Customer Reviews

Black Peter

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Czech director Milos Forman won first prize at the Locarno film festival for his first feature film, Black Peter. This coming-of-age story about a shy teenager who falls in love, bears the heavy influence of Francois Truffaut, as do most other "new wave" productions of the era. Even at this early stage, however, Forman's film-making prowess enabled him to transcend any and all imitations. In some areas, the film bore the title Peter and Pavla, reflecting the fact that pretty young Pavla Martinkova played the girl. Black Peter was originally released in Czechoslovakia in 1963 under the title Cerny Petr.

It is one of Foreman's all time classics and also one of the great movies of the last century which was not truly appreciated - as a kid I was used to seeing the great works of Ray (Apu Trilogy) and Ray was greatly influenced by Traffaut and Renoir so to me this movie was close to home and some time I could easily recognize as a work of a master. The black and white photography is absolutely superb. You will notice how little set up of technology is used to make a classic - this is a mark of a great director - another trait is how they get results from their actors -even not so famous actors produce memorable (almost unforgettable) characters. But watching this movie is not easy - you have to first develop the taste by watching movies from directors like Ray, Kurosawa and great Eisentein. This movie is more like caviar since it is a very very special flavor so either you will love it or you will hate it but nobody is at fault. The communist era life style is portrait in its true flavor and even the mundane characters draw attention through minors or weirdness. This movie should be in your collection is you are a serious collector.

I cannot quite agree with the other reviewers. Even though the DVD recording is not perfect, it's not that bad, either. The subtitles were out of sync in a couple of places (knowing both Russian and Ukranian, I can probably understand about 70% of the spoken Czech) but it did not distract from admiring the movie. And the movie is great. It's one of the finest examples of the Czech New Wave. We should be greatful that this movie is available for viewing at all.

Amazing foreign kitchen comedy/drama. Everybody's spying on everyone else in everyday settings. It's at work, at home, and social. And poor Peter. His father nags, nags, and nags some more, and gets nowhere.

I only rented the DVD. Buyers should be forewarned that there are missing subtitles in places; however, I found the film transfer okay.

I already bought this DVD. He is right in all aspects. They are charging a Criterion price for a cheap VHS to DVD transfer. Things like this should be illegal. A clear rip off.

Whodany