|
Loves of a Blonde (1965, Czech.)
(aka Lásky Jedné Plavovlásky)
In Milos Forman's coming-of-age romantic drama (his
second feature film), a Czech New Wave nominee for Best Foreign Language
Film - a sometimes comedic and bittersweet tale of young love in
Communist Czechoslovakia:
- the film's opening (and closing) bookends: an unnamed
girl (Táña Zelinková) - the protagonist's
factory-worker girlfriend, who sang and played her acoustic guitar,
with a Beatles-esque rock and roll love-song and its catchy refrain: "And
I love her so, yeah, yeah, yeah, So this great love of mine turned
me into a hooligan"
- the funny and amusing dance mixer sequence in the
Czech factory town of Zruč -upon-Sazava, demonstrating the awkwardness
and bungling between the sexes; when one paunchy, balding, married,
middle-aged People's Army reservist (a member of troops who were
accidentally recruited to provide a better balance of the sexes -
girls outnumbered boys 16 to one in the town) nervously removed his
wedding ring - but when he stood up, it dropped through his pants
leg to the floor and noisily rolled away; on his hands and knees,
he crawled under a table where a trio of young girls was seated and
upset them, before he found his runaway ring; afterwards, he sat
next to bored, solitary young blonde shoe factory worker Andula (Hana
Brejchová) and asked her to dance
- the sequence of Andula's chance meeting and flirtations
with the thin, shy pianist playboyish Milda (Vladimír Pucholt)
who was performing in the dance's musical jazz band; afterwards during
a one-night stand with him, he first clumsily repeatedly fought with
a uncooperative window shade; in bed with him, she first told him: "But
I don't trust you," but during love-making, she quickly affirmed: "I
do trust you. I've never trusted anyone so much before"; afterwards,
he annoyingly vowed his love multiple times:
"I told you at least a hundred times...Didn't I? I don't have
a girl in Prague. I don't have a girl in Prague. I don't have a girl
in Prague..."; during their relaxed conversation, she also asked
him: "Why did you say I was angular?"; his rambling answer
was that her body shape was "like a guitar...but one made by Picasso...When
painting a woman, he painted her eye here, and her leg somewhere else";
to assure her, he added that it was "good" that she was like
a Picasso guitar; he also offhandedly invited her to visit him in his
home city of Prague before they parted
One-Night Stand Between Andula and Milda
|
|
|
|
- after being cruelly seduced and experiencing a heartthrob
crush, the sequence of naive Andula's impulsive departure from
her job and town, packing her suitcase, hitchhiking, and her unannounced
visit to Milda's Prague home
- the uncomfortable, harrowing evening's visit with
his questioning parents - a ranting mother and bumbling father (Milada
Ježková & Josef Šebánek) while waiting
for Milda's arrival; once he came home drunk later that night, the
son was ordered to sleep in his parent's bedroom to avoid any impropriety
- leading to an absurdly comic scene of the three sharing two overcrowded
beds (with constant bickering and uncomfortableness), and her realization
behind a closed door, alone and crying, that Milda's family didn't
care about her (she overheard the mother say that she was an unwanted
visitor: "I don't give a damn about her. She ruined my evening")
- the closing melancholy plucking of a guitar, playing Ava
Maria, with images of the resolute and disappointed Andula
having returned home and continuing to sadly work in the shoe factory
|
Unnamed Guitarist Girlfriend
The Runaway Ring Sequence at Dance Mixer
Andula - Blonde Shoe Factory Worker
Andula Sitting with Middle-Aged Reservist at Mixer
Milda Sharing Bed With His Parents: ("This is Terrible")
During Milda's Visit
Melancholic and Disappointed
|