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Two for one

The latest Hřebejk and Jarchovský has flaws
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 12th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Revenge is best served baked. Tatiana Vilhelmová in the lone action sequence.
Medvídek

Directed by Jan Hřebejk
With Jiří Macháček, Roman Luknár, Ivan Trojan, Tatiana Vilhelmová, Aňa Geislerová, Nataša Burger, Klará Issová, Jiří Menzel, Věra Křesadlová and Zuzana Fialová

The partnership of director Jan Hřebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovský has been responsible for many of the strongest Czech films released over the past 10 years, beginning with their surprising Pelíšky in 1999.
Unlike the work of most of their colleagues, their films travel well, lacking the parochialism that’s the hallmark of far too many Czech films (Vratné lahve, Pravidla lži and Hezké chvilky bez záruky painfully come to mind). Hřebejk and Jarchovský almost alone filmically place the Czech Republic within the wider cultural context of Europe. You always feel the world beyond Děčín is just out of shot.
For a team that specializes in mordant, bleakly funny portraits of human relationships, their latest film, Medvídek, is surprisingly light, though no less interested in the twists and switchbacks inherent in friendships and romantic couplings.
Still, the refreshing sexual maturity and rational moral flexibility that interest Hřebejk and Jarchovský and fill their films seem in danger of becoming cliché. Even for one who admires their work and philosophy, the question arises, “Can they do anything else?”
Three married couples, all friends, begin to find their relationships foundering. Jirka and Vanda (Jiří Macháček and Tatiana Vilhelmová) are true Bohemians. He runs a seldom-visited art gallery next to Břevnov Monastery, while she helms an equally vacant sweet shop.
Their friends Roman and Anna (Roman Luknár and Aňa Geislerová) are further up the social ladder, as Roman is a popular obstetrician. But the real success story among the friends is Ivan and Johana (Ivan Trojan and Nataša Burger), who live in Rome as part of the Czech Embassy’s community.
The friends gather to mark each other’s successes and birthdays, and all seem content with their lot. But when the pregnant Johana confesses to Vanda that the child she’s carrying is not Ivan’s, this tight world of shared intimacies begins to fracture.
As in most of their prior work, Hřebejk and Jarchovský tend to view marriage as little more than licensed agony. The task of each individual is to discover a way of casting their lives in a more suitable — and always terribly adult — fashion.
While Medvídek possesses all the best aspects of Hřebejk and Jarchovský’s oeuvre, it also highlights their failings, primarily their slackness in developing three-dimensional characters.
A very perceptive reader took issue with my enthusiasm for the last Hřebejk-Jarchovský film, Kráska v nesnázích (Beauty in Trouble), for this very reason, and rightly so. Having watched the film again, I was less happy with the results, though maintain that there are still many reasons to see it. But there is a hollowness there, and, in too many of the filmmakers’ characters, that occasionally can be adequately masked by excellent performances.
This nagging lack of character depth is more noticeable here — glaringly so. As crack a cast as the film sports (though I’m getting a bit weary of Macháček’s lightly suppressed urge to ham), and as witty as Jarchovský’s script is, it is difficult to care for the characters and their situations — with one exception.
From Horem Pádem to Medvídek, Hřebejk has created roles for a few great Czech and Slovak veteran actors. Horem Pádem is mostly memorable for the ferocious performance by Emília Vášáryová.
Vášáryová again blazed in Beauty in Trouble, alongside the sad-eyed Jana Brejchová and excellent Jiří Schmitzer. A quarter of the way into Medvídek, the screen comes to life with Jiří Menzel and Věra Křesadlová playing Roman’s parents. The brief scene between these two titans of the New Wave manages to be more subtle and honest than the rest of the film combined.
Medvídek is stylishly done. The cinematography of the aptly named Jan Malíř is beautifully muted with late, autumnal colors. Also, the soundscape, ranging from Satie to Czech jazz diva Eva Olmerová, perfectly creates a mood — but one that the actors are never allowed to fully inhabit.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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