THE EAR (Karel Kachyna, 1970)

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(Directed by Karel Kachyna from a script by Kachyńa and Jan Prochazka and starring Radoslav Brzobohaty and Jiřina Bohdalová. Released 01 January 1990; watched 2023w34 via Criterion Channel.)

A still from Karel Kachyna's THE EAR: leads Brzobohaty and Bohdalova look at one another with dread by candlelight

Perhaps a herald of the return to my Czech New Wave obsession from last Spring: an amazing film. Leads Brozobohaty (the main farmer in ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN) and Bohdalová – married in real life either during filming or shortly thereafter – are incendiary as Ludvik and Anna, a deputy minister and wife whose ten year anniversary (of a marriage seemingly doomed from day one) is smothered by a night of paranoia, dread, suspicion, drunken revelry, and an omnipresent sensation of uncertainty against the backdrop of authoritarian rule.

Far more reserved in its execution than previous contributors to my CNW obession, THE EAR is no less revelatory: filmed in 1970, banned until the fall of Communism, and released to accolades in 1990, it's THE CONVERSATION before THE CONVERSATION, THE LIVES OF OTHERS before THE LIVES OF OTHERS – and more brutal than either: a haunting, searing must-watch.

THE CREMATOR (Herz, 1969)

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(Directed by Juraj Herz from a script by Herz and Ladizlav Fuks; starring Rudolf Hrušínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Jana Stehnová, Miloš Vognič, Jiří Menzel, and Ilja Prachař. Released 14 March 1969; watched 2023w13 via Criterion Channel)

A still from THE CREMATOR: Rudolf Hrušínský looks on, in black and white.

If ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN followed the horrors of Post-WWII conformity (led, as here, by Ilja Prachař) to an oppressive regime, THE CREMATOR – one of the most frightening horror films I've seen – offers a darkly (pitch black) comic unfurling of the spiral of possession of one (already primed) man and a populace just prior to the outbreak of WWII by the ultimate evil of the 20th century. Hrušínský is a revelation - that I'd never heard of or seen anything of this treasure is a crime I'll be further rectifying (as seems to be the way with my current Czech New Wave obsession) - his performance as Kopfrkingl reminding me, on more than one occasion, of Peter Lorre's Hans Beckert in M. Every great villain – whether fully formed or in the process of becoming – is convinced that they're doing the right thing: Hrušínský's Kopfrkingl is one of the greats and then some. Brilliant, brutal – and essential – viewing.

ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN (Jesny, 1968)

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(Written and directed by Vojtēch Jesny; starring Radoslav Brzohaty, Vera Galatíková, Vlastimil Brodsky, Vladimír Menšik, Waldemar Matuška, and Drahomíra Hofmanová. Released 1968; watched 2023w10 via Criterion Channel)

The first of my Tycherion-chosen Criterion watches and a winner: deeply moving, often hallucinatory (the animal carnival among them) vignettes spanning+/-15 years in one Czech village as it and the wonderful characters inside it transform and reveal their true natures from post-WWII elation to the ruin of Communist dictatorship, a case study in the raw power of using deeply drawn humans occupying few locations and multiple eras. While Jesny's film may be my first exposure to the Czech New Wave, it most certainly won't be my last. Still processing it – and will be for awhile.