Lima

Innovative animation, reflecting the drawings of the late Gothic and early Renaissance. A bold artistic achievement for its time.

A funny film about the clash of drill vs. creative flow. A brilliant idea, taken to the absolute extreme. Superb back in its day, and now it belongs to the the Hall of Fame of animation.

When the film ended, a woman in the row behind me said: “That wasn’t funny at all, it was awfully dry!” Yes, unentertaining blaxploitation, poorly directed and edited. William Marshall (Blacula), originally a stage actor, clearly doesn't understand the mess he's in, so he plays dutifully and with passion. He wasted his energy in a bad movie. But the film was successful, and there was a sequel: Scream, Blacula, Scream.

A mediocre script for Jiří Brdečka’s standards, but otherwise an easily watchable film. If you're looking for a historical epic, look elsewhere, this is an intimate film with 8 actors and about 20 extras. Fortunately, despite its period, the film isn't afflicted with a constructionist itch or period schematicism, but it fizzles out of your head before you can say "lost children".

If there is any reason to watch this film, that would be mainly Celie Johnson’s performance. One long look at her unusual face, accompanied by her inner monologue, and she had me completely wrapped around her finger. I won't deny that I expected a little more from one of the most iconic romances, perhaps a stronger spark between the two protagonists, but the fact that they don't fall into each other's arms and shed crocodile tears in every other scene only adds to the sensitivity and believability of the film as a whole. I would have liked a more emotional ending, perhaps, but whatever, it was very good.

A kind of made-in-Brno take on Goddard's Breathless. At the same time, it’s Michálek's weakest film, though the fault is not his. The filmmaking and acting are far from shabby, but the story is terribly empty, as is the main character.

"I want you to get me a sawed off shotgun. We're gonna kill ourselves a coupla niggers." If we ever send an information probe to alien civilizations that would encompass all human activity, we should not miss Foxy Brown as a representative of blaxploitation. Everything is in the right place here. Whites are the biggest cunts, usually mafiosi, drug dealers, or sociopaths, while Foxy and her "niggaz brothers" are the epitome of fairness. B-movie icon Pam Grier is as we all know her best: either naked, or kicking bad guys' asses, or… naked again. Among other things, she takes down a couple of redneck farmers who raped her, deals with a gang of drug dealers, and cuts off her arch-nemesis's pride. Jack Hill made entertaining, brisk films and this is a must for all fans of B-movie poetics.

Guilty pleasure. Historically and with the presented realities, the same travesty as if the Czechs had filmed, for example, the attack on Pearl Harbour in their own conditions. Here, the assassination of Heydrich is not committed by paratroopers, but by a single resistance fighter, a certain Dr. Svoboda. Heydrich is a caricature of evil, and the depiction of martial law and the resistance are almost an unwanted parody. The movie doesn't even focus on the assassination itself; for the vast majority of the runtime, we watch the Czech resistance attempt to blame Heydrich’s killing on an outed confidant, with Ocean’s Eleven-style trickery and subterfuge. The Americans, well… it's all so earnest, so blatantly stupid, but nice. A nice Hollywood recognition of the importance of the Czechoslovak resistance. For the record, this film was a favourite among the top of the SS at the time, especially Reich Protector K.H. Frank.

David Lean is said to have had no sense of humour, so this is one of the only two comedies he made, and his third collaboration with successful playwright Noel Coward. To make this comedy farce cinematically watchable and to wipe away the theatrical gloss, Lean altered it a bit, added locations, but that badly upset Coward, who rejected the result out of hand. I think it was unwarranted. The result is quite a enjoyable conversational movie, with snappy dialogue here and there and, as a bonus, a young and still slim Rex Harrison. I just don't understand the Oscar for special effects, the four short interludes were nothing special at that time and you can see the same thing but executed better in the 12 years older The Invisible Man.

Given the reputation that precedes this famed blaxploitation piece, I expected more. The film is based on a supposedly terrible novel, which may explain things. I was expecting more fun, more B-movie flavour, more violence, nudity and action, which came to the fore only at the end, when the film culminates in a 15-minute chase (which swallowed more money than the rest of the movie together) with two cars, a helicopter and a speedboat. Otherwise, there’s not much going on, really. Now, I’m not saying Shaft is slacking off. In one lean, macho scene, he picks up a bimbo in 10 seconds, then shoots down a helicopter with a shotgun, but otherwise… the expectations were high, but went unfulfilled.