GRADE: 9
A factory manager in rural Czechoslovakia bargains with the army to send men to the area, to boost the morale of his young female workers, deprived of male company since the local boys have been conscripted. The army sends reservists, mostly married middle-aged men – and the local beauty Andula, spurns those bold enough to try to win her, for the jazz pianist, newly come from Prague to perform.
Original Title: Lásky jedné plavovlásky
Director: Milos Forman
Country: Czechoslovakia
THOUGHTS:
A lovely, bittersweet story of young love and sex in communist Czechoslovakia. Like the best of the French New Wave films, which themselves borrowed from the Neorealists, it combines a naturalistic, documentary-style feel with a scripted narrative, and its combination of professional and non-professional actors feels like a blueprint for social realist films to come, like those of Ken Loach. It’s playful and charming, critiquing Czech society, as well as the social mores, of the time, while looking compassionately and tenderly on its naive central character.