"Now I regret all the times I've used words like 'power' and 'energy' to describe rock and roll," Robert Christgau wrote in 1970, reviewing the Stooges' LP Funhouse, "because this is what such rhetoric should have been saved for." Watching Second Run's DVD of the 1967 Czech film Marketa Lazarova, I entertained similar thoughts; all the times I've used words like "staggering" and "jaw-dropping" to describe a film's imagery, and now here's this.
It's not, obviously, as if Frantisek Vlacil's film contains the most staggering/jaw-dropping imagery in the history of cinema...it's more that it contains the most consistent succession of staggering/jaw-dropping images. Or something.
Based on a novel by Vladislav Vancura (who was killed by the Gestapo in 1942), Marketa Lazarova deals with the squelching of paganism by "Christianity" in medieval Europe and also tells, in a daringly oblique fashion, a love story between the title heroine and the scion of the clan her father's at war with. While the diegisis is occasionally disrupted by sardonic intertitles describing/commenting on individual episodes of the narrative, the reconstruction of medieval life is scrupulously awful and muddy and often slides into the realm of the hallucinatory. The nearly three-hour experience is among the most overwhelming you are likely to have in your home viewing, which currently looks to be the only way you'll be able to see this film—provided you have an all-region player. The DVD is a bargain by several standards...
Glad to see this DVD get some attention ... although that would be "Marketa Lazarova" ... and Frantisek Vlacil ... and Vladislav Vancura. Vlacil's subsequent film "Valley of the Bees" is also amazing, although I've heard the Facets DVD is pretty dire (I was lucky enough to see a print at BAM).
Posted by: Stephen Bowie | February 05, 2008 at 03:19 PM
Stephen, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. But the, let's call them typos, are fixed...
Posted by: Glenn Kenny | February 05, 2008 at 03:35 PM
This is only somewhat geographically related, but I read (on Aint It Cool, of all places) that a boxed set of Sergei Paradjanov is available as of today. I'm not familiar with the director; you got a line on this guy? I read a couple capsules on the Chicago Reader website and the films sound pretty interesting. J-Ro was particularly enthusiastic about Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors.
Posted by: lazarus | February 05, 2008 at 07:27 PM
Paradjanov, or "Serge P." as Nathan Lee would call him, is a giant and one of cinema's ultimate trips. Anything of his you can get your hands/eyes on is not to be missed! More later...
Posted by: Glenn Kenny | February 05, 2008 at 08:03 PM
Thanks Glenn. After posting my comment I saw Jeff Wells' article about Kehr's Imitation of Life rave, and following the link I discovered he had reviewed the boxed set as well this weekend.
Every time snobs slag Harry Knowles I remember a moment like today when his eclectic taste is far more sophisticated than he's given credit for.
Look forward to the More later...
Posted by: lazarus | February 05, 2008 at 09:28 PM
I saw this film at a rare screening in Los Angeles a few years ago and thought it was incredible. I wonder if Second Run have any plans to release their catalog in the US? There are some other incredible films on this label, especially from Eastern Europe.
Posted by: Rich | February 08, 2008 at 04:27 PM
Most (if not all) of Second Run's DVDs aren't region coded, so if you can handle the PAL video system - i.e. if you're watching on a PC - you should be able to play them even with a region-locked player.
I reviewed all the currently-available Vlacil DVDs on my blog - click on my name for a direct link. Valley of the Bees is in fact the best of Facets' Vlacil releases, though it still falls some way behind Second Run's effort.
Posted by: Michael Brooke | February 11, 2008 at 06:00 AM