Forman, Passer, Papousek - (By Mira and Antonin J. Liehm - 1977) - Movies - http://maxpages.com/czechcinema/4_Forman_Passer

Almost simultaneously, three names appeared in the mid-sixties that became inseperable in the audience's consciousness: Milos Forman (b. 1932), Ivan Passer (b. 1933), and Jaroslav Papousek (b. 1929). Forman made his independent debut with two medium-length films, "Competition" ("Konkurs") and "If There Were No Music" ("Kdyby Ty Muziky Nebyly"), shown jointly in 1964 under the title "Competition". His style, which was evident from the beginning, was simple: focus the eye of the camera as closely as possible on human detail, and then put on the screen, in uncensored form, everything that turns up as a result of such a microscopic view. The result of this method, as it became obvious in Forman's later films, was unexpected: in addition to painstaking observations of individual people and their daily lives, another portrait appeared on the screen, a merciless portrait of the whole fabric of society, the like of which Czechoslovak film had never produced before. The whole offered to view an embarrassed, convulsive grimace, a countenance verging on the grotesque; but Forman laughed with gusto and with no condescension at what he saw, and the audience laughed with him, accepting him as one of themselves.
His first feature film, "Black Peter" ("Cerny Petr" - 1963), proved Forman's exceptional ability to see in detail, to capture the unrepeatable, small incidents of life, incidents chosen with uncanny insight as being socially representative. Both Passer and Papousek collaborated on the film. In "Black Peter", a young boy who is just starting out in life receives his first mission on his new job: to be an informer, to spy on his fellow citizens, to watch and to mistrust people. As a consequence, a gulf opens between the puzzled boy and his painfully smug father that at the film's end has become unbridgeable. We encounter the same abyss, the same lack of humanity, in the final sequence of the film that made Forman known throughout the world, "Loves of a Blonde" ("Lasky Jedne Plavovlasky" - 1965). Here also, everything was predetermined from the outset. A small town has a shoe factory that employs hundreds of young women. The army is asked to provide the missing 'male element', but instead of the promised garrison of you soldiers, the army stations a unit of middle-aged reservists there. The mixed-up situation made audiences laugh, but at the same time, it revealed the inhumanity of this 'problem-solving' approach to emotional human needs. The rest of the film, including the relationship of a young blonde and a touring piano player, was kept within the framework of the basic 'problem', bringing "Loves of a Blonde" onto a plane that the film's creators had not imagined at the start. Miroslav Ondricek was Forman's cameraman.
Although Passer was considered by some to be Forman's double, his debut, the short "A Boring Afternoon" ("Fadni Odpoledne" - 1965)- based on a story by one of the key writers of the period, Bohumil Hrabal- introduced an entirely unique personality. Whereas Forman had a firm and irrepressible confidence in the belief that revelations alone are sufficient for the ends of satire and ridicule, Passer was a melancholy observer, whose laughter contained the mournful element of understanding. His masterful first feature film "Intimate Lighting" ("Intimni Osvetleni" - 1965), was an almost plotless portrait of the tragicomic futility of the life of a provincial intellectual, who is confronted with the almost identical futility of his urban counterpart. This film immediately placed Passer in the ranks of Europe's foremost directors. It turned out, however, that he was not to make another film until six years later, when, as an emigre in the United States, he directed "Born to Win (1971).
The third member of the trio, Papousek, whose name always appeared among the credits of Passer's and Forman's films, did not make his independent debut until 1968, with "The Most Beautiful Age" ("Nejkrasnejsi Vek"). Later, in 1969-1971, he made a series of films about the life of a lower middle-class Czech family, "Ecco Homo Homolka, Big Shot Homolka" ("Hogo Fogo Homolka"), and "Homolka and the Purse" (Homolka A Tobolka"). His exceptional talent for observation turned out to be more literary than cinematic and under circumstances that had already changed, he did not have the success enjoyed by his two colleagues.
Forman, Passer, and Papousek destroyed the old conventions of the scenario, striving for a reconstruction of reality not so much by a realistic plot as by means of the acute perception of details of situations and characters. They found in nonprofessional actors the ideal interpreters of the unique moments they brought to life on the screen. This 'uniqueness' became the foundation of their esthetic credo.
(Copyright - The Regents of the University of California)

kbtebo@hotmail.com

Visitors: 01840

Page Updated Tue Sep 14, 1999 10:48am EDT