After what seemed like an eternity of me selecting films, I remembered to ask Kevin if he’d select one (just in time for his retirement!) and he obliged me by choosing Marketa Lazarová, a 1967 Czech (so technically Czechoslovakian) film directed by František Vláčil.
Marketa Lazarová is widely considered the greatest Czech movie of all time (I can’t stop myself…I can’t…somebody…please, hold me back, bro!) so we had to Czech it out. (I’m so disappointed in myself.) So how was it?
Is this a real fire? Is this just bad CG?/Please cut my hair now, it would help lazy eyes to see
The film is set in the Middle Ages, and given its title, you might expect that the plot revolves around Marketa, the daughter of Lazar. While that’s at least partially accurate, it’s probably more on point to portray the film as a depicting a clash between three antagonists – we have the pagan Kozlík clan, the ostensibly Christian Lazar clan, and the troops of the Bohemian King, representing the fanatical Christian contingent.
The film opens with the Kozlík clan, headed by his sons Mikoláš and one-armed Adam (he lost his other arm as punishment for committing incest with his sister Alexandria, so I guess even the pagans weren’t down for that kind of thing), ambushing a bishop and his wagon on the highway. The bishop escapes, but they capture his son Kristian. In the aftermath, Lazar is caught scavenging the wreckage of the attack, and Mikoláš intends to kill him, but spares him due to his prayers to Christ.
Because it’s Jesus come, Jesus go, ceiling high, habits low/Any time the wine flows feels like it’s Communion to me
Tensions between Kozlík and Lazar only get worse when the Bohemian king sends his captain and troops to Kozlík to recover Kristian and avenge the bishop. Kozlík hoped to get Lazar’s cooperation against the captain and his men, but Lazar took the other side, and after a skirmish between the two parties, the Hatfield/McCoy war is on.
Meanwhile, Lazar has promised his daughter Marketa to a nunnery, but is unable to pay her dowry to Jesus, so the whole thing has to be put off.
So you think you can stake me and leave me to die?
Returning to his outpost, Lazar finds that Mikoláš has come in, kicked ass, and taken names, including murdering Lazar’s son. As the price for Lazar’s life, Mikoláš abducts Marketa. Also, they nail Lazar to the gate.
Put a rock against his head/smashed his skull in, now he’s dead
Things happen…pretty slowly from there, but the gist is kind of this: Mikoláš rapes Marketa, but before too long she goes all Prague Syndrome and decides she likes him. Meanwhile, Alexandria has begun a relationship with her father’s captive Kristian and is now carrying his child. The King’s captain attacks Kozlík and kills one-armed Adam and captures Kozlík, while Kristian, torn between his rescuers and his lover, flees into the woods, where eventually an escaped Alexandria kills him by bashing him over the head with a rock. I guess she doesn’t take rejection well.
The now-pregnant Marketa is rejected by her father, and heads to the nunnery to finally take her vows, just as Mikoláš attempts to free his father by storming the dungeon he is being held in…which happens to be at…the nunnery? Mikoláš is mortally wounded, and Marketa stops her vows in the middle of the ceremony to instead marry her rapist as he dies. Then she heads off into the woods, and we learn that she nursed both her own son and Alexandria’s (because evidently Alexandria ends up being executed for Kristian’s murder, though the movie and the narration and the title cards seem to skip that point). The End.
I kind of hate to say it, but if this is the best Czech film ever, I’m not terribly inclined to chase down any other ones. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t appear that I’ve actually seen any others, though as far as visibility goes, the Czech catalog basically seems to consist of Closely Watched Trains, Kolya, and several Miloš Forman films (notably Loves of a Blonde, Fireman’s Ball), of which Amadeus doesn’t count because it was a U.S. production.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the cinematography is fantastic (see below), but the film really loses something in translation. It’s incredibly hard to follow, and it’s nearly three hours long. I needed Wikipedia just to explain the whole plot to me after watching it for 3 hours – and even then, man, it’s not all that compelling of a plot. Maybe it’s better in Czech. Visually, though, it’s pretty nice, particularly for 1967. I mean, check these out, and you’ll see what the film’s primary draw for me is:
I’m just a poor boy, I need no swamp-athy
I see a little silhouette-o of a horse/Scaramouche, Scaramouche, can you see the reins dangle?
She’s just a poor girl from a poor family/Spare her her life from this monstrosi-tree
So in the end, I mean, I didn’t hate it, but I kinda got bored. Yep, even a foreign film lover like me. Happens to the best of us.
Cinema 1544: The As-Official-As-It-Gets Site 