Movie reviews

EL CIUDADANO ILUSTRE (THE DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN)

Recommended. Quotes of Daniel Montavani, the (fictitious) Nobel prize winning writer, would make for a great book in their own right. While he falls into all the traps of a life of a celebrity, its his assertive, rational responses that make the character of the genius so plausible. His resilience to the craziness around him remains in sharp contrast to the great scope of emotions he evokes in the small town people and makes this comedy drama so smart.

JA, OLGA HEPNAROVA (I, OLGA HEPNAROVA)

Recommended. Most people, including me, leaving the screen felt like banged in the head with a hammer. With so many movies that fail to make an impression, a hard-hitting one stands out. The film's closely based on a book which is in turn closely based on facts. Olga Hepnarova was one of few female mass murderers and her modus operandi was running people over with a truck, just like in a few recent terrorist attacks in Western Europe - easily accessible, especially to her, working as a driver. According to the film she's a masculine type: in her movements, dressing style, homosexuality and her proactivity in dating. If you're going to see a movie about a mass murderer, you want strong emotions and/or to find out why they committed this unimaginable crime. This movie gives the answer. It's not brutal. No blood and guts. She makes it clear it's an extended suicide: her revenge on the society is bound to sentence her to death and that's what she wants. She's very intelligent and her reasoning is truly fascinating. At the same time the film leaves no doubts about her sanity. She's ill. She says she's a psychopath but that's one bit she gets wrong. She's not that calculative and she's not manipulative. Psychopaths lack emotions and she has so many she can't cope. The film's psychologically true. She feels like a failure. She's bullied in hospital, her problems at work and in her love life appear to her Himalaya-high obstacles, family warmth is replaced with medical prescriptions and we see her succumb to depression. As renowned Polish psychiatrist Antoni Kepinski said, a suicidal person wants to live and wants to die at the same time, and this is brilliantly conveyed through her ear-piercing scream in one of the final scenes. Michalina Olszanska, known from "Corki dancingu" ("The Lure"), perfectly enacts the girl, with a lot expressed just with her eyes. The film is black and white which both reflects the grey reality of the socialist Czechoslovakia and tells you black on white how things were with Olga.