♥♥♥♥♥♥
 |
| A bodacious young woman removes her dress before a man wiping sweat from his forehead on this Soviet-colored poster for Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball |
The Firemen's Ball centers on a festive ball for volunteer firemen and their wives in a small town in Czechoslovakia at the town hall, where a beauty pageant is attempted to be carried out, as gifts are stolen, and an old man's house burns down.
The Firemen's Ball is written by Jaroslav Papusek (Black Peter/Cerný Petr (1964)), Ivan Passer (Silver Bears (1977)) and Czech master filmmaker, co-writer/director Milos Forman (Black Peter), with Václav Sasek (Muka Obraznosti (1990)) contributing story elements. The original title translates to, 'fire, my lady'.
The film is an eminent exhibition of human blunder and stupidity. It is terrifically comical. Here the art of putting acting amateur 'real people' in front of a camera for a feature-length period has one of its most impressive, fantastic results ever: Forman and Co. succeed in lifting a simple premise up to becoming a social-realist allegory about dysfunction and incompetence in a communist-run system, and the portrayal clearly hit its mark.
The Firemen's Ball is Forman's arrival as a master filmmaker. An incredible film you shouldn't miss!
Related posts:
Milos Forman: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Goya's Ghosts (2006) - Forman's under-appreciated last major picture
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Amadeus (1984) or, The Fool Genius and his Teacher
Hair (1979) - Reflect on 1960s youth counter-culture in Forman's infectious musical
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - Forman's 1970s gold-rimmed classic
Roger Ebert presents the film in this 14-minute video
Cost: 65k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but certainly a box office success of some sort
[The Firemen's Ball was released 15 December (Czechoslovakia) and runs 73 minutes. Forman, Passer and Papusek were not able to concentrate on writing after the success of Loves of a Blonde (1965) and headed to the little town of Vrchlabí for quiet. Here they attended a firemen's ball for the fun of it. According to Forman; "What we saw was such a nightmare that we couldn't stop talking about it. So we abandoned what we were writing on to start this script." Shooting took place in Vrchlabí, Czechoslovakia, now Northern Czech Republic. Most of the actors were amateurs, and many of the local firemen volunteers appeared. The film was highly controversial upon release: The Italian co-producer Carlo Ponti withdrew his support for the film upon seeing it, thereby risking Forman a 10-year prison sentence in Czechoslovakia for "economic damage to the state". Forman drove to Paris and found support from Francois Truffaut, who bought the international distribution rights and saved him. Firemen across Czechoslovakia were also outraged by their portrayal, and Forman toured the country to try to calm them down and describe the film's true aim. It sold 750k tickets in Czechoslovakia before the Soviet invasion of the country in 1968 and subsequent ban. The film was released in North America in a subtitled version and a dubbed version, and was also released in many other Western markets. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to War and Peace from the USSR. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Forman left for America after the film's release, and it impressed Michael Douglas enough to hire him for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Forman first returned with Taking Off (1971). The Firemen's Ball is fresh at 91 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Firemen's Ball?
No comments:
Post a Comment