CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie

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CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie United Kingdom

Second Run | 2018 | 446 min | Rated Exempt | Jul 13, 2020

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel (Blu-ray Movie)

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Movie rating

7.3
 / 10

Blu-ray rating

Users0.0 of 50.0
Reviewer4.5 of 54.5
Overall4.5 of 54.5

Overview

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel (2018)

CzechMate - in Search of Jiri Menzel directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, is an in-depth exploration of the work of renowned Czech director Jiri Menzel and the Czech New Wave.

Starring: Jirí Menzel, Věra Chytilová, Milos Forman, Dusan Hanák, Agnieszka Holland
Director: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

Foreign100%
Documentary13%

Specifications

  • Video

    Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
    Video resolution: 1080p
    Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
    Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

  • Audio

    Czech: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

  • Subtitles

    English

  • Discs

    Blu-ray Disc
    Two-disc set (2 BDs)

  • Playback

    Region B, A (C untested)

Review

Rating summary

Movie4.5 of 54.5
Video4.0 of 54.0
Audio4.0 of 54.0
Extras2.5 of 52.5
Overall4.5 of 54.5

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 23, 2020

Even those who consider themselves fans of world cinema might struggle a bit if asked to list prominent names in the Czech film industry. Many of course may instantly refer to Miloš Forman, and with Criterion’s 2020 release of Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman, others may recall the iconic director of such outings as The Fabulous Baron Munchausen. There are most certainly other names that various cineastes might cite like Hugo Haas, Ivan Passer, and Jan Němec, but my hunch is even those who are able to provide name after redolent Czech name might be stunned by the sheer amount of information that the somewhat cheekily titled CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel offers. The fact that this sprawling seven and a half hour (!) documentary took Shivendra Singh Dungarpur almost eight years to complete may give some indication of just how sprawling the piece is. Kind of loosely structured (perhaps frustratingly so, at least for some), CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel may ostensibly be focused on Menzel, but it’s really a rather bracing overview of the entire movement that became known as the Czech New Wave. As such, the documentary is a virtual compendium of film clips that offer a number of really interesting snippets which, if nothing else, may spark an interest in some fans in developing another kind of list, namely a bunch of films they should track down and watch.


The actual logistics of making that list may highlight one of the niggling but recurrent issues with CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel , namely a parade of labels that waft by identifying both the names of various talking heads as well as identifiers of films, years of production, and filmmakers. In the case of the talking heads, the real issue is not the initial text introductions, but the fact that once any given individual is introduced, it's left to the viewer to remember who's whom, which frankly gets to be a bit of a challenge as more and more people enter the fray, and especially given the fact that this documentary is so epically long. In terms of the film clips, it's more of an issue that the documentary tends to offer rather interesting, almost stream of consciousness, montages of various Czech films, where any given clip isn't that long, and trying to read through the sometimes arcane orthography of the Czech language can take longer than the title is actually on screen for.

Those admittedly minor if frustrating qualms aside, CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel offers a really fascinating overview of Czech cinema, mostly centered on the emerging "Czech New Wave" that became nascent as the strictures of the Communist regime lessened (rather surprisingly early, in the 1960s, for reasons some of the particpants interviewed get into). That said, the whole context of the Communist regime and nationalizing of the Czech film industry is unavoidably part of the mix here, and it's kind of interesting to hear that pre-Communism, the Czechs pumped out a rather high number of films annually (especially, as one interviewee mentions, considering that there were only around 14 million native Czech speakers at the time). Once the Communists took over, that number fell precipitously to just two or three a year, something that made those emerging from various film schools essentially unable to find work.

Necessity may have been the mother of invention in this particular case, and there are some compelling interviews with those, who like Menzel himself (but certainly others as well, including Miloš Forman), simply refused to be cowed by the situation at hand, though that said, the fact that these two in particular were coming into their own as some of the aforementioned strictures were being loosened no doubt helped. It's interesting to note in that regard that between 1965 and 1968, the Czechs received annual nominations for Best Foreign Language Film from the Academy Awards, with Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos' The Shop on Main Street from 1965 and Menzel's own Closely Watched Trains from 1967 actually winning the statuette. There's an amusing film clip from the Oscar ceremony celebrating 1967 films with Danny Kaye announcing the win for Closely Watched Trains while the television announcer and some graphics actually show Yugoslovia winning. Menzel kind of hilariously describes Aleksandar Petrović, director of Yugoslovia's nominee I Even Met Happy Gypsies, beginning to get out of his seat to accept before collapsing as he realized someone else had won, which I might joke is a case of life imitating the "art" (if you can call it that) of the climax of the appropriately named 1966 The Oscar.

Now it's certainly arguable that a seven and a half hour documentary about Czech films might be a bit of overkill, but I'd suggest that the admittedly wending course this film takes is actually one of its strengths, and may in fact kind of subliminally suggest some of the winning aspects of some of the films from the Czech New Wave itself. This is probably a long form piece that may be best appreciated in smaller chunks, rather than one binge viewing. Dungarpar's cross cutting between both contemporary and archival interviews, as well as the really brilliant montages featuring a panoply of fascinating looking Czech films, consistently helps to keep interest high despite the documentary's length.


CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality  4.0 of 5

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Second Run with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (often) in 1.78:1 (as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review, some archival interviews and especially many of the film clips can be in various aspect ratios ranging from near Academy to Scope). As is typically the case with these kinds of documentaries, there's a rather wide array of quality fluctuations, though all of the contemporary interview footage looks sharp and very well detailed for the most part. Some of the contemporary "extraneous" footage of people out and about can occasionally have slight issues with noise or minor pixellation. Some of the archival interviews look sourced from videotape and can be fairly fuzzy. Almost all of the film clips are in surprisingly good shape, and detail levels are very appealing with an understanding that a lot of the clips utilized tend to emphasize "artier" framings and imagery.


CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality  4.0 of 5

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is actually in a variety of languages, as befits its international cast of "characters". All of the contemporary interview segments sound just fine, though there's little if any real "surround" activity. Even a lot of the film clips have mono sound, but occasionally suddenly the soundstage can open up for a moment or two, especially with regard to some scoring and sound effects. Optional English subtitles are available, and translate everything, including the English.


CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras  2.5 of 5

  • Jiří Menzel Short Films
  • Our Dear Mister Foerster Died (1080p; 15:24)

  • Prefabricated Houses (1080p; 7:07)
  • Image Gallery (1080p)
Note: All of the above supplements are found on Disc One of this two disc set. Additionally, the well appointed insert booklet contains some interesting writing, including excerpts from Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's production diary.


CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation  4.5 of 5

Considering the fact that Menzel shows up almost immediately and thereafter fairly regularly throughout CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel, the "search" would seem to be a fait accompli, or whatever the Czech equivalent of that phrase might be. That's said in jest of course, but one of the best things about this documentary is that it isn't just about Menzel. This is an exhaustive and perhaps exhausting documentary, but I personally loved the way Dungarpur kind of "goes with the flow" both in terms of how he intercuts between interviews and especially how he assembles the montages of Czech films. I would strongly recommend putting aside a few days to watch this in sections. Technical merits are solid with an understanding that this has been cobbled together from any number of pretty widely variant looking sources, and the two Menzel shorts are really intriguing. Highly recommended.


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