Friday, November 4, 2011

Desire (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)
Desire • Touha (1958)

Czech New Wave
Genre: Drama
Director: Vojtech Jasný
Starring: John Jakes , Vaclav Babka , Vera Bublíková , Vlastimil Brodsky , John Brejchová
Language: Czech
Duration: 90 min.
Rating: 7.1  

Summary:
The cycle of life told in four separate segments.



Desire is a pre Czech New Wave film written and directed by Vojtech Jasný.  It was screened at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival where it was given the Best Selection Award by the Jury.

It's a poetic film about life, told with four vignettes, each one set during a different season and featuring a character at a different stage in life.  The first a young boy anticipating the arrival of a new baby sister in the spring, the second a post adolescent girl who falls in love in the summer, the third an adult woman who toils away at the fields in the fall, and the last an old widowed teacher who falls ill in the winter.

Although the stories themselves are not particularly exciting or memorable, relying on symbolism rather than drama to tell the tale.  It is a beautifully rendered film with many picturesque scenes, and provides an interesting portrait of ordinary rural Czech people in the late 50's.  It also serves as a good starting point for Jasný, who would later go on to garner international success with The Cassandra Cat and All My Good Countrymen.  Two films that I look forward to watching in the near future.

Bonjour Tristesse

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

Desire • Touha (1958)

6 comments:

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah that sounds about right.

FrontRoomCinema said...

You should get a medal for championing this kind of film!! You are a star

The Angry Lurker said...

It's a maybe I suppose.

d_4 said...

I guess I'm with the Lurker. It's a great gateway if you want to be the movie buff (cough) but for average people it's not really a must. Right?

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

Hmmm. Meh. ~~(-__)

Natural One said...

That one pic looks like my great - great grandmother, hell of a woman

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