Enne Bene
Czech Republic,
2000, 104 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Alice Nellis
- prod
-
Helena Slavikova, Alice Nemanská
- scr
-
Alice Nellis
- cam
-
Ramunas Greicius
- editor
-
Josef Valusiak
- cast
-
Iva Janzurová, Leos Sucharípa, Theodora Remundova, Eva Holubova
- source
-
Czech Television, Telexport Department, Kavci Hory, 140 70 Prague 4, Czech Republic. FAX: 420-2-6121-1354. WEB SITE: www.enebene.cz
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Winner of the Skyy Prize in 2000. Alice Nellis in person.
OTHER
Alice Nellis’s first feature film has a gentle drollery reminiscent of the best films of the Czech New Wave, while retaining their political bite as it depicts “unimportant matters that become important.” When Jana, an English literature student at Prague University, returns to her hometown for a visit, she finds the place swept by election fever and herself on the election committee, appointed by her passionately politicized mother who gave up the position after her husband suffered a stroke. While Jana’s father, bed-ridden and irked by his wife’s devotion to one of the candidates, sabotages their efforts to the best of his ability, Jana struggles to find a way out of her own personal dilemmas, notably a tangled relationship with one of her professors. The election itself gradually turns into a farce as the committee members find themselves with mainly each other for company in the polling station on election day. “Now that we’re free to watch the news, nobody cares,” Jana’s mother remarks in the face of the voters’ overwhelming indifference, unexpected after the long-awaited reintroduction of democracy following four decades of Communist rule. Quietly, irresistibly funny in the manner of early Milos Forman, Eeny Meeny abounds in lovingly observed small, quiet moments, and warm, humorous insights into post-Communist everyday reality.
—Petra Hammerl
FACTOID #191
The first screenwriter to receive a Festival tribute was Truman Capote in 1974. At the tribute he confessed that, in his opinion, Audrey Hepburn was too chic for the role of Holly Golightly. He would have preferred the then unknown Tammy Grimes for the role.
