Black Peter

Miloš Forman's first feature and one of the opening works of the Czech New Wave. The budget was very low, which is largely why he cast non-actors in the leads. Finding the father was the hardest part. Ivan Passer walked into the wrong band rehearsal and found a bandleader there; Forman later described him as a volcano of humanity. Jan Vostrčil, then sixty, refused at first, then took the role and went on to appear in Forman's later films. Sixteen-year-old Petr starts work as a store detective and spends his days not understanding what he is doing. He is told to follow people, catches nobody, and can accuse nobody. In the evenings his father explains life to him. Nothing happens; the generation gap appears not as conflict but as two sides unable to hear each other. The film took first prize at Locarno, beating Godard's Contempt and Antonioni's Red Desert in that competition. Who it is for: viewers who like Czech cinema built from everyday observation, wry but warm. Who it is not for: anyone wanting plot. The film rests on eighty minutes of almost nothing happening.