review by Vinoo
Language : Czech
Director : Jiri Menzel
‘Capricious Summer’ is a summer in the life of three men, Antonin who owns a swimming farm, Canon Roch the priest and Major Hugo a retired colonel. Life is routine and peaceful in the little town with the three men lazing in the pool and reeling out their own brand of philosophy laced with sarcasm. It begins with unusual rains in the middle of summer, while the three men are lazing in their swimming pool. Everything goes on normally, until that is a circus caravan, with the suave tightrope walker, Ernie, comes visiting. Ernie is not very talented but the fact that he has the very pretty assistant, Anna, makes him someone to reckon with and the bored town has new-found excitement. A slight change of routine is on the cards, with each one of the three men, in their own inimitable way, trying their luck to woo the pretty Anna. Meanwhile not to be left out of the action, Antonin’s wife, Katherine, starts living in with Ernie. Jiri Menzel, the director, plays the role of the tightrope walker. The first shots of rain drops in the pool and raindrops falling into three wine glasses of different shapes almost representative of the three men is memorable. There is not much of a story in the film but the mannerisms and the sarcasm-filled conversations makes this a must watch, ideally over a lazy Sunday sipping beer. Rudolf Hrusinsky as Antonin Dura, Vlastimil Brodsky as Colonel Hugo, Frantisek Rehak as Canon Roch, Myla Myslikova as Katherine Durova, Jana Preissova as Anna are very good as the players playing their roles. Thanks to a good friend for lending me this one.
‘Closely watched trains’ by the same director is brilliant. Hope to access Jiri Menzel’s, ‘Larks on a string’ and ‘My sweet little village’. Czech films have been a discovery. I loved Jan Kadar’s ‘The shop on Main Street’ and Jan Sverak’s ‘Kolya’. Also picked up Milos Forman’s (‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest’, ‘Amadeus’, ‘Hair’) ‘Loves of a Blonde’. Hope to watch that one soon.
‘Watched ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’ and quite liked it ‘Only unfulfilled love is romantic’ or so goes one dialogue. Also watched ‘The Player’ brilliant, and Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che – The Argentine’ and ‘Che – Guerilla’. More on these soon.
Useless trivia : ‘Capricious Summer’ continues to play in Prague cinemas during the summer even today, almost 40 years after it was made.
Rudolf Hrusinsky, who played Antonin Dura, was born backstage during the showing of the play, ‘Tanecek panny Marinky’. He also starred in Jiri Menzel’s ‘My sweet little village’.
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