Getting home after seeing the excellent Amulet (2020-also reviewed) at the cinema,I felt like seeing a movie before bed. With the Second Run DVD featuring this title having been sitting next to my DVD player since I picked it up last Christmas, I decided to finally look into the bagful of fleas.
Note:Review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Detailed in the informative booklet that the movie was held for a year from being released due to the foremen and officials of the Nachod cotton mills, (Nachod being a major town in the country of the textile industry) disapproving of the realistic depiction of the business, writer/ directing auteur Vera Chytilova ends her era of short films (with this being her longest short) by being joined by Closely Watched Trains (1966-also reviewed) cinematographer Jaromir Sofr, in threading her distinctive Czech New Wave (CNW) motifs.
Filmed in real cotton mills, Chytilova brilliantly places the viewer right in the middle of the work force, via extended fluid CNW-style hand-held camera moves covered in the off-camera voice-over of Eva, (films being centered from a Female perspective being a major recurring motif in Chytilova's works) whose gaze is captured in jagged-edge close-ups on Eva's co-workers.
An entirely non-professional, enthusiastic ensemble cast (who improvised all the dialogue), the screenplay by Chytilova gives them all a moment to shine by taking a wonderful fragmented approach, from Jana being criticized at a Works Committee meeting, to girls group singer Alena, whose last note sung breaks on a startling freeze frame ending,as the bagful of fleas is open.
Note:Review contains some plot details.
View on the film:
Detailed in the informative booklet that the movie was held for a year from being released due to the foremen and officials of the Nachod cotton mills, (Nachod being a major town in the country of the textile industry) disapproving of the realistic depiction of the business, writer/ directing auteur Vera Chytilova ends her era of short films (with this being her longest short) by being joined by Closely Watched Trains (1966-also reviewed) cinematographer Jaromir Sofr, in threading her distinctive Czech New Wave (CNW) motifs.
Filmed in real cotton mills, Chytilova brilliantly places the viewer right in the middle of the work force, via extended fluid CNW-style hand-held camera moves covered in the off-camera voice-over of Eva, (films being centered from a Female perspective being a major recurring motif in Chytilova's works) whose gaze is captured in jagged-edge close-ups on Eva's co-workers.
An entirely non-professional, enthusiastic ensemble cast (who improvised all the dialogue), the screenplay by Chytilova gives them all a moment to shine by taking a wonderful fragmented approach, from Jana being criticized at a Works Committee meeting, to girls group singer Alena, whose last note sung breaks on a startling freeze frame ending,as the bagful of fleas is open.
