Juraj Herz| Czechoslovakia 1971, 101 minutes |
11am, Sunday 16 July
A virginal woman (Iva Janžurová) hopes to marry a jaded soldier in the Austrian army (Petr Čepek), wilfully ignorant of the dissolute proclivities that might just be sending him mad and attacking his body with a discomfiting wasting malady. Set, like its source, Jaroslav Havlíček’s 1944 novel, at the very outset of the 20th century, Herz’s sumptuous adaptation, enriched by “Dodo” Šimončič’s glorious cinematography, meshes the director’s love of Art Nouveau aesthetics with his peculiarly mordant Weltanschauung. The film’s ironically romantic score is by Luboš Fišer.
Co-Presented with The Czech and Slovak Film Festival and the Australian Cinémathèque.
This is a free screening taking place at the Australian Cinémathèque, GoMA, as part of The Gothic Fantasies of Juraj Herz retrospective.
D Juraj Herz S Lubor Dohnal, Václav Šašek and Juraj Herz P Karel Kochman and Ladislav Novotny C Dodo Šimončič E Jaromír Janácek
Language: Czech with English Subtitles
Distribution: National Film Archive 35mm
Unrated 15 +
