Daily Archives: December 18, 2019

Marketa Lazarova (1967)

Posted on December 18, 2019 | 4 comments

Marketa Lazarova
Directed by Frantisec Vlacil
Written by Frantisec Pavlicek and Frantisec Vlacil from a novel by Vladislav Vancura
1967/Czechoslovakia
IMDB link
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] “I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.” ― Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”[/box]

One stunning image follows another in this violent tale of the clash of paganism and Christianity during an endless winter in medieval Europe.

I stopped trying to figure out who all the characters and what they were doing about half an hour in.  Notably, pagan robbers abduct and rape the title character, whose father had dedicated her to God.

The situation devolves into all-out clan warfare.  Did I mention that the winter is endless?

This is one of the most visually beautiful movies I have seen.  I might get more out of it on a second viewing.  The rape and other violence make that unlikely.

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1967

Privilege (1967)

Posted on December 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

Privilege
Directed by Peter Watkins
Written by Norman Bogner, Johnny Speight and Peter Watkins
1967/UK
IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Rev. Jeremy Tate: This black card will be issued to you as you leave the Stadium tonight. On it there are three words.They are simple words but they are vital words. They are words which we must now, all of us, begin using because, since the end of the War, we in Britain have become apathetic, slack, loose in our morality. National cohesion has become unimportant to us! We must fight this. We must. Now, all of us begin to use the words on the card! “We will conform.”[/box]

Innovative directing cannot save terrible acting and a ponderous tone.

It is some time in the near future, as of 1967. The British Government controls the population through its idolization of pop singer Steven Strayer (Paul Jones).  First, an ultra-violent act releases societal tensions.  Then, the government decides it would prefer a nationalistic mass religious conversion.   Jean Shrimpton plays an artist who tries to set Strayer straight.

I thought both Jones and Shrimpton were zombie-like, despite their fake emotional outbursts.  The plot plays out like an ersatz “1984”.  The music is OK.  Other people appear to like this way more than I did.

 

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Posted in 1967