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Loves of a Blonde (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Milos Forman made a name for himself with Czech new wave films that challenged the old order with slyly defiant themes of freedom in all its personal and political manifestations. Two of his landmark early films have been restored in image and sound and digitally transferred in clean, crisp-looking prints with improved English subtitles.

Forman earned his first Academy Award © nomination with "LOVES OF A BLOND". In 1966, when it premiered in America at the New York Film Festival, it was an immediate sensation. Even Bosley Crowther, the notoriously tight-laced chief critic for the pompous New York Times could hardly contain himself when he experienced this efficacious, subtle social satire disguised as an exploration of adolescent romantic desire. The story is set in the rural Czech town of Zruc. With a ratio of sixteen women to every man, the chances of factory worker Andula finding love are indeed slim. That is until her giggling girl friends talk her into going to a mixer where she meets Rilda, a devil-may-care piano player from Prague. As the three acts unfold, there's a feeling of real time as issues of intimacy, confinement, dreams, delusions, reality and freedom are explored in the context of their relationship And there's nothing preachy or heavy-handed like some other films of the era that are infected with a deadly hidden political agenda that numbs any entertainment value. This one is pure. Universal in its humanity, the romance of Andula and Milda mirrors all our hopes and fears. Extras include a new video interview with Forman, a deleted scenes and new English subtitles.

In many ways, this film is linked to another that is worth noting.

"THE FIREMAN'S BALL" takes place in tiny Czech village of the 60s. Every year the firmen put on a ball and this is a look at the whacky goings. Real townspeople mostly play themselves in this dark comic satire of life under Soviet style communism. Funny, scary and meaningful. The tone is not unlike "American Beauty" in that the naked truth is sharply revealed.

High praise to Criterion for continuing the tradition of gathering the greatest films from the finest filmmakers around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements.

The premise of the story is funny-- a village full of women factory workers who live crammed together in dorms needs men so the factory owner charmingly pleads with the military to send an attachment of men to the town to give his girls something to do with their evenings but when the men show up they are all middle aged, the young girls are disappointed. What is even funnier is Formans attitude and style which borrows some tricks in cutting and impromptu time shifts from the French New Wave directors but adds to this famous style a lucid charm that is irresistable. The cutting techniques innovated by the French New Wave directors emphasized the looseness and spontaneity of life but Formans sense of humor is such that he cannot help parodying the techniques he is emulating. For instance in the dance hall sequence the camera slowly pans the feet of the band members which makes for an absurdly enjoyable incidental. French New Wave in technique but the humor is charmingly Czech in tone. The storyline makes some poignant observations about the new social mores of the 1960's--a married soldier trying to meet girls drops his wedding ring and proceeds to watch it roll across the dance floor where it falls to rest beneath a table of single girls. The title character dreams of a young man to take her away from her grim life as factory worker living in a dorm full of girls but since the men she meets do not take her away she decides to take matters into her own hands and follows one to his hometown. But arriving there she is greeted only with more grim reality. She returns home to her factory job and dorm and finds solace in make-believe as she tells her girlfriends a version of the events which conforms to her dreams. Very touching, wise, and satisfying film from a filmmaker who exhibits a fondness for all his characters. No one escapes Formans lighthearted satire nor his empathy which embraces all forms of life, young and old. Remarkably light and poignant at the same time. Czech and Polish films of this period strike an irresistable chord and are some of the most irresistable films ever made. Also recommended: Closely Watched Trains.

This Criterion edition includes an interveiw with Forman that sheds a lot of light on how this film was constructed. The use of long singles, especially when the pianist's mother and father are in dialogue, was undoubtedly influenced by budget constraints, but Forman makes an aesthetic choice to linger on the mother while she wears down all around her with her world-weary nagging. The effect is that you get to share what the husband, son and protagonist are going through; "Get me away from this woman, please!" The expressions on the faces of both the professionals and amateurs in the cast tell the story not only of drudgery under an oppressive political regime, but the hopes and despairs that people suffer in the kind of fraught romantic episodes the story is woven around. Andula's story is not quite compelling enough to justify the price tag on this DVD - there is a whole episode involving a missing ring and an enraged suitor that pops up and disappears without much relevance. Modern cinema-goers expect more meat to a story, I think. However, budding filmmakers will learn a lot about pacing, reaction from actors, not moving the camera, and the difference between directing professional and non-professional actors (in the Extras interview).

A comedy of sorts about first love, though ultimately a sad movie, too, as befitting the subject. A factory town outside of Prague has a mismatch of 16 girls for every boy, so a group of army recruits are sent to liven things up. Only they're a wash-out, and the scene with the girls trying to get out of having to go with these duds and vice-versa is pretty funny.

At a dance, Andula (Hana Brejchova) falls for the piano player Milda (Vladimir Pucholt) and spends the night with him. He is just interested in a one-night stand and uses all the come-on lines he can think of to get her to spend the night with him, including his wish for her to come visit him in Prague and meet his parents. Andula naively falls for all this and goes to his house in Prague, where Milda's parents bully her for being there (they bully Milda, too). He does nothing to defend her and she leaves - but tells all her friends back home what a great time she had.

The movie is very comical in spots and very honest, but Andula is so naive and used, and so accepting of the abuse dished out to her, that we feel sad watching her and pity her greatly. It's this mixture of humor and pity that makes the movie so remarkable. We also pity Czechoslovakia, which appears utterly depressing a place as depicted here. An excellent movie, the one that made Milos Forman a highly respected director.

Andula (Hana Brejchova) is a young factory worker who lives in a dorm with other young women in the dreary town of Zruc during Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Life is empty and unfulfilling, and boys are scarce. Andula, a girl with a sad past of her own that is only hinted at, seeks escape from hopelessness in love.

Lest the above description seem too depressing, let me add that this film is often very funny, particularly in a scene where a trio of middle-aged reservists approach Andula and her friends at a social mixer. Director Milos Forman states in an interview that part of his motivation for making films was in reaction against the absurd socialist realism school of the time, which depicted socialist societies as paradises on earth. In this seemingly slight film about a young girl's romance, he shows much of the unhappiness and hopelessness of such a society while also presenting his characters with great warmth and affection. The actors in this film are wonderful and natural, with great faces. Forman observes human behavior very closely and emerges with a story about people with whom everyone can empathize, delivering once again the valuable lesson of any great film--no matter where or when we were born, we are more like each other than unlike./

Milos Forman doesn't get the respect he deserves amongst the ranks of the great foreign directors. This is probably because he has made mostly English language films, but I would still put him up there. Having seen this film though, it makes sense. One has to look no further than Loves of a Blonde to see this man easily had the potential to make great movies...in any language.

Loves of a Blonde focuses on a few days in the life of teenager named Andula. She lives in a town with a female-to-male ratio of sixteen to one. At a singles mixer, while several bumbling military men try to hit on Andula and her two girlfriends, she meets a piano player named Rilda. Things pick up quickly with Rilda and she eventually hitches to Prague to hook up with him. The situation turns out to be a little different than she expected as she finds him still living with his conservative parents.

This film is charming. Forman is on top of his game blending comedy and social comment almost seamlessly. The narrative structure is unique too. At the center of the picture is Andula, she is the antagonist for most of the film's action, but the film allows the supporting players to be the main focus of the scenes they are in. Andula watches, she listens, she reacts, and while the story is ultimately about her coming of age, it is her interaction with the people around her that make this story interesting.

From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Amadeus to The People vs. Larry Flynt, Milos Forman always delivers. This film is no exception, and it has stood the test of time. So if you like those films check out Loves of a Blonde.

Don't get me wrong. I love AMADEUS and CUCKOO's NEST etc. But this was just such a quietly funny and enjoyable film, I have to say it may almost be my favorite from Milos Forman. I think I first heard it spoken of by James Mangold(in the commentary for his film HEAVY). Mangold was in awe of Milos Forman and also enjoyed Ozu's films. That being said, I was quite excited for the dvd to be released, and was not at all dissapointed in the film. It's really funny and heartbreaking-I loved it.

Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is a wonderful movie...sweet and awful. Sweet, because Forman gives us no one we can dislike as he tells us the story of Andula (Hana Brejchova), a young factory worker in the depressing town of Zruc, making endless pairs of shoes alongside dozens of other young women. Not Milda (Vladimir Puchott), the young piano player who comes to town with a band, seduces Andula, and then leaves for Prague. Not the factory bosses, or the other young women who are bored and eager for husbands (they outnumber the men 16 to one). Not even the regiment of aging, smoking, unattractive soldiers who were based in Zruc to lower the odds a bit. Not Milda's parents, who one day find Andula at their apartment door, suitcase in hand, because she gave her heart to Milda and took him seriously when he told her to come visit him in Prague sometime.

And awful, in a desperate sort of way, because Forman let's us see the lives all these people live in a Communist society that is petty, officious and incompetent. We can smile at a lecture an older woman gives the young factory girls about maintaining their honor and dignity with boys; we can even smile when two young leaders stand up and call for a vote to dedicate all of them to this idea; and we can smile when every girl in the room raises her hand to vote in favor, none against and none abstaining. Then we realize it might not be a good idea to snicker at a vote in favor of honor when a boss thinks it would be a good idea.

There are two long set pieces in the movie that are terrific. The first is a dance in town, held by officials so that the soldiers can meet the girls. We move around with the camera, listening in to the appalled girls as they really see these desperate, coarse guys, and listening to the guys as they eye the girls, drink for courage and, in one case, surreptitiously remove a wedding ring and then dropping it on the floor for all to see. There's that safe, chirpy dance music...the angling to get a girl to take a walk in the woods...the possibility that the bored girl will agree. The second set piece is in Milda's apartment in Prague. Andula has arrived unannounced. Milda is playing with the band at a nightspot and there are only Milda's parents to welcome her. And welcome they don't. They've heard nothing about her. It's clear Milda is in for a surprise when he gets home that night. Milda's mother is not someone you'd want for a mother-in-law. Milda's father is more realistic but not exactly comforting. Their apartment is a living space of ancient appliances, chipped paint and doilies. The nagging opinions of the mother and the exasperated gruffness from the father make us smile. Of course, they have the opposite effect on Andula, who now is close to tears. Forman seems to be quietly pointing out to us what living in Communist Czechoslovakia has come to mean. Poor Andula. Will she have a happy future with Milda? Or will she return to Zruc...wiser, perhaps, but with nothing better ahead for her. Watch the movie and hope for the best. Andula is a nice person.

Loves of a Blonde is so poignant and sweet it hurts a little. Forman used mainly non-actors for most the roles and he had a genius for either eliminating their self-consciousness or for making it work in the context of the story. The movie at the basic level of story-telling is effective because the people, from Andula to the bit parts of people at the dance, look and act like people who aren't acting. We wind up liking most of them and feeling indulgent toward the rest.

The Communist regime eventually caught on to the picture of life in Czechoslovakia which Forman presented with such apparent good humor in Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball (Criterion Collection). It was happy to see Forman leave the country during the crackdown in 1968. Anyone who thinks Forman, when he came to America, lost his subversive sympathy for people who are at the mercy of institutions and governments needs to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ragtime or The People vs. Larry Flynt.

The Criterion release looks just fine. There is a video interview with Forman that was made in 2001.

"Loves of a blonde" is a bitter, nostalgic and crude gaze around the lives, customs, social prejudices and naïve hopes of Czech Socialist Republic by then (1965), hilariously supported and featured as a modern fairy tale.

A very young woman falls in love with a pianist in occasion of a party. And since that impetuous love affair, she will make the best she can in order to maintain alive and materialize the eternal promises love, the lovers use to say.

The picture mirrors in a memorable and smart introduction, the affective necessities of the human being in that initial dialogue between an avid entrepreneur and an officer.

The nothing glamorous meeting between her and the parents of his fiancée, will arouse al kind of laughs due the sudden clash of two well different generations.

A film that breathes humankind and reminds us the love is in everywhere, no matter social barriers or contrasted points of view: the love will always will find an exit door.

Remarkable film that although is a bit dated, constitutes a brilliant psychological exploration about the state of social fermentation that it was nestling in those years.

Milos Forman's "Loves of a Blonde" which he made in Czechoslovakia in 1965 way before "Cuckoo Nest" and "Amadeus" tells a very simple bitter-sweet tale about a teenaged girl who works in a shoe factory in a small town. With sixteen girls to one man - her chances to find a man of her dreams were not very high. One evening, she meets an attractive and young piano player who tells her about Prague and compares her to a guitar that could've been painted by Picasso. After they spend the night together, he leaves and she travels to Prague to find him. The film has been one of my favorites for many years and my opinion did not change after I saw it again recently - funny, sad, tender, and realistic film about searching for love, broken promises, shattered hearts, and universality of hope.

4.5/5