UN ETE CAPRICIEUX

By : Jiri Menzel

With : Rudolf Hrusinsky, Mila Myslikova, Vlastimil Brodsky
Tchécoslovaquie, 1967, PAL, 1.66 - 76 mn
zone 2, Couleur, Mono
10.00 €


Titre original : ROZMARNE LETO
Titre anglais : CAPRICIOUS SUMMER

Directed by Jiri Menzel

With Rudolf Hrusinsky, Mila Myslikova, Vlastimil Brodsky
Czechoslovakia, 1967, PAL, 1.66 - 76 mn
zone 2, Color, Mono

Original Czech version with French subtitles
Digipack edition - Booklet with analyses

Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It just seems to be that sort of summer. Antonin runs the swimming bath with his portly wife Katherine... A man appears with his horse-drawn caravan. He lays a striped pole across the river and walks over. With a handstand and a magic trick, Ernie the Conjuror invites everyone to that evening's performance... Ernie is a tightrope walker of only modest skill, but with a slim and beautiful assistant, Anna. Antonin speaks to her. The two spend the night in the change room by the river, Antonin massaging her feet all night long. Katherine decides to move into the caravan with Ernie. But now the major and even the canon sense Anna's attractiveness...

The films directed by Jiri Menzel often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vancura. He became famous in 1967, when his first feature film, CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His controversial film LARKS ON A STRING was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the Czech government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival. Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy MY SWEET LITTLE VILLAGE.


Watch a video excerpt :
Un été capricieux