Cutting It Short

A Czech town in the twenties. Francin manages the brewery; he is orderly, measured, and slightly embarrassed by everything his wife Maryška does. She has long fair hair, a large appetite and no notion of shame; she rides a bicycle, eats pork, climbs the chimney, and the town talks about her. Then Francin's brother Pepin arrives; he was to stay a week and stays for years, shouting everything he says. Jiří Menzel directs. Magda Vášáryová plays Maryška, Jiří Schmitzer plays Francin and Jaromír Hanzlík plays Pepin. It runs ninety three minutes. The source is Bohumil Hrabal's book and the story rests on his own family; the brewery manager is his stepfather. Menzel and Hrabal are among the best known partnerships in Czech cinema; Closely Watched Trains is theirs as well. The idea is cutting. Maryška having her hair cut sits at the centre and is about the period itself: the shortening of an old life, the arrival of radio and a world speeding up. The narrative does not rest on plot; it proceeds in episodes and jokes and shows the daily life of the brewery in detail. The image is warm and golden; the nostalgia is deliberately built and the film does not hide it. Who it is for: viewers who like Czech comedy and Hrabal adaptations. Who it is not for: the narrative is loose, nothing happens, and the presentation of the woman is contestable from here.