Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection | Hana Brejchová, Vladimír Mensík

Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection | Hana Brejchová, Vladimír Mensík | The poignant, sweet story of Andula; one of Milos Foreman's fine, warm and subversive movies

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Loves of a Blonde ...

	Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection Hana Brejchová, Vladimír Mensík Criterion, 2002 average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

With sixteen women to each man, the odds are against Andula in her desperate search for love-that is, until a rakish piano player visits her small factory town and temporarily eases her longings. A tender and humorous look at Andula's journey, from the first pangs of romance to its inevitable disappointments, Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky) immediately became a classic of the Czech New Wave and earned Milos Forman the first of his Academy Award® nominations.

Love will find its way!

"Loves of a blonde" is a bitter, nostalgic and crude gaze around the lives, customs, social prejudices and naïve hopes of Czech Socialist Republic by then (1965), hilariously supported and featured as a modern fairy tale.

A very young woman falls in love with a pianist in occasion of a party. And since that impetuous love affair, she will make the best she can in order to maintain alive and materialize the eternal promises love, the lovers use to say.

The picture mirrors in a memorable and smart introduction, the affective necessities of the human being in that initial dialogue between an avid entrepreneur and an officer.

The nothing glamorous meeting between her and the parents of his fiancée, will arouse al kind of laughs due the sudden clash of two well different generations.

A film that breathes humankind and reminds us the love is in everywhere, no matter social barriers or contrasted points of view: the love will always will find an exit door.

Remarkable film that although is a bit dated, constitutes a brilliant psychological exploration about the state of social fermentation that it was nestling in those years.

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The poignant, sweet story of Andula; one of Milos Foreman's fine, warm and subversive movies

Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is a wonderful movie...sweet and awful. Sweet, because Forman gives us no one we can dislike as he tells us the story of Andula (Hana Brejchova), a young factory worker in the depressing town of Zruc, making endless pairs of shoes alongside dozens of other young women. Not Milda (Vladimir Puchott), the young piano player who comes to town with a band, seduces Andula, and then leaves for Prague. Not the factory bosses, or the other young women who are bored and eager for husbands (they outnumber the men 16 to one). Not even the regiment of aging, smoking, unattractive soldiers who were based in Zruc to lower the odds a bit. Not Milda's parents, who one day find Andula at their apartment door, suitcase in hand, because she gave her heart to Milda and took him seriously when he told her to come visit him in Prague sometime.

And awful, in a desperate sort of way, because Forman let's us see the lives all these people live in a Communist society that is petty, officious and incompetent. We can smile at a lecture an older woman gives the young factory girls about maintaining their honor and dignity with boys; we can even smile when two young leaders stand up and call for a vote to dedicate all of them to this idea; and we can smile when every girl in the room raises her hand to vote in favor, none against and none abstaining. Then we realize it might not be a good idea to snicker at a vote in favor of honor when a boss thinks it would be a good idea.

There are two long set pieces in the movie that are terrific. The first is a dance in town, held by officials so that the soldiers can meet the girls. We move around with the camera, listening in to the appalled girls as they really see these desperate, coarse guys, and listening to the guys as they eye the girls, drink for courage and, in one case, surreptitiously remove a wedding ring and then dropping it on the floor for all to see. There's that safe, chirpy dance music...the angling to get a girl to take a walk in the woods...the possibility that the bored girl will agree. The second set piece is in Milda's apartment in Prague. Andula has arrived unannounced. Milda is playing with the band at a nightspot and there are only Milda's parents to welcome her. And welcome they don't. They've heard nothing about her. It's clear Milda is in for a surprise when he gets home that night. Milda's mother is not someone you'd want for a mother-in-law. Milda's father is more realistic but not exactly comforting. Their apartment is a living space of ancient appliances, chipped paint and doilies. The nagging opinions of the mother and the exasperated gruffness from the father make us smile. Of course, they have the opposite effect on Andula, who now is close to tears. Forman seems to be quietly pointing out to us what living in Communist Czechoslovakia has come to mean. Poor Andula. Will she have a happy future with Milda? Or will she return to Zruc...wiser, perhaps, but with nothing better ahead for her. Watch the movie and hope for the best. Andula is a nice person.

Loves of a Blonde is so poignant and sweet it hurts a little. Forman used mainly non-actors for most the roles and he had a genius for either eliminating their self-consciousness or for making it work in the context of the story. The movie at the basic level of story-telling is effective because the people, from Andula to the bit parts of people at the dance, look and act like people who aren't acting. We wind up liking most of them and feeling indulgent toward the rest.

The Communist regime eventually caught on to the picture of life in Czechoslovakia which Forman presented with such apparent good humor in Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball (Criterion Collection). It was happy to see Forman leave the country during the crackdown in 1968. Anyone who thinks Forman, when he came to America, lost his subversive sympathy for people who are at the mercy of institutions and governments needs to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ragtime or The People vs. Larry Flynt.

The Criterion release looks just fine. There is a video interview with Forman that was made in 2001.

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Emotional Voyage

This was a gift from my wishlist which was recommended by an old friend who had never seen it. I am very glad to have seen it. I was familiar with Milos Forman and I love the city of Prague.
The visual aspect of the film is "gritty reality" not beautiful Prague. Somehow I was taken on a trip back in time. Every harsh encounter I ever had with a love interest was revisited. Every stab of rejection was made to bleed again. Within this psychological voyage, is also a great deal of humor. I feel humor is what keeps us all interested in continued breathing.
The enterview with Milos Forman really made the disk worth owning. I love the fact that he uses many nonactors and that much of their reaction is their own interpretation.

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Loves of a Blonde

Director Forman's breakthrough feature in his native country portrays a warm, affecting humanity even as it lampoons the inherent awkwardness and mystery of relations between the sexes. In all, this deceptively simple, charming story tackles the complex question of how love can function in a dysfunctional world. Both young leads are enormously appealing, particularly Brejchova, and those parents of Milda's are also worth the wait. All in all, this is one blonde that's easy to love.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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