• Horí, má panenko (The Fireman’s Ball)

5/22/21 (Sat)

Milos Forman’s 1967 farce was his final film in then-Czechoslovakia before absconding to greater glory in Hollywood (Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, Hair, Larry Flynt). Firemen in a small town are putting on a ball to honor their retiring president, which falls into turmoil due to their petty individual concerns and paranoia all around. At the opening, a worker putting up a banner is left hanging dangerously from the ceiling when his colleague, distracted by a trifling argument over a stolen cake, takes his hands off the ladder. Others run over to help, but we find that they are less concerned with the desperate man than with the banner and the party’s image. That sets the tone for the film, which is one rapid crisis after another until the last ironic image. It is really about the bureaucratic mindset of the organizers and crumbling values of society under the Communist regime.

The satire is overdone, and the series of sketches could have been tightened to greater effect. Still, the actors were well cast. Many non-actors were evidently used for the townspeople, which worked extremely well. The highlights were the discovery that a top official’s wife has pilfered the headcheese in her purse (noting unashamedly that everyone else is doing it), the arrangement of the beauty contest by the lecherous old men with decidedly non-beautiful women (the swimsuit scene was hilarious), and the waiter doggedly chasing down patrons who have rushed out to watch a massive fire next door. When the crowd is concerned that an elderly man who was removed from the burning home may be cold, their solution is to move him back closer to the flames. They decide to help him by giving him all the raffle tickets, which prove of no use because (1) it’s not money and (2) all the prizes have been stolen. The most pointed scene comes at the end when the firemen, finding the elderly retiring chairman still waiting patiently in the empty ballroom, present him with his gift, only to discover when he opens it that the gift has been stolen as well. I wish the entire film had been at that level.

A good movie lies in there somewhere, and the chaos is captured well. But it gives the impression of trying too hard. Worth watching, but patience required.