Melbourne Cinematheque's Czech Screwball Comedy Season, plus a few extra. Every one worth watching and most top notch.
Happy End - Brilliant, piece of filmmaking from Oldřich Lipský, from just before the Prague Spring. The film is the life of a man sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and her lover, but the film and life is played backwards, so the man is 'born' by having is head attached to his body by the guillotine. This could just be a humorous conceit that wears thin but Lipský is such a good director that he extends the logic, and gags, brilliantly for the full film.
Eva Fools Around - the film I would consider the most 'screwball-ish', in the Hollywood sense. A pre-war film with a modish young woman getting into all sorts of hijinks and causing havoc, with plenty of wordplay and jokes. If you (like me) like Hollywood screwball comedies check this out.
You are a Widow Sir - Hard to describe, a sort of black comedy with body swapping, killings bits of sci-fi. The plot has the king of an imagined kingdom decide to disband the army, only for the army to decide to bump him off through a series of elaborate plans.
Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea - like the above it is hard to describe this, elements of black comedy and sci-fi. Some Nazi's decide to use the new Czech discovery to travel back in time and give Hitler a nuclear weapon. Their plan gets (more) put off course when a twin involved in the plot dies and his place is impersonated by his brother.
Heave Ho! - Directed by Martin Eric, (who also directed
Eva Fools Around), a more conventional comedy that the post-war films. It uses that popular screwball turn of change in wealth. In this case a boss becoming bankrupt and being taken under the wing of a worker. More slapstick that wordplay but with interesting socialist bent considering when it was made in 1934.
An Old Gangsters Molls - a silent film, from 1927, there are some nice scenes that are done well and it is interesting to see this in the context of the later film in the series. Like a lot of early silent films it seems too long now, and would be improved by some judicious editing. For my money the weakest film in the season but still interesting.
Not part of the season but in a similar vein I watched
Four Murders are Enough Honey - Oldřich Lipský again, a man gets mistaken as a murderer and finds that he gets much of the respect he wants so goes with it. The murders and jokes pile up, but like with
Happy End, Lipský keeps brilliant control, all the balls are kept in the air and caught at the right moment.
Marecek, pass me the pen - Final Lipský film - a middle aged foreman has to go back to night school to get a diploma - this one more conventional than the others but still with some brilliant bits of whimsy, like the totally automated plant at the end of the film.
The Cassandra Cat - A strange cat with spectacles wanders into a town and starts to cause all kinds of trouble, with some of the townsfolk enjoying results and others determined to put an end to things and stop the cat.
