gudaulin

A series that rises and falls with the main character, a cynical and highly idiosyncratic doctor who, while making accurate diagnoses and achieving undeniable success in treating patients, tramples on those around him with numerous quips and rough behavior. Upon longer viewing, the problem arises that the blueprint on which each episode is based is actually always the same... Overall impression: 80%.

Just an average film, but nonetheless a showcase of colorful characters portrayed by a whole array of well-known and talented actors. The three detective stories about small Czech crimes are otherwise easily forgettable. Fortunately, the film is helped by a slightly ironic detachment with which Jiří Vala, as the husband, comments on the events and characters around him ("we don't have heroin here, so we'll at least take some alginate"). Overall impression: 50%.

I have had, have, and will have one fundamental problem with Mel Brooks, or rather with his films. Poor Mel had the misfortune of encountering clueless people, for whom hinting, directing, and pointing is not enough. Many of his jokes have decent potential, but he presents them so exaggeratedly that they lose all charm for me. He can't capture that delicate line between parody and awkwardness. But maybe the fault is in me, and I have set my boundary too high. In High Anxiety, where he takes aim at poor Hitchcock, he still holds back and thankfully doesn't push the envelope as much as he does in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but even so, I can't give this film an overall impression of more than 40%.

The central theme is strong, but the screenplay and direction are unremarkable. What remains the highlight of an otherwise forgettable television play is Věra Galatíková's performance in the role of the overworked mother - she managed to portray this type of character very convincingly. Overall impression: 40%.

Jan Švankmajer's homage to his lifelong love - puppet theatre and old puppeteers, such as Matěj Kopecký. The text is based on the original puppet play of the same name, performed in the first half of the 19th century in Bohemia. The intonation of the excellent František Filipovský as the narrator and the music, which includes motifs from old peddler songs, aim for the most authentic imitation of old theatrical production with a slightly parodic exaggeration ("now I'm dead"), wherein the film highlights the libations of theater actors to their folk audience and the endearingly absurd text of the play. Rather than being Švankmajer's lifelong love for surrealism, the visual concept is influenced by expressionism (details of the puppets' faces). Impressive ideas (blood spurting from a "stabbed" chest, a sword cutting off the facial part of a puppet as a symbol of death), combined with music and lighting, create an unforgettable atmosphere. Overall impression: 95%.

The film is interesting due to its combination of live-action and animated elements, as well as its use of various artistic concepts. The live-action part also authentically portrays what Prague looked like in the late 1960s. Overall impression: 45%.

Thanks to artistically successful puppets, lighting, and colorful styling, an impressive animated film about the pride of Prague councilors who killed the creator of the Prague Astronomical Clock. The dark character of the film is underlined by the use of a choir and musical motif. Overall impression: 80%.

A bizarre bit of screenwriting that is influenced by Tarantino's famous film Pulp Fiction in terms of mixing genres, and shuffling the chronology of the story with several parallel character stories that get roughly the same amount of space in the film and are endowed with cool characteristics. Humor, as typical for Tarantino's films, is combined with violence and human suffering. There are also several crimes, dead bodies, one severed penis, and somewhat raunchier language - basically, everything that a cultured viewer nurtured by Bergman and Fellini likes. The film has a very reasonable runtime and fast pace, but it does not have as well-written dialogues as early Tarantino films, lacks black humorous lines, and the director's inexperience is noticeable in the film. Overall impression: 65%.

Johanes Doktor Faust was one of the first films in Jan Švankmajer's phenomenal work - he has just finished school and his collaboration on a film, where he was one of the puppeteers, led him to Emil Radok as the film's director. For Švankmajer, it was a decisive meeting, as Radok greatly influenced and directed him in the beginning. Švankmajer later thoroughly developed many ideas and techniques that Radok suggested in his films. Radok's film is based on an old play that itinerant puppet theaters performed in the 19th century and is a tribute to classic Pimprlové Theaters. The film uses only the simplest animation and achieves its effect through a combination of elements used in Laterna Magica (after all, Radok was one of its co-creators) and in classic puppet theater. The static camera often focuses on the details of the puppets, especially on the expressive expression of their faces. The principle of black theater and human hands interfering with the action is taken from Laterna Magica. The puppets mostly do not do much, as the narration drives the story. The changing of the scenery reminds of the performances of fairground troubadours. The film is valuable primarily in terms of visual artistry and from a historical perspective as a starting point for Švankmajer's Don Juan. Overall impression: 75%.

From such exclusive material, it was simply impossible to make a bad documentary because this prison is a true global phenomenon, and in the Czech Republic, it has been in the broader public consciousness since the arrest of two Czech drug smugglers. Whether it's the views of the prison facilities or shots of the inmates, everything feels very authentic and unsettling. Overall impression: 80%.