Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville around the Middle

[niminy-piminy]

1993 poll rewatch:
BEASTS (Csaba Varga, Igor Lazin)
soundtrack: "G-Spot Tornado" and "Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus" by Frank Zappa

https://youtu.be/DGdf9auY3rw

[niminy-piminy]

1993 poll No20:
THE END OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA IN PARLIAMENT (Pavel Koutecký)
https://dafilms.com/film/4152-the-end-o ... parliament

today, there is a national holiday in the Middle Banana Republic.
we are celebrating the foundation of Czechoslovakia (October 28, 1918).
Czechoslovakia ceased to exist at the end of 1992.
i celebrate the foundation by watching THE END OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA IN PARLIAMENT from 1993 (depicting the slovexit).
the yt below is without subs.
tho, it is a question if any subs can make this dada "comprehensible".

https://youtu.be/nCppDdyzMT0

This film captures the events which took place in the early 1990's in the famous building between the museum and theatre. It is not easy to decide about the dissolution of the state, even if its end seems inevitable, and especially when everyone declares their fixed positions at the very beginning. The film shows the members of parliament who face an unusual task; it captures the fragile relationships, attempts to come to a consensus, shows suspicions and tactical maneuvering; negotiations as well as theatrical outbursts. All this happens not only in the parliament hall but especially in the privacy of its corridors. Although the deputies showed varying degrees of openness to the crew, the film still sets out to go beyond the facade of political speeches in order to offer a glimpse into the real workings of politics. During three months of filmmaking, the negotiations changed into a drama full of uncertainty and tension. The film gradates with each parliament session until the funeral feast for the federation at the end.

[sally]

politics is the most chaos. something is happening but you can never say where or what

[niminy-piminy]

as a part of JIDFF-online, i already watched a Sandoz film with a delirious girl fully immersed in her hallucinations, i.e. BALLET ON A PARAPHRENIC TOPIC (Eric Duvivier, 1962).
or a Sandoz film with a delirious boy who hears voices and subsequently (following his inner voice) stabbs someone, i.e. THE BURNING EAR (Edd Dundas, 1970),
but the most extreme & shocking film so far is the local silent newsreel from 1931 called "NEWS FILM 0509" by Karel Plicka.

i was solving a huge dilemma if to place this post in this (local) thread or in the other reserved for all shocking & extreme.
ultimately, i decided for this thread to make the cinephile circles familiar with the First President of the First Middle Banana Republic (i.e. Middle Banana Republic between 1918-1938).
but i am probably making a mistake because in the "shocking & extreme" thread this post would seem less disturbing.

so, the NEWS FILM 0509 (Karel Plicka, 1931) is showing the First President of the First Middle Banana Republic "on vacation".
it is ofc completely absurd because members of the leisure class are always on vacation.
their whole life is one big vacation.
and if one's whole life is one big vacation then one can't go on vacation.
unless it is a sort of meta-vacation.
anyway...
whatever...
it is unfortunately not the worst part of the newsreel.

this flick gets truly extreme when the First President is shown in the river.


he speaks there with some lady and then he turns towards the stream and he lets the flowing water massage his penis!


that (aforementioned) weir scene is extremely weird!
thus (in comparison) the fact he then swims in the river wearing his hat (viz the white spot in the middle — it's again him) looks only like a minor oddity.


another shocking scene comes when he (posing as a hipster in sunglasses) gazes at a few dancing (underage) girls.


some of you might recall my review of THE PRODIGAL SON (Luis Trenker, 1934) with the analysis of the gesture of stroking the mustache.

it starts like a heimatfilm.
i.e. most of the men work as lumberjacks and whenever they notice a cute decent girl (who covers her hair with hijab) they stroke their mustaches (a gesture that in a pious society substitutes jerking).

then, well, well, well, Mr. First President of the First Middle Banana Republic is doing the same!


i was really at doubts if to post the last (disgusting) picture because i know it only reinforces the notion of the Middle Region as the abode of unrestrained perversity and home of the shameless retards.
however, i want to stay true to the Truth and thus have to withstand even the unpalatable reality!
considering that Mr. First President was born in 1850 and is wearing sunglasses & stroking his mustache in 1931 (i.e. he is 81 yrs old), it can hardly be called a midlife crisis.

[...]

It's a good thing this is a site for discerning adult cinephiles who understand there's a dark side to the art with those kinds of shocking images being posted. Still, I gotta say that's a pretty good look for a guy in his eighties. I think a lot of hipsters would be rightly jealous, even if I'll never really be able to accept ties that don't reach the belt line myself.

[Lencho of the Apes]

There is so much moustache-stroking in pre-modern Mexican movies that I always took it for granted, or assigned it an innocent explanation. New realms of filth for me to explore!

[niminy-piminy]

JIDFF 2021:
BLOOD KIN (Miroslav Bambušek, 2021)

Middle Banana Republic, the cave of filth...

Sudetenland. Present. The grandson of a murdered factory owner is hired as a mystical guide to a wealthy old man’s fate. The curtly sketched wandering journey through a desolate landscape to the past reveals the roots of human brutality. Motives of personal morality, historical guilt for collaborating with the Nazis and redemption through revenge are unleashed in a phantasmagoric hallucinatory feria, a cruel dance of dehumanized figures driven to fulfillment by revenge, greed, and a faint vision of redemption. The historical allegory of Blood Kin, based on a real event, balances between documentary verisimilitude and expressive, surreal dramatization.

https://youtu.be/pxGghQcrspQ

[niminy-piminy]

1962 poll No6:
AWAITING (Witold Giersz)

a really good animation being wasted on boring two men & a lady storyline

Anxiety is a gift.

https://youtu.be/QLZ0AODQhTQ

[niminy-piminy]

1962 poll No9:
VERTIGO (Karel Kachyňa) ... nfa/čsfd 1962!, Ltbxd/IMDb 1963

https://twitter.com/jirinvk/status/1462 ... 70082?s=20

https://letterboxd.com/ngboo/film/vertigo-1963/

A simple story of a young girl’s first crush is transmuted into a fascinating, hard-to-describe experience by virtue of purely cinematic magic which stems largely from the breathtakingly beautiful B&W imagery. The frame composition speaks in a surreal language so mellifluously poetic, that you can’t help but listen to the intoxicating music that fills the air, as its fingers strum the strings of your soul-harp...

collaborations of Karel Kachyňa with a writer Jan Procházka, i consider the core of KK's oeuvre → https://www.kinometer.com/?director=452 ... ear-latest

VERTIGO, together with THE STRESS OF YOUTH and THE HIGH WALL, form a loose trilogy of films connected with the theme of coming of age and emotional outbursts of the female protagonists.

VERTIGO is so pleasingly bleak (a harbinger of the upcoming new wave esthetics).
it contains no crime but noir fans might still find it appealing (i guess).

[niminy-piminy]

1962 poll No19:
MAMMALS (Roman Polanski)

Basically, the story is just two "Dumb and Dumber" guys who do stupid things to each other out on a frozen lake somewhere.

it's too much of a primitive slapstick.

A child predator criticizes humanity -- and in turn, mankind replies: Polanski's critique of mammals is simple and shallow, revealing more about himself than his fellow man; he can't imagine people being anything other than gross, selfish manipulators. Wonder why? Sorry Roman! I don't see people like that.

Probably made audiences chuckle or howl 46 years ago.

What good is it, if it isn't entertaining?

Amusement quickly escalated to boredom.

https://youtu.be/jxPXi67-6uo

film with a man knitting can't be bad!
https://twitter.com/jirinvk/status/1463 ... 40544?s=20

[niminy-piminy]

1986 poll:

i guess hardly anybody (of the SCFZ regulars) will be much surprised to notice, while inspecting my 1986 poll ballot (viz another thread), titles like I'M NOT THE GIRL WHO MISSES MUCH or ROCKETKITKONGOKIT (btw. i highly recommend this mocku-mockumentary, i.e. documentary mimicking a mockumentary — most probably my very top 1986 pick) but some might still find it strange that i am also listing in the top20 a series of bedtime stories for children called KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA.

my (natural) reasons are as follows...

if i am not fooled by my memory, as a kid (besides being well-fed by a lot of (cheap & thus easily affordable) bread — viz a post in the political thread about the economic situation in the 1980s Czechoslovakia) i liked KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA a lot!

now, those — who keep systematic records of all the bio trivia that i had confided/scattered haphazardly in various threads of this forum — might start to wonder how a 13 yrs old (in 1986, the year of the premiere of KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA on-screen) teenager can highly cherish children's bedtime stories?!?!?

well well well, before making any Peter Pan syndrome conclusions, let me tell you that this tv-series is an adaptation of an eponymous book written by Vladislav Vančura (1891-1942), i.e. something i read before watching on TV & listened being read (to me) by elders of my family before i learned to read myself.
Vladislav Vančura's authorship of the story might turn (i believe) a seemingly obscure KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA into the point of high interest — especially of those cinephiles who do like MARKÉTA LAZAROVÁ by František Vláčil or CAPRICIOUS SUMMER by Jiří Menzel (other two film adaptations of VV's books) or who do like MARIJKA THE UNFAITHFUL (film directed by VV).

films based on VV's texts → https://www.kinometer.com/?credit=159

list of sequels of KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA → https://www.kinometer.com/?lot=222951
1/ IN THE DAYS OF CAPS WITH EAR-FLAPS
2/ WITH BARBUCHA ROUND THE WORLD
3/ IN POTS AND PANS
4/ KUBULA, KUBA KUBIKULA AND BARBUCHA IN JAIL
5/ BARBUCHA HAUNTING RANDA
6/ HOW FOOLISH NOT TO STOP AT THE RIGHT TIME
7/ SO THEY ALL LIVED TOGETHER

another (unnatural) incentive to take an interest in KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA (especially during this period of time we are approaching, i.e. Advent Season) are the main characters that appear in this mini-series...

1/ KUBULA = a good-natured lovely bear (something remotely reminiscent of the God the Son)
2/ KUBA KUBIKULA = a good-natured bear tamer (something remotely reminiscent of the God the Father)
3/ BARBUCHA = a hairy ghost (something remotely reminiscent of the Holy Ghost)
4/ BURDA BUNDĚRA = a wizard (something remotely reminiscent of the Pope)

KUBULA AND KUBA KUBIKULA (if watched during the Advent Season) gives (to a spiritually inclined cinephile) plenty of opportunities to contemplate the concept of the Holy Trinity and the role of the Pope (or of the Holy Church)!

all sequels, no subs...
https://youtu.be/sm5uQBpm9YU

[niminy-piminy]

the last film that i am gonna watch for the poll...
(and the last film that i am gonna watch this year...)

1986 poll No17:
BUDAPEST PORTRAIT (MEMORIES OF A CITY) (Peter Hutton)

https://youtu.be/M5BLol-C12I

[niminy-piminy]

still not completely sure if i will vote for THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALADÁR MÉZGA (József Gémes, József Nepp, Marcell Jankovics, Béla Ternovszky) in the 1972 poll but i have to admit i have a very strong sentimental tie to this Hungarian animation series.
it was immensely popular among the local (Czechoslovak) kids (of the boomers' generation).
and i guess it was immensely popular even beyond HUN and CZE (tho probably not beyond the iron curtain?!?).

the hero of this series is a boy who is awake at night (takes the nocturnal trips in outer space) and somnolent & apathetic during the day.
he invented a portable rocket, after sunset he carries it (dressed in pajama) on the roof (of the apartment building his family lives in) in a violin case, there he blows it up, and together with his pet (a talking dog), he takes off and travels to various planets.
his sublunary family (sis & parents) have no idea about his nocturnal adventures and they consider him (due to his somnolent & apathetic state during the day) a wacko/loonie.

these are the titles of the sequels → https://www.kinometer.com/?lot=227093
The Strange Adventures of Aladár Mézga:
1/ The Flat Planet
2/ The Fairy-Tale Planet
3/ The Crazy Planet
4/ The Planet of Machines
5/ The Singing Planet
6/ The Planet of Crime
7/ The Variable Planet
8/ The Accelerated Planet
9/ The War Planet
10/ The Prehistoric Planet
11/ The Planet of Fulfilled Wishes
12/ The Planet of Water Spirits
13/ The Topsy-turvy Planet

"The Crazy Planet" (3) is one of those typical highly surreal Hungarian animations (of that era).

on "The Planet of Crime" (6) there is the following social stratification: 1/ cops, 2/ criminals, 3/ victims.
these "classes" perpetually switch their roles (over and over and over).
cops chase criminals, criminals chase victims, suddenly there is a worldwide signal and cops turn into victims, criminals into cops, victims into criminals (or alike) and the same chases in the new configuration continue till another worldwide signal to change these roles, etc., etc., etc.
i grew up in a neo-stalinist totalitarian regime and i can still recall when i watched this sequel (as a baby turning into an infant) i strongly felt (in my unripe brain) this is not only a movie but the reality i live in on my home planet too.
while watching this sequel i strongly felt i was just able to uncover/decipher the hidden dynamics of my real-life society (i can still vividly recall how my juvenile brain was almost boiling while making new synapses that made up the fundamental layer that's the basis of my current fluid socio-political perspectives (i.e. whenever i write anything in a political thread it has probably its roots in this particular sequel of this particular series).

anyway, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALADÁR MÉZGA have probably fallen into obscurity once eastern infant boomers grew up but i wish to make it clear (either by my vote in the poll or by this post) that this cartoon was highly formative (in a certain milieu, for certain underage individuals)!

[niminy-piminy]

ha, i just found some read (in English) about the aforementioned cinematic phenomenon → https://seanguynes.files.wordpress.com/ ... /panka.pdf

‘Mystic and a little utopistic’: The Mézga family as cynical utopia
by Daniel Panka

i see there were 3 seasons.
and i see, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALADÁR MÉZGA (i mentioned) are the second season.
i probably watched the other seasons too (not completely sure), but the impact on infant-me (the formative) had (was) only the second one (as far as i remember).

This animated series, which ran for three seasons between 1970 and 1980, became massively popular and glued thousands to the screen each Sunday evening for its runtime of 22 to 25 minutes. In this essay, I argue that the series is a peculiar cultural artefact of the one-party socialist regime in Hungary and that the first season Üzenet a jövőből – A Mézga család különös kalandjai (Message from the Future – The Strange Adventures of the Mézga Family, Hungary 1970) combines the widely disseminated government propaganda with utopian tropes to create a generic hybrid that facilitates the critique of a system which famously detested criticism. Then, I address the second and third seasons (Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai (The Strange Adventures of Aladár Mézga; Hungary 1973) and Vakáción a Mézga család (The Mézga Family on Vacation; Hungary 1980)) to investigate the ways in which the discursive space opened up by the first season was gradually modified.

The second season was produced in 1972 and aired between January and April 1973, three years after the sweeping success of the first. Its protagonist is Aladár, the youngest member of the family, together with his dog, who can now speak. Aladár builds an inflatable rubber spaceship called Gulliverkli 5, a wordplay referring to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver and the fact that the spaceship can fit into a violin case (‘verkli’ meaning ‘barrel organ’ in Hungarian). Like the first, the second season is also an anthology: in every episode, there is some kind of conflict between Aladár and his parents or his environment, so he travels to a distant planet and returns after his adventures. Even though the humour and linguistic inventiveness of the series is unchanged, the planets Aladár visits are clearly different from MZ/X’s world. As the ship’s name suggests, the season resembles the plot structure of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, as well as the satirical tone of the eighteenth-century novel. The planets are utopian satires, which, to use Sargent’s definition, ‘the author [intends] a contemporaneous reader to view as a criticism of that contemporary society’.

so, it seems that (strictly speaking) THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALADÁR MÉZGA is 1973 entry (i.e. i might vote for it during the 1973 poll).

[niminy-piminy]

additional side note:

i see, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALADÁR MÉZGA were dubbed in Czech in 1976 (me being 3 yrs old) thus i infer watching it for the first time being about 4-5 yrs old (might have not watched the local premiere (taking place probably in 1976 or 1977) but certainly watched some early reprise (if not the premiere) — in any case, in the early pre-school age, i.e. ca 4-5).

the local version of the dilettante encyclopedia says...

Due to the social satire present, the sequels "The Flat Planet" and "The Topsy-turvy Planet" were excluded [banned] from the TV broadcast in communist [neo-stalinist] Czechoslovakia. From the other sequels, some specific scenes were cut off [censored].

[niminy-piminy]

raising up the issue of censorship (cancel culture) and cartoons for kids, there is one more strange phenomenon related to 1972!

in my list of 1972 entries (viz another thread), one might have noticed the title THE POPPY DOLL AND EMANUEL THE BUTTERFLY (Václav Bedřich).
i remember i quite liked to watch it at the early stage of my post-natal ontogenesis but i was not particularly mesmerized by it (as far as i remember).
i probably already took my "The Planet of Crime" lesson from the tripping Aladár Mezga and thus i was already too nihilistic for a cheesy melodrama between a butterfly and a poppy doll.
thus i don't think this series left any significant mark on my brain and it could easily fall into obscurity without me elaborating on it on this cinephile forum.
BUT i rewatched a few sequels relatively recently (according to KM data in the mid of 2018) and i was shocked that the two particular sequels are not censored nowadays (or (on the other hand) not exploited by the local xenophobes).

as a preliminary side note, i have to explain the local phenomenon of "bedtime stories" (i.e. "večerníček").
i guess, every nation has its bedtime stories for kids and there is nothing extra special about it.
BUT here it has become an "institution" with a rigid scheme that goes on and on and on over decades
since 1965, the local kids are exposed (approximately at 7 PM) to the same intro jingle (announcing "večerníček" is coming), there there is ca. 10 min long cartoon (sequel of a series with approximately 13 parts — if popular next ca. 13 parts are made later, etc., etc.), and it is closed with a jingle saying "time to go to sleep".
nowadays (as far as i know), it is still an important part of the daily routine of the local underage cinephiles, however, it is only one of the cinematic temptations to which a nowadays local kid is exposed to.
when i was an early infant the mass medial landscape was much poorer — there was no internet at all and the local TV broadcast consisted of only two programs and thus not much screen time was left for kids (they had to share it with adults and their tireless political propaganda about the bright socialist future and the endless friendship with the Soviet Union) — and thus the importance of "večerníček" for a juvenile cinephile of the 1970s was beyond description (as an infant i was just somehow trying to survive the dreary day-long bizarre reality to be able to watch at the end of the day the desired "večerníček" → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ve%C4%8Dern%C3%AD%C4%8Dek ).

i don't suffer the peter pan syndrome and thus i easily abandoned the "večerníček" stuff while entering adolescence.
however, a few years ago (in mid-2018) as i was busy adding all kinds of entries to a newly built KM database i also added several local "bedtime stories" (including all the sequels).
and it somehow made me investigate the stuff i was exposed to in my infancy (to evaluate its impact on my current cinephile preferences and my current life views).
thus i randomly rewatched various sequels from various series.
and when it came to THE POPPY DOLL AND EMANUEL THE BUTTERFLY i was particularly shocked by the storylines of the 6th part called POPPY DOLL AND TROPICAL BUTTERFLY IBRAHIM and the 7th part called POPPY DOLL AND TURKISH MOON.

these are all the sequels → https://www.kinometer.com/?lot=223009
The Poppy Doll and Emanuel the Butterfly:
1/ Poppy Doll and Sad Butterfly Emanuel
2/ Poppy Doll and Highwayman Burasek
3/ Poppy Doll and Lightning Amos
4/ Poppy Doll and Meadow Light Ferdinand
5/ Poppy Doll and Cannoneer Praskavec
6/ Poppy Doll and Tropical Butterfly Ibrahim
7/ Poppy Doll and Turkish Moon
8/ Poppy Doll and Thimble Pichpic
9/ Poppy Doll and Angry Waterlily
10/ Poppy Doll and Squirrel Barca
11/ Poppy Doll and Blot Cuncova
12/ Poppy Doll and Teddy Bear Metodej
13/ Poppy Doll and Two Emanuels

hero of the series (emanuel the butterfly) and the heroine (poppy doll, i.e. a poppy fairy) are involved in a prevalently platonic relationship.
because both of them are very fragile (etheric) entities their mutual love is mostly expressed by longing & sighing and is devoid of "carnality".
besides, emanuel the butterfly is a bit absent-minded (constantly daydreaming) and old-fashioned (dressed like a gentleman from bygone ages) and thus even if the poppy doll (poppy fairy) might have had some inclinations to embrace carnal-like pleasures butterfly emanuel is rather unresponsive to these feminine erotic dreams and thus poppy doll is permanently semi-frustrated/bored and mostly happy to hang out with the colorful butterfly just to adorn her own (rather simple) poppy outfits (i.e. boyfriend mainly kept around as a butterfly-shaped brooch).
sometimes, poppy doll's boredom & sexual frustration brings her into all kinds of dangerous situations like facing a forced marriage with acorn the highwayman or almost becoming a sex slave to a squirrel, but ultimately she somehow or other gets out of the trouble rather soon (rather due to the favor of fate than by the heroic involvement of the daydreaming & fragile butterfly) — prior the narrative can become truly controversial (prior showing any sexually inappropriate content).
BUT then come the two aforementioned sequels (POPPY DOLL AND TROPICAL BUTTERFLY IBRAHIM and POPPY DOLL AND TURKISH MOON) that are clearly over the edge!

POPPY DOLL AND TROPICAL BUTTERFLY IBRAHIM
while butterfly and poppy fairy are enjoying their usual day (full of feminine sexual frustration and masculine absent-mindedness), a foreign (tropical) butterfly enters the stage.
he is called Ibrahim, he is a dandy type and immediately starts courting & seducing the poppy doll.
chronically bored poppy fairy becomes highly responsive to Ibrahim's schemes & charms.
when emanuel complains to the moon (what else to do when you are losing a girlfriend but you are an apathetic daydreamer!) he is advised to fight with Ibrahim (btw. it is the local round (full/fat) moon who is the source of all the hate speech and blatant xenophobia in this and the following sequel) emanuel responds that according to the records of natural history there is not a single evidence of one butterfly fighting with another butterfly and thus he can't make a stain on this flawless history of the ongoing butterfly peace.
when poppy fairy is on the verge to disappear with Ibrahim in the "tropics", the xenophobic full-moon interferes and showers Ibrahim with a very cold dew (something that Ibrahim is not used to from his exotic/warm homeland).
thus wet & freezing ibrahim withdraws and the poppy doll reembraces the boredom with the local butterfly (ultimately, she even kisses him and he blushes — i guess it is the only display of the near-carnality among the two platonic lovers in the whole series).

if you still think, "what's the fuss", it is not hateful enough to become the target of the woke cancel culture, then listen to what's going on in the next sequel...

POPPY DOLL AND TURKISH MOON
while the moon (with whom we already got familiar in the previous sequel when he chased away an "invasive species" of the tropical butterfly) is drinking the dew in the grass — don't ask me why the moon who makes the dew by pouring it down then comes down in person to drink it (yes, it is pretty absurd) — and thus leaving for a moment his usual place on the sky, he is replaced by the "turkish moon" (he is of the crescent shape) who is carrying an "exotic" star.
neither the local full/fat moon nor fragile butterfly is able to chase away the "invading" moon, thus the poppy fairy has to enter the patriotic stage.
she is the queen of the opioid poppy fields, so she wakes up all the sleeping poppies and they start to release their opioid fragrance that ultimately sedates the turkish moon.
sedated crescent-shaped invader is taken down and the local full/fat moon returns up to the sky (his rightful place).
next day, sedated turkish moon (still sleeping) is loaded in the empty carriage of the bumble-bee who is involved in the international trade with the "turkish delight" candy and is carried/expelled back to turkey (where he is gonna be exchanged for the "turkish delight" cargo that the business-oriented bumble-bee imports).

what made the local neo-stalinist comrades (of the early 1970s) compile such bedtime narratives (attempting to indoctrinate the local kids with the anti-"tropical" sentiments) is beyond my grasp (considering the early 1970s foreign policy of czechoslovakia or soviet block that was rather anti-imperialistic/anti-american than islamophobic or anti-tropical or anti-exotic).
if their prescient intention was to indoctrinate me with the current hatred towards erdogan then i must admit they succeeded!
tho i am still able to make the difference between erdogan and turkey, so i am somewhat puzzled about the two aforementioned storylines and their true aims/intentions (in the local 1970s context).

[niminy-piminy]

okay, to end up on a lighter note, here comes another 1972 bedtime story called THE MOLE AS A PAINTER (Zdeněk Miler, no dialogues)...
→ https://www.kinometer.com/?id=206666

https://youtu.be/8wkHzEQ7Ggc

Mole discovers a lot of paint cans on the glade. He mistakenly turns himself red and when he frightens the evil fox, gradually repaints all the other animals and finally the whole forest, which turns into an exotic foreign country until the bright colors wash away the rain.

tho, not even this local 1972 flick can be considered completely devoid of subliminal programming (viz "turns himself red", "repaints all the other animals", etc., etc. — i am sniffing some acid-communism vibes). however (as opposed to the two despicable sequels from THE POPPY DOLL AND EMANUEL THE BUTTERFLY) it is rather pro-tropical (so, what was the aim of the local 1970s comrades who were writing storylines of these bedtime stories knows probably only the moon).

[sally]

sex slave to a squirrel, adorable!

you're brave to revisit your childhood tv shows, it would make me too sad i think

[niminy-piminy]

sex slave to a squirrel, adorable!

[niminy-piminy]

1972 poll No2:
THE TOWN IN WHITE (František Vláčil)

my dwelling place covered with snow (and with 1968 amnesia).
no dialogues!
never watched it before.
gave it a try only after noticing it in the curtis's list.
was rather skeptical cuz these little docu flicks that were supposed to prove the banned filmmakers are worthy to be entrusted a camera & film stock again (after they "deviated" in the 1960s) are usually rather pointless (tho františek was maybe just supposed to prove he is sober enough — after sinking into alcoholism).
however, františek is a wizard, and even something that is supposed to be pointless he turns into magic.
it was made just 3-4 years after the warsaw pact invasion (i.e. when this country was pretty fucked), however, everything looks pretty idyllic.
from "documentary" pov this poetic documentary is nearly pointless, however, it is abundant with magic & poetry and thus worth watching!

https://youtu.be/8XGmxwEV4nc

[niminy-piminy]

1972 poll No7
EVERYTHING (Piotr Szulkin, 1972)

Here’s a strange one. First, a song on a blackboard: a Polish translation of “I love my little rooster” by American folk writer Almeda Riddle. Then, two men roll around trash bins and lift them to the garbage truck. They do it several times. A woman shouts in the distance. At the end, the picture stops, and the woman sings the song.
(song singing 5:43 ↓ i.e. a harbinger of Gummo ↓↓)

https://youtu.be/WqxrCQpqDjM

"i love my little rooster" Gummo style ↓ ...

https://youtu.be/xa2W6EfM9pA

1972 poll No8
ONE, TWO, THREE (Piotr Szulkin, 1972)

lbox wisdom ↓
...and folks, it's bad. Or at least, I'm pretty sure it's bad. There are no subtitles in the copy on Youtube, and I don't speak Polish. But from what I can glean, it's about two hippie student types in a field, messing around. They change into some business clothes, and explore a rural area and an abandoned building. Then they change back into their hippie clothes and run around acting like a couple of goofballs, set to blaring circus music. Again, there's dialogue I don't understand, but I can't imagine that it elevates this material into something that could be considered compelling. Maybe there were drugs involved.

https://youtu.be/0A8f5NYIYrk

[niminy-piminy]

2009 poll rewatch:

59/184/84 (Lukáš Kokeš)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3618624/

A film ad of the forever unhappy man with a fixed idea that "something is about to happen", always waiting for the moment to start to live, upholding his plain loner's existence with a belief that the destiny will, at last, make his dream of an ideal woman true, based on the biological right of love.

https://vimeo.com/271088022

[niminy-piminy]

2009 poll highlighs:

COOKING HISTORY (Péter Kerekes)

https://dafilms.com/film/8079-cooking-history
A documentary about army cooks and how the everyday needs of thousands of armed stomachs affect the victories and defeats of statesmen. The field kitchen functions as a model of a world where food preparation becomes a fight strategy; a fight for great ideals standing on strong legs of the kitchen table. The film is based on eleven meals based on recipes from the Second World War till the war in Chechnya; from France through the Balkans to Russia.

https://www.taskovskifilms.com/film/cooking-history/
Who would have imagined that wars could also be fought with pots, pans, and pepper shakers? In contrast with classic documantations recalling war memories with Talking Heads, the Slovakian film director focuses on a particular aspect: the sensual element of war. Military chefs have a unique, and until now, unshared influence on the battlefield. “A hungry soldier doesn’t feel safe,” explains a sausage-wielding army cook. Feeding troops is a tactical strategy used to truly astounding results in major European conflicts of the 20th century. A Russian woman’s meat blintzes provide 11 million soldiers the necessary courage to conquer in the Second World War. A Jewish prison camp breadmaker executes a plan against his Nazi captors with the only tools at his disposal. Tito’s personal chef shares the state dinner menus whose warring national cuisines foretell the Balkan War itself. By turns wry and rousing, the personal stories of history’s forgotten witnesses quietly humanize war’s unrecorded battles and their costs. Six wars, 10 recipes, and 60,361,024 dead – Cooking History is a fascinating retelling of the past.

https://youtu.be/iO42wQ0Qr5U

[niminy-piminy]

2009 poll highlights:

WALKING TOO FAST (Radim Špaček)

https://letterboxd.com/film/walking-too-fast/
The psyche of a ruthless secret agent in Cold War Czechoslovakia begins to unravel when he obsesses over the girlfriend of a suspected subversive he is tracking. This taut political thriller is a bleak and potent rendering of the emotional destruction wreaked by totalitarianism.

The story revolves around Antonín Rusnák who is an StB agent. He feels rage towards the world. He feels sick and bored from his family and work. His psychological issues cause him breathing problems and his doctor advises him to breathe into a bag if he gets a fit.

'Pouta' (Walking Too Fast) movie review: one of the best modern Czech films
https://www.praguereporter.com/home/201 ... zech-films
...
In Pouta, our protagonist is a frightening Travis Bickle-like sociopath.
...
Pouta is also about Rusnák's epic descent into madness.

https://cineuropa.org/en/video/rdid/94402/
Czechoslovakia, 1982. The totalitarian regime seems interminable and imperishable. Antonín, a member of the secret police, uneasy, tyrannical, perhaps even psychopathic, is percolating with unvoiced anger and desperation. Bored with everything, he aims his demons at a seemingly clear but in fact unattainable target - a young woman named Klára. It is not love, not passion but a burning desire for the illusion of escape from the clutches of drabness and boredom. Antonín's absurd attempt to win Klára over pits him against not only the regime's traditional enemies but also his own people and the system itself. When he breaks the rules of the organization he serves, it is neither a civic gesture nor a political one. It is rebellion, purely personal and wholly savage.

main song of the OST of the film (with the film footage)...
https://youtu.be/Y4R6zhUOIyI

[niminy-piminy]

The Ferrari Dino Girl (Jan Němec, 2009)

https://dafilms.com/film/10480-the-ferr ... en-version

After Late Night Talks with Mother and Landscape of My Heart, Jan Němec has come up with another film that hovers on the edge of experimental documentary and film essay. The Ferrari Dino Girl describes the circumstances surrounding Němec filming of the Soviet invasion on the streets of Prague on 21 August 1968. Out of this comes four reels of invaluable footage, that had to be shown to the rest of the world. Together with two friends, the director travelled with the priceless material, containing sixteen minutes of unedited film, across the Iron Curtain to Austria. Jan Němec examines the reality of his life in relation to Czech history, where intimate chronicles are inseparably linked with major historical events. He incorporates new film roles (in which he is played by Karel Roden) into the original footage which flew round the world over forty years ago and boasted ‘bigger audiences than Steven Spielberg’.

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-ferrari-dino-girl/

It’s nighttime in Prague, 21 August 1968. Soviet troops and tanks are occupying the city - random attacks, soldiers shooting, bodies lying dead on the sidewalk. With an impromptu crew, the director (Karel Roden) captures some unique evidence - material which is, however, worthless in occupied Prague; it has to be shown to the rest of the world. So, while the Soviets are concocting false reports of heartfelt receptions without military resistance for propaganda purposes, the director sets off on a risky trip across the closed Czech-Austrian border to Vienna.

[sally]

what, it's on dafilms? i wonder what else i missed

you know when you post something, is that a recommendation? i've only seen late night talks with mother from his later stuff...

[niminy-piminy]

out of those short films i mentioned/watched (in the other thread) i liked only those i posted (i.e. the 1st and the last two).

"The Ferrari Dino Girl" i am watching right now and like it (especially these days it is a "must").
"Cooking History" is great, highly recommended (and it also has a special relevance these days).
"Walking Too Fast" is a type of film (thriller) i usually don't watch but i like this particular one (somehow).

"walking too fast", the deranged "alfa-liliput on steroids" main character ↓
(similarity with any other "alfa-liliput on steroids" purely coincidental)

[niminy-piminy]

was in the cinema (ponrepo) to see a local newish film...

SAVING ONE WHO WAS DEAD (Václav Kadrnka, 2021)

After a serious stroke, the Father goes into a coma. The Mother (Zuzana Mauréry) and the Son (Vojtěch Dyk) are suddenly confronted with a motionless body; the doctors do not give them much hope. The person they love is somewhere far away and their words can’t reach him. If living has any boundary, they are determined not to let the Father cross it. The quiet corridors of the hospital are gradually transformed into a labyrinth of the spirit, where voices are whispers; expression is deep within. Or everyone is silent. Because it’s so difficult to talk about certain things… Four years on from Karlovy Vary’s graceful ride Little Crusader, Václav Kadrnka invites us on a spiritual journey to places man is seldom permitted to enter since, here, life huddles up tightly to death and only the resurrected can return.

https://youtu.be/CirCshYZo88

the screening was preceded by a little gig by the Havels couple (Irena & Vojtěch) who composed the music not only for this film ("Saving One Who Was Dead") but also for the previous ("Little Crusader") by Václav Kadrnka.
soundtracks to both films are now being released as an album (therefore the gig).

Václav Kadrnka was present, was supposed to give a speech, but alter the gig full of meditative tunes (conducive to introspection) and prior to the film about a man in a coma, he just said something like, "words are here redundant" and the screening followed right after the gig (without an intro speech).

Irena & Vojtěch tunes (something alike was played prior to the screening) ↓
https://youtu.be/RKJ6RRq1tww

[sally]

oh i ♥♥♥ little crusaders! i think about it fairly often (although i can't remember a thing about the ending, just the nice medieval mooching through the countryside)

[niminy-piminy]

i still didn't watch it but gonna do so very soon.