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The Firemen's Ball (The Criterion Collection)

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This delightful film of Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) tells the story of a dance sponsored by local firemen in a small Czech village. In it, Forman sets the stage for a subtle critique of society under Soviet-style Communism. The dance itself is held to honor the retiring fire chief who is dying of cancer but of course, will not be told of this. The firemen hilariously set out to haphazardly pick girls out of the crowd for a Beauty Contest to be held during the dance (the list is constantly bickered about back and forth between the fireman and eventually lost in the confusion). Also, there is a table of assorted prizes for a raffle which is guarded over by one of the fireman and his hilariously bitchy and not too observant wife. The raffle prizes gradually start to disappear, but who is to blame? Add to this the wonderfully wacky free-for-all of a beauty pageant and a real fire and you have one of Forman's best early films. Many of the "actors" are actual local villagers and this is all for the best as human failings and character are highlighted to underscore how people living under an authoritarian society begin to think only of themselves and what they can get and also the issue of who is guilty and who is innocent in this society. Highly recommended!!

He may be bathing in millions on account of his big Oscar wins for "Amadeus" & "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"--but director Milos Forman perfected his basic style with films like this, one of the most cherishable little comedies ever made. Indeed, its hour-and-fifteen-minute length makes one crave reliving this warm and extremely human story again and again.

Made while Forman was still living under Communist rule in Czecholslovakia, "Fireman's Ball" was meant as a satire of government bureaucracy, though the story can be enjoyed purely at face value. The firemen are pathetic pillars of the community who engage in endless and logic-bending arguments over ridiculous little points, desperately nabbing any reluctant teenage girls for the beauty pageant; while the people outside are enjoying and upsetting the ball (even stealing all of the edible raffle prizes) to their hearts' content. Everybody's concerned only with himself or herself......until an outside siren leads everybody to a fire destroying an old man's house. Finally, everyone seems united in a common cause. The tragedy of the story--as well as the Czech people--is driven home.

Absolutely wonderful transfer--those of us who've caught it in infrequent TV broadcasts (notably on the USA network) have had to endure white subtitles obscured in decrepit-quality prints, or lost in the screen detail. Here they are completely readable. The interviews with Forman & his erstwhile photographer Miroslav Ondricek are enlightening. My one complaint is that this Criterion Collection edition doesn't give us Forman's original English-language introduction, appended to original American & British prints of the film (he looked quite stylish in a beard).

Amazing, too, that this film uses no professionals among its actors--simply friends and even schoolboy pals of Forman's.

So is The Fireman's Ball a gentle look at the human comedy or is it a sly and subversive poke in the nose of an inept, authoritarian government? Perhaps we should take the word of director Milos Forman. It's just a gentle comedy, he'd shrug in his native Czechoslovakia after the picture was released in 1967. Of course it's subversive, he'd say, after he'd had to flee his country in 1968, when Soviet tanks were sent in to install a tougher, duller brand of Communist leaders and to snuff out the brief Prague Spring. How subversive? The new Czech leadership immediately banned the movie "permanently and forever." With all this, it's still one of the sweetest, most good-natured looks at how people behave, even their leaders, who are undoubtedly among the most bumbling, self-serving and incompetent group of men you'd ever hope to not meet.

In a small Czechoslovakian town the leadership of the fire department is planning a ball and raffle to honor their aged former chief. They'd planned to the year before on his 85th birthday but, well, they never quite got around to it. Now he's dying of cancer and they feel they really ought to do something. There will be a great banner in the meeting hall, a dance with drinks and food, a beauty contest featuring the town's young women, and a great raffle of donated delicacies, bottles of wine and toys and cosmetics.

But, oh. One thing after another happens with sweet irony, The banner burns. The girls don't want to take part. And slowly, item by item, things begin to go missing from the raffle table...first a chocolate cake, then a bottle of cognac, a head cheese, a chocolate ball. "Every one is stealing here," the wife of one blustering fireman tells him., "and you only watch, you old honest idiot!" She's the one with the stolen headcheese in her bag. The firemen's entertainment committee, a group of puffed-up aging men, dither and bicker endlessly over the details and the problems. "Busts...busts are important" is one thing they all agree on as they examine candidates for the beauty contest.

At one point the head of the firemen's committee stops the music and tells the crowd that some items have been taken from the raffle table. He says the lights will go out for a few minutes and he expects the items to be returned. The lights go off. The lights come back on. And even more items from the table are missing.

It all looks like the ball will eventually end in a shambles, but then they hear an alarm. A farm house is on fire nearby. The firemen and the townsfolk rush to the fire and manage to rescue an aged farmer in his underwear. But the fire engine is stuck in the snow. There's no water pressure. The farm house burns down to the ground. But at least the firemen find a way to comfort the cold, old man. While he watches his possessions burn, they suggest he move his chair closer to the fire to keep warm.

This is such a wry and gentle comedy, so sweet-natured, that it is reassuring to realize that the leaden hand of Czech authoritarianism is now long gone, and that this movie remains for all of us.

This Criterion presentation looks and sounds just fine. There is an excellent interview with Milos Forman.

The Firemen's Ball is one of a handful of Czech films that defined the "New Wave" era, and had a profound influence on filmmakers and critics around the world. Other important films of this period include Forman's "Loves of a Blonde," Jiri Menzel's "Closely Watched Trains," and "Larks on a String" (a Menzel film that hasn't been released on DVD, to my knowledge). But Firemen's Ball is a personal favorite, probably due to the fact that I lived in the Czech Republic for five years, and attended similar village balls. The characters in this wicked satire are portrayed with humor, affection and above all a level of realism that remains unsurpassed. In the end, Forman does what he does best -- he leaves you torn between laughter and tears. This film is a must-see, especially for those who are interested in understanding how filmmaking evolved in the 60s.

This movie will take us to a little village in 1960's in the Czechoslovakia. It is a story about ordinary people living very ordinary lives. Every year they go to the Firaman's Ball organized by local fire department, but this year things get little out of control. This movie is very unique for few reasons. There are not too many real actors. The people are actually locals from the village, where the movie was filmed. They act themselves, which gives the movie great authenticity. The story is wonderfull,exposing not too good side of human nature, yet it's very entertaining.I would compare it to the movie American Beauty, taking place fourty years ago. You maight not like everything you see, but at the same time you realize how much naked true the movie is.

Hori, ma panenko (Firemen's Ball) is perhaps the finest example of the fresh, amusing, and humane style of the Czech New Wave. Milos Forman's movie is funny, sweet, and highly memorable. This is one of my very favorite films. Look especially for Josef Kolb and Milada Jezkova as an honest fireman and his perhaps less-than-honest wife; they are especially charming in this fine, mostly non-professional cast of real Czech firemen and townspeople.

Watching "The firemen's ball" as a teenager on German television in the late sixties, I recall that I never laughed about any other film as much as I have about this one - and I wasn't even stoned! An absolute must for people who enjoy rolling around on the floor for a good healthy laugh. Not being able to remember the actual title for many years, I started browsing on amazon.com and was thrilled to find it. I recommend this to anybody who loves to "let their hair down" every once and while.

Milos Forman's 'fireman's ball' is a classic among political satires.. It is remarkable that a film so subtle would be condemned by the czech government. It, in fact, appears harmless to our sensibilities today.. this indicates just how repressive the czech government was at the time.. Not to indicate any superiority in the U.s. (think of all the books and movies that have sadly been censored and banned from schools and the like here)... The fact is this film is a great satire of a desperate nation - forman comments on the common phrase of the time - if you do not steal you are stealing from your family.
The technical aspects of the film are also spot on.. It is perfectly formed and sculpted at 73 min.. as elegant as a Borges short story.. highly recommended viewing.

On one level, this is an absurdist comic masterpiece and on the other it is a scathing political satire and parable.

Here you have a bunch of firemen who are on one hand hopelessly stupid, incompetent and corrupt, and on the other hand they are insufferably pompous, self-important, and frauds---and the film shows just how completely they muck up something so simple as a village dance, retirement party, lottery and beauty paegeant, while completely failing in their official capacity as firemen on the same night.

Forman's obvious target was the Czech Communist party in the late 1960s; the film was immediately banned when the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 to crush the atempted "communism with a human face" reforms of Alexander Dubcek while the world stood by and watched, just as it did when Hitler's tanks rolled in some 30 years earlier. As a result Forman fled to the US where he's continued an illustrious filmmaking career.

What's interesting is that Forman shot the film on location, in a tiny and remote Czech town using actual Czech firemen and villagers---this lends an unmistakably authentic quality to the whole film. The DVD version has been colored, but the original was in black and white. There is an excellent special feature interview of Forman speaking about his experience making the film and afterwards, as well as a brief feature with his cinematographer who oversaw the colorization and digital transfer of the original film.

If you are aware of the history behind the film, you'll see it as a tragedy. If you are not, it will probably come off as an almost Woody Allen-ish comedy of errors. Either way a very enjoyable 73 minutes!

How to get busted in a totalitarian regime: make a film like Firemen's Ball. Just watched that last night. Amazed. Brilliant transfer. May not be as poignant as Loves of a Blonde or his later works, but a rousing critique of the regime with some really funny scenes. But, again, that transfer amazed me. Hard to believe it's a 35 year old czech film. Highly recommended. Enjoyed Forman's comments on the film and the debacle that ensued. He was almost locked up for 10 years and was luckily helped out by none other than Francois Truffaut! Beautiful.