Loves of a Blonde [Criterion Collection]

Director: Milos Forman Milos Forman

Overview

Like the Criterion Collection's disc for The Fireman's Ball, Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is one of the great Czech films from the 1960s. Delightful, funny, satirical, melancholic, and wonderfully subversive, Forman managed to create his own contribution to New Wave cinema. The film became a success overseas, garnering the director a career that stretched beyond the iron curtain, eventually leading to his move to his permanent move to the States. The disc is great, offering up the film in a new digitally remastered transfer. The full-screen picture (1.33:1) is excellent, as is the Czech language mono soundtrack. Optional English subtitles are also available. The disc also contains an informative and very nice video interview with Forman, as well as a deleted scene. Liner notes from film critic Dave Kehr have also been included.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/12/2002
UPC:	0037429165423
Original Release:	1965
Source:	Criterion Collection
Presentation:	[B&W, Full Frame]
Sound:	[monaural, Dolby Digital]
Language:	English
Time:	1:25:00
Sales rank:	19,596

Special Features

New digital transfers, with restored image and sound; Video interview with director Milos Forman; Deleted scene; New and improved English subtitle translation

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hana Brejchova	Andula
Vladimir Pucholt	Milda
Antonin Blazejovsky	Tonda
Josef Sebanek	Milda's Father
Vladimir Mensik	Vacovsky
Ivan Kheil	Manas
Jiri Hruby	Burda
Milada Jezkova	Milda's Mother
Marie Salacova	Marie
Jana Novakova	Jana
Jana Crkalova	Jaruska
Zdenka Lorencova	Zdena
Tana Zelinkova	Girl with Guitar
Jan Vostrcil	Colonel
Josef Kolb	Pokorny
M. Zednickova	Educator

Technical Credits

Milos Forman

Director

Scene Index

Side #1 --
0. Chapters
1. Andula [6:47]
2. Girls Without Boyfriends [2:51]
3. Greeting the Troops [2:09]
4. The Dance [6:33]
5. A Solicitation [6:09]
6. Overture Denied [9:17]
7. The Piano Player [15:12]
8. An Old Love [6:38]
9. Prague [7:27]
10. Interrogation [8:49]
11. Memory Lapse [5:50]
12. Sleeping Arrangements [4:57]
13. Back in Zruc [2:14]

Menu

Side #1 --
   Play the Movie
      Color Bars
   Subtitles
      Subtitles On
      Subtitles Off
   Milos Forman
      Play
   Deleted Scene

Editorial Reviews

Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is a modest and delightfully naturalistic comedy. The film opens with a plaintively sung Beatle-esque love song (in Czech, naturally, except for the "yeah, yeah, yeah"s) that perfectly captures the film's playful spirit, and the hint of melancholy underneath. In the first extended setpiece of the film, three older, married, reservists contemplate putting the moves on a table of young women, and bicker endlessly about how to proceed. Meanwhile, the women are also in disagreement as to whether acknowledge the attentions of the men. Forman cast mostly non-actors in the film, and he demonstrates a fine eye for faces, which make the shorthand of his characterizations that much more effective. Forman adeptly mixes the verbal humor in the scene with low-key physical comedy, as in the close-ups of Andula's (Hana Brejchova) frowning face as she dances with a clumsy bespectacled soldier. There's a sweetly amusing post-coital scene between Andula and Milda (Vladimir Pucholt). But the film gets even better when the scene shifts to Prague, where Andula encounters Milda's confused, worried mother (Milada Jezkova) and father (Josef Sebanek). Jezkova and Sebanek deliver superb comic performances as the grumpy couple, and when Pucholt enters the scene later, the film reaches its comedic heights. Forman's sublime portrait of family dysfunction makes the quiet unassuming Loves of a Blonde a memorable work of cinema.

All Movie Guide - Josh Ralske