Nejasna zprava o konci sveta
Czech Republic,
1997, 138 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Juraj Jakubisko
- prod
-
Deana Jakubisková
- scr
-
Juraj Jakubisko
- cam
-
Jan Duris
- editor
-
Ludek Hudec
- cast
-
Deana Horvathová, Milan Bahul, Joachim Kemmer, Klára Issová
- source
-
J & J Jakubisko Film s.r.o., Dolni Chaloupky 15/55, 106 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic. FAX: 420-2-75 69-45
OTHER
One of Central Europe’s most acclaimed and controversial filmmakers, Juraj Jakubisko (SFIFF tribute 1991), a Slovak now working in the Czech Republic, returns from a five-year hiatus with a bizarre, torrential allegory of the twentieth century. An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World is set in an isolated mountain village near either the beginning—or the end—of the world. Spun between an ethnographer’s studied vision and a drunkard’s fever dream, the film simultaneously embraces and destroys the costume drama genre, fusing gorgeous backdrops of folklore and tradition onto contemporary scenes of passion and catastrophe. The idyllic, unspoiled village is attacked by hordes of wolves in one scene, government assault helicopters in another. Circus women arrive in horse-drawn carriages, then drag race through the narrow streets on revved-up motorcycles. Roses bloom in serene valleys, only to be decapitated by automatic rifle fire. A drunken priest and a dwarf fight over the tallest woman on earth, and a doe-eyed peasant heroine falls for a leather-jacketed, cocaine-snorting smuggler. Hailed as the Slovakian Fellini (a slightly messier Fellini: shirt untucked and dirtied, eyes twitching), Jakubisko has created a lush and surreal folk epic of cruelty and thwarted love. Culled from a six-hour Czech TV version, the film’s singular, unforgettable images point directly to either the beginning—or the end—of the future.
—Jason Sanders
FACTOID #336
Bing Crosby was invited several times for an onstage tribute at the Festival, reports then-director Claude Jarman, but declined the honor. “Nobody wants to see those little things that I used to do,” he modestly replied. He did attend though, with wife Kathy and their friend, Rita Hayworth.
