The Firemen's Ball/Hoří, Má Panenko (1967) - Forman and Co. slice up communism to hilarious effect in outright masterpiece

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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?

Gorky Park (1983) - Cool Hurt investigates murders in Apted's fine Cold War Moscow thriller

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A simple, elegant poster for Michael Apted's Gorky Park

Three dead bodies are found the snow of Moscow's Gorky Park with their faces peeled off. The city's most successful cop smells KGB on the case, but his investigation also points him towards an American.

Gorky Park is written by Dennis Potter (Tender Is the Night (1985, miniseries)), based on the same-titled 1981 novel by Martin Cruz Smith (The Indians Won (1970)), and directed by Michael Apted (The Triple Echo (1972)).
It is a great proponent of a crime thriller with plenty of local color colors. The film also gives its audience a feeling of the repression the people suffered under in the USSR.
William Hurt (Syriana (2005)) is excellent as our cop protagonist; Lee Marvin (The Killers (1964)) doesn't seem to actually act much, but he's there and it works. Also in the solid cast; Ian McDiarmid (Spooks (2004, TV-series)) as a morbid coroner.
Gorky Park is a cold-looking place and its score (by James Horner (Avatar (2009))) is very much of its time. But the film is full of suspense and action, and it has a showdown in Stockholm.

Watch a 4-minute scene from the film with Hurt and Marvin here

Cost: 6.5 mil. $
Box office: 15.8 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Uncertain - but at least a box office success (returned 2.43 times its cost in North America alone)
[Gorky Park was released 16 December (USA) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place in Glasgow, Scotland, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden and in Moscow, then the USSR, from February - May 1983. Helsinki stood in for Moscow for most of the film, as the crew were denied permits to shoot there. The film opened #13 to a 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in 629 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #5, behind holdover hits Terms of Endearment, Silkwood, new release Reckless and holdover hit Never Cry Wolf. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not available. If it made a realistic 20-30 mil. $ worldwide it would rank as either a box office success or a big hit. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Apted returned with Firstborn (1984). Hurt returned in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985); Marvin in Dog Day (1984). Gorky Park is fresh at 75 % with a 6.53/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gorky Park?

The White Crow (2018) - Fiennes puts real-life ballet master Ivenko in front of his honest and good Nureyev biopic

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+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Paris Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year

Star Oleg Ivenko's arms, head and torso stretch out as if in a classical painting on this magnificent poster for Ralph Fienes' The White Crow

Rudolf Nureyev was a precocious outsider from childhood, when he discovered the marvel of ballet. As a young man, he evolved into a master dancer with huge self-confidence but little knack for submitting to the restrictive realities of life in the USSR.

The White Crow is written by David Hare (The Hours (2002)), based on the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life (2007) by Julie Kavanagh, and directed by Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus (2011)).
The film skips back and forth in chronology, and the resulting impression isn't so much disjointed as just not parallel to the elegance of the exquisite dancing we witness. The story comes across, anyhow.
And the story of The White Crow, (which is a Russian nickname that Nureyev gets attached to himself from boyhood due to his qualities as sticking out and being 'different'), is one of the need and thirst for freedom, which again proves a compelling conflict here. Nureyev needs freedom to dance and spread his talent to the foreign lands that want to book him and the Soviet company he dances with, but he also thirsts for freedom simply because he is a wild soul, who does not and doesn't want to conform to the dictates of the grey, despicable figures of the Communist regime.
Ballet-lovers should find plenty to like in The White Crow, which stars acting newcomer Oleg Ivenko, a Ukrainian-born, celebrated dancer based in Tatarstan, Russia, who has trained ballet since the age of 5. Fiennes and Hare also stick with plenty of Russian dialog (as well as French and English when it makes sense story-wise), and Ivenko impresses especially in his dancing scenes, in which he is superb. Nureyev is a head-strong character, not always sympathetically so, and I believed in Ivenko in his portrayal.
Nureyev was also likely bisexual, though The White Crow is content to let the matter fly: SPOILER Nureyev sleeps with his possibly impotent teacher (Fiennes also gives a solid performance, speaking convincing Russian) and a beautiful male German ballet student (Louis Hofmann (Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015))). The film adores the male physique unapologetically throughout, which is only right.
Adèle Exarchopoulos (Pieces of Me/Des Morceaux de Moi (2012)) gives another strong and sensual performance as another friend of Nureyev's, who due to her connection to the French minister of culture is able to help the dancer with his highly-charged defecting to the West: This short but pivotal hour or two in the artist's life is brought to vivid life, as Nureyev realizes that the weary company manager of the KGB has gotten orders to restrain him back to the Soviet Union and possibly end his career; and a high-stakes defection drama plays out in the Paris airport. The life-altering tension is very palpable, and the malign realities of the USSR regime are laid bare on film again.

Related posts:

Ralph Fiennes: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream (starring actor) 
Wrath of the Titans (2012) or, Trash of the Titans (co-star)
Skyfall (2012) - Mendes elevates a slickly produced modern Bond to thrilling heights (co-star)
The Reader (2008) or, Guilt, Words and Love (starring actor)
The Constant Gardner (2005) - Meirelles' first-rate third world thriller  (starring actor)
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic (starring actor)
The English Patient (1996) - Minghella's oppulent, beautifully produced and shot, but nevertheless boring classic (starring actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 7. 2 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain - but likely a big flop
[The White Crow premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 127 minutes. Hayden Christensen was first choice to star in the film, but an ankle injury made this impossible. Fiennes did not want to co-star in the film but was pressured to do so to secure financing. Shooting took place in France, Belgrade, Serbia, St. Petersburg, Russia and in Croatia, completed in October 2017. The film opened #29 to a 78k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 365 theaters, grossing 1.8 mil. $ (25 % of the gross to date). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets so far are main production country the UK with 1.5 mil. $ (20.8 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (15.3 %). The film has one announced market left to open in: Germany on 26 September. If made on a low budget of 5 mil. $, the film still ranks as a big flop. Fiennes does not have his next directing job announced yet. Ivenko also does not have another film lined up and has returned to the stage for now. The White Crow is fresh at 66 % with a 6.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The White Crow?

East Side Story (1997, documentary) - Ranga and Horn's fascinating - and fascinated - doc. of the Soviet musical

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This grainy DVD cover for Dana Ranga's East Side Story was the best promotional material for the film that I was able to scrape up

From the 1930s to the fall of USSR, about 40 musicals were produced in the East Block. East Side Story portrays these films' audiences, along with the difficulties that went into their creation.

The film is made by Dana Ranga (I Am in Space (2012), documentary), co-written with Andrew Horn (We Are Twisted Fucking Sister! (2014), documentary). It exists in a TV version and in a longer version, which is the one I saw. The TV version probably suffices, as Ranga doesn't draw long conclusions based on his material in East Side Story.
The documentary contains many long clips from the propagandistic Soviet musicals, also known as 'tractor musicals', which Ranga and Horn are clearly extremely fascinated by, - and they are fascinating in their own peculiar way. 
The interview subjects contribute with each their own expertise and opinion about them. The film encourages its audience to make up his or her own mind about these musicals and about the concept of art in general.

This is a video which claims to have the best Soviet music of the 1960s - check it out

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[East Side Story premiered 25 June (USA) and in its most usual version runs 75 minutes. I regrettably did not note down the length of the longer version that I saw. Shooting took place in Germany. Details about its release are extremely scarce online. 195 IMDb-users have given East Side Story a 7.3/10 rating.]

What do you think of East Side Story?