Customer Reviews

Up and Down

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

 

 

Jan Hrebejk is quickly turning into the best post-New Wave Czech director. Unfortunately, my favorite movie of his "Pelisky" (Cozy Dens) is not available in the States, but you can get Divided We Fall.

I should preface this review by saying that the last century has been very 'up and down' for the Czechs. After gaining independence from Austria-Hungary after WWI, they lost it twenty years later when Hitler invaded. After the Nazis, there was a communist takeover, followed by a gradual political liberalization until 1968, when the Eastern Bloc armies invaded and instituted a crackdown on reform. Twenty-one years later, the Czechs had a bloodless revolution and instituted a democratic republic.

Why the history lesson? Well, at several different points during the 20th century, their entire culture was endangered, whether by Nazis or the USSR. So you'd think that once the Czechs joined the European Union, they'd be in the clear, right?

Wrong. EU membership brings its own problems, not the least of which is the flow of refugees and immigrants from poorer countries into the Czech Republic. Czech culture now faces the threat of globalization, of a multicultural/multi-ethnic society that's no different from any other.

This may be lost to a casual viewer with little knowledge of Czech history. During the many occupations of the country during the 20th century, there was mass EMIgration, as people fled first the Nazis, then the Communists 20+ years later. Mass immigration represents an entirely new development for the Czechs, a new historical trauma with which they must come to grips.

Of course, the issue of whether or not globalization is something ANY of us can resist is another matter entirely, but I'm not trying to editorialize here, just provide some context for understanding the film.

The film opens with a truckload of Indians being smuggled into the country. Needless to say, there are some who resent the intrusion of foreigners into their culture--namely, racist soccer hooligans, as well as a pair of thieves who nevertheless disguise themselves as members of the races they despise in order to pick pockets at the Prague airport.

Emilia Vasaryova's character resents the intrusion of foreigners, but has no qualms about buying low-priced shoes at the Vietnamese market. In other words, she doesn't mind getting a bargain (on labor, products, etc.) from immigrants, but she doesn't want to LIVE near them. Such is the tortured logic of racism, I suppose, and in this character many Americans (if they're honest with themselves) might recognize their Czech doppelganger. This particular character embodies the logic of Dan Barta's song "Hello, America", which plays during the opening credits.

Up and Down loosely weaves together multiple storylines involving, among others, one aforementioned soccer hooligan with racist friends and a mentally unstable wife, an emigrant to Australia whose ex-girlfriend is now with his father (and with whom she has had a child!), idiotic thieves, a Burmese martial-arts master, and so on.

The film remains ambivalent toward most of the characters, but never fully condemns any of them, showing their rationale for making potentially destructive decisions. Although UP AND DOWN is a comedy (and contrary to other reviewers, I thought the film was hilarious), it also deals fairly honestly with the question of globalization, immigration, and racism without too heavy a hand. I can only imagine how badly this movie would have turned out in the hands of an American director!

I saw this film two days ago and some of the characters are still in my thoughts, for better or for worse. It's rare nowadays when a movie gives you a cast of characters that touch you on some level. Highly recommended.

Hrebejk garnered critical kudos, and a great deal of popular attention, for his Holocaust-based "Divided We Fall" (2000). Like "Life Is Beautiful," the film was a black comedy that suffered from being neither funny nor sufficiently moving. "Up and Down" is more successful, and as a result is more believable and more artful.

The movie's opening sequence sets the tone for the politically charged melodrama that follows. In the middle of the night, two smugglers transporting illegal immigrants across the border into the Czech Republic chaotically force everyone out into the dark countryside. Later they discover that they've left a couple's baby in the truck, which they sell at their seedy pawn shop to an emotionally unstable and barren woman named Mila (Natasa Burger).

But the baby threatens to get Mila's husband Franta (Jiri Machacek) into trouble with the police. On probation for some unspecified violence he committed as a rowdy soccer fan, the couple isn't allowed to adopt the baby. As if this threat weren't trouble enough, Franta's soccer hoodlum friends refuse to associate with him because the baby is Indian.

Intersecting with these two storylines -- which suffer from relatively exaggerated acting and plot twists that border on the unbelievable -- is a third that is by far the most successful strand of the film. Halfway through the film we meet Martin Horecky (Petr Forman, the son of celebrated director Milos Forman), a Czech who emigrated to Australia after his family broke apart, having fallen from the Czech upper class. This plot is the emotional center of "Up and Down," providing most of the film's poignancy and best social commentary.

Martin returns to Prague to visit his cancer-stricken father Otto, a once-successful university professor. The family reunion is edgy, to say the least; Otto abandoned Martin's mother Vera for his much younger mistress Hana (Ingrid Timkova), who was once Martin's girlfriend. Though the story might sound like fodder for a soap opera, Hrebejk's sympathetic characters brilliantly carry the segment.

The method with which Hrebejk unites and separates the film's storylines is reminiscent of Robert Altman's great ensemble dramas, especially of P.T. Anderson's 1999 epic "Magnolia." But the transitions in "Up and Down" are not nearly as seamless as Altman's editing. The dichotomy between the over-the-top absurdities of Mila and Franta, and the far more believable family drama of Martin, can be jarring. Yet the film's most dramatic moments provide a glimpse into a great film buried beneath its contradictions.

A lengthy scene in the middle of the film, which unites Martin's extended family in one tense luncheon, is a masterpiece of controlled chaos. The discussion centers not only on their family troubles, but on the struggle of the Czech old guard -- Otto and Vera -- in maintaining their social status despite decreasing fortunes and swarms of migrants. Their bigoted attitudes toward immigrants collide against Hana's liberalism in a heated shouting match. The far more reasonable younger generation, Martin and his half-sister Lenka, receive the bulk of the audience's sympathy as they resist their strong-minded parents.

Hrebejk allows his characters to engage in histrionics -- throughout the film, he exhibits little subtlety or restraint with his dialogue -- yet the climactic scene remains completely engrossing and believable. It doesn't hurt that he's working with very fine actors. The scene is emotionally fraught melodrama without sentimentalization or stereotype, and it is by far the most successful of the film.

Hrebejk, who has been making movies since the late 1980s, possesses many gifts as a writer-director: Colorful and interesting characters, fluid pacing and a surreal but beautiful visual style. But the film, like "Divided We Fall," is hampered by unnecessarily outlandish and only moderately successful comedy. If Hrebejk abandons his tendencies toward comedy in favor of hard-hitting drama, he is certainly capable of making a masterpiece.

(Originally published in the Yale Daily News, March 25, 2005.)

The movie is similar to Crash. It is a comedy/drama about the subject of immigration, emigration and racial mixing among modern day Czechs. The performances are expertly acted and very moving. I love the storyline of a skinhead footballer who tries to "adopt" a colored boy when his wife buys him and brings him home. It seems when it comes to having a son, color doesn't really matter all that much, even to a committed Ayran!

This is a show that has a serious plot but is really funny throughout the whole film. Classic Czech personality---life is serious and oppressive but there is still humor in the cracks and crevices of life.

LOVED IT!!

This film is way underrated here. It's really very nicely done, with a sharp script and spot-on acting, soundtrack (and sound in general), decoration (especially loved the moving doll collection!), editing--everything works. I can see why some don't like it, having expected something else, but those looking for a subtle, intelligent but not intellectualized comedy/drama won't be disappointed. The comedy is more of manners than slapstick, with lots of delicious, delightful touches, some absurdist, most very real.

The film takes up a number of story threads and brings them all together in a satisfying if only partly happy way, not too hard to follow. The unifying theme of immigration/emigration/race is handled from many angles, with apt twists and ironies. The characters, from a spectrum of social heights, are well drawn and played. We're made to care about most of them, even if some of their pretenses or weaknesses are poked at in funny ways at times. We feel both their triumphs and tragedies.

Emília Vásáryová, as a spurned wife, is especially good here, bringing a perfect balance and nuance to a complex role that could easily have made her unsympathetic. Her dialogue is also exceptionally well honed.

The 18-minute making-of piece has the usual behind-the-scenes stuff, moderately entertaining and informative.

There's a cameo in the film by Vaclev Havel, by the way, not played up; it's just there in the logical place for it.

This one can be a bit polarising depending on the viewer's expectations. Watched it last night thinking it would be a comedy, but I'd have to say it veers more towards drama with a couple of funny moments. The plot is sometimes a bit clunky but quite clever. The different (intersecting) stories make an interesting assessment of race, migration, and class issues in present-day Europe. Some of the acting is quite good, particularly the lonely mother (Vera) and the dim-witted yet endearing Franta. Worth watching when you are in the mood for a good foreign film.

This movie was another example of a really weird modern Czech movie. They often seem to think this way of American and British pop culture and we really don't want to see the details of their weird soccer club people. This movie sucks!! I wish that we could get more of their movies from the eighties like "Slnce, Seno a Jahody" (Sun, Hay and Strawberries) subtitled in English.

The summary of this movie makes it sound like a light-hearted happy-go-lucky type of film. Unfortunately, it is exactly the opposite. Aside from the funny scene involving the Colonel, I didn't see much humor. Mainly this movie revolves around the serious (not funny) topics of neglect, racism, and self-worth. At first I thought that maybe I just wasn't getting the Czech type of humor, but by the end I was thoroughly depressed. Maybe if my expectations had been different I could give this more than 2 stars. If you like deep, thoughful movies, then this might suit you, but don't expect Sideways part 2.

I tried to watch this dvd, but after about 10 minutes gave up. It was impossible to watch because only bits of the conversations between the characters were translated. I've seen some poorly subtitled foreign films, but this was by far the worst. Don't bother until a dvd with decent subtitles is released.

For me, my low rating of this film might be, at least in part, the result of having wrong expectations about it.

I had heard this film described as 'charming' and 'funny,' and was expected a comedy, albeit a somewhat black one. But despite the good acting, this film left a sour taste in my mouth.

It is a dismal and agonizingly dreary film about people you never come to care about. I am an avid foreign language film buff, but I could not see the merit in this crude, hate-ridden and depressing story.