Miloš Forman’s classic of the Czech New Wave, a beautifully observed exploration of love, youth, optimism and disappointment.
Two thousand young women and two hundred men are employed at a shoe factory not far from Prague. One day, to the delight of the women, it is announced that a battalion of troops will be stationed in the town. When they arrive, the young women frustratingly find that they are veterans. One of them, Andula, meets a pianist playing with a band from Prague.
As in Peter and Pavla, Forman’s skill lies not so much in the plot but rather in the exquisite and precise interpretation of the varied aspects of the human personality. He combines love and understanding of his adolescent characters with an ability to extract the maximum amount of humour from each situation.
Writer, editor and expert in central/Eastern European film, Michael Brooke, will introduce the film, it’s themes and place in the Czech New Wave.
“It is a pleasure for me, once in a way, to join in the critical chorus of praise over a particular film. Brilliant … has just about everything a film ought to have … great freshness, spontaneity, pathos, humour, smoothness, naturalness, easy, originality – and yet it is all about nothing more unusual than a love affair.”
Illustrated London News
“This simple tale is made delightful with brilliantly, sympathetically observed character and comic detail.”
Punch
“… contains some direction of players which could scarcely be bettered.”
Sunday Times
A BLONDE IN LOVE (Lásky jedné plavovlásky) / Miloš Forman / Czechoslovakia / 1965 / 82 mins
Michael Brooke is a writer, editor, and multimedia producer. A specialist in British and central/eastern European cinema, he is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and the Journal of Film Preservation and more occasionally elsewhere. He is also a prolific contributor to various Blu-ray labels, including Indicator (where he’s the in-house Technical Producer), Arrow, Eureka, Radiance, Second Run and many others as booklet essayist, featurette creator, and audio commentator.