Naďa Urbánková as a young pop music temptress with an alluring voice (as she appears in both of these flicks) but as a silly auntie with the oversize glasses singing ridiculous pop songs on the local TV in the 1980s (including her timeless retarded song called WILLIAM THE BAKER about William the baker and his sexually frustrated young wife who asks another wife of the baker how she managed to have a satisfactory sex life with her hubby baker when all the bakers are preoccupied with the bakery (and not sex) during the night — she is advised to put a brick into the chimney and thus sabotage the baking process and thus get her hubby baker into bed during the night and finally achieve marital sex). Naďa Urbánková and her singing were driving me crazy throughout the whole 1980s and thus i am unable to watch NIGHTMARES and WILLIAM THE BAKER AND CHARMING NADYA unbiased (and to have any appreciation for these pre-MTV video clips).

7/ OIL LAMPS and DAY FOR MY LOVE i watched already in 1980s too. both are very blurred within my memory (i can remember hardly anything) but i have some general vague conviction both of these films were fine. i would love to rewatch both (if there would be plenty of time and i had nothing else to do).

8/ another one that i watched already in 1980s was FERAT VAMPIRE and i remember it was surrounded by rumors/grapevine that the car that plays the role of the vampire in the film is a Škoda prototype that was supposed to be mass-manufactured but commies/soviets forbid it and thus local population was deprived to cherish the home-made eastern block porsche/lamborgini which made the local population to hate commies/soviets even more (for this supposed deprived consumption). i never gave a shit about cars (i never even made a driving license), all the cars seem to me the same (i don't see any substantial differences) and thus this whole rumors of the banned home-made east block mass-produced sportcar seemed to me dumb (and thus i perceived as rather dumb even the film that triggered all those rumors — tho the basic idea to cast as a vampire the car is prolly not that bad).

9/ then there are two other films (A GIRL FIT TO BE KILLED and GIRLS FROM A PORCELAIN FACTORY) that i watched already in 1980s and in which the lead or significant female role plays Dagmar Havlová (néé Veškrnová) the second wife of dissident-president Václav Havel (and a poor victim whose juvenile blood was sucked by FERAT VAMPIRE). while VH was still married to his first wife Olga and was a dissident in communist Czechoslovakia (ie. persona non grata, ie. tabu subject matter), young and silly Dagmar played lead roles in more or less silly/stupid comedies to entertain the enslaved masses. when Olga (3yrs younger than VH) passed away in 1996, VH quite quickly remarried to Dagmar (17yrs younger than him) and it was a bit a shock to the whole nation cuz Dagmar (a prominent young TV face of the regime in the 1980s) was an antipode to dissident Olga — marriage of Václav and Dagmar was seen as mesaliance. however, considering VH's expertise to compile absurd dramas it is in retrospect not really surprising and i can imagine he relished a lot all the absurd consequences of his second marriage. actress Dagmar assumed her new life role with the same expertise as all other previous roles on screen. and when later VH died, she became/is a very convincing dissident widow (regardless of her non-dissident past). i don't care about crime stories, so i have zero urge to rewatch A GIRL FIT TO BE KILLED. however, i feel that GIRLS FROM A PORCELAIN FACTORY might be quite amusing if i would project on young Dagmar in that film her later dissident widow persona (then the whole film might get a pleasingly campy flavor — however, i have better things to do/watch that doing this exercise in bad taste).

10/ then there is MORGIANA that i watched about 10 yrs ago and i had high expectations (after reading some reviews) but was rather disappointed.

11/ and then there is BLACK BARONS series that (being a local) was hard to escape. i never intended to watch it but i guess i watched all the sequels because it was all-pervading due to its popularity. if one was a man in commie times (expected to serve 2 yrs in the army) and one was suspected by commies not to be completely loyal to the regime, one was not entrusted a gun and had to serve in the "black barons" unit (one's shoulders were not addorned by any army distinction but just a black shoulder strap, ie. "black barons") — a supportive unit (doing menial jobs of digging trenches and alike) to the units who truly fought. BLACK BARONS is a series that ridicules the local commie regime of the past and then commie army officials. unfortunately, this satire is a bit too "pop" (too pre-chewed for masses) and thus overly caricaturesque and thus rather stupid (despite its replicas frequently quoted and highly cherished by most of the locals).

12/ originally i intended to watch for this poll also at least THE LIMPING DEVIL and SIGN OF THE CANCER (being curious about JH's early films when he was under the "influence" — of the aforementioned new wave Zeitgeist) and i still hope i will do so prior to the poll's deadline — but i am not completely sure because i am way more interested in Derek Jarman now and to see at least THE LAST OF ENGLAND prior to DJ poll deadline is a priority (more urgent than to see anything by JH).

[brian d]

seen 4

sweet games of last summer
the junk shop

[niminy-piminy]

when THE LIMPING DEVIL (Juraj Herz himself) walks the streets of Prague no one can resist the carnal temptation.



no one... with one exception.

Then the obstinate Asmodeus takes Honza in his sleep to the Institute for Emotional Disorders, where he shows him the ugly sides of love - hysteria, voyeurism, fetishism, suicide attempts.

as Jan Němec made his new wavy musical MARTYRS OF LOVE (1967), Juraj Herz made something akin called THE LIMPING DEVIL (1968).

[Curtis, baby]

seen 2

the cremator

[flip]

one of the most clearcut winners in all of our polls, though that doesn't seem surprising to me given the relative renown of the herz films. if anyone still wanted to vote in this, i'll be happy to take late ballots until i post this to letterboxd (in a week or two) :

results
1. The Cremator (1969) — 15 pts
2. Beauty and the Beast (1981) — 8 pts
3. Morgiana (1972) — 6 pts
4. The Junk Shop (1965) — 4 pts
5. Passage (1997) — 3 pts
6. Sweet Games of Last Summer (1970)— 2 pts
6. The Magpie in the Wisp (1983) — 2 pts
8. The Limping Devil (1968) — 1 pt
8. Ferat Vampire (1982) — 1 pt
10. The Night Overtake Me (1986) — 0.5 pts
10. Day for My Love (1977) — 0.5 pts
12. Oil Lamps (1971) — 0.3 pts
13. Girls from a Porcelain Factory (1975) — 0.1 pts

[flip]

posted to letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-290/