LOVES OF A BLONDE Movie Review

A Blonde in Love
Lasky Jedne Plavovlasky

Andula (Hana Brejchova) is a shy teenage factory worker who falls in love with Milda (Vladimir Pucholt), a compulsively womanizing musician, after spending a night with him. She's convinced that the pianist is truly in love with her, and she decides the next weekend to visit his parents, arriving unannounced at their home. Andula's heartbreak at what she learns there is matched only by her deep-seated need to perpetuate her romantic illusions. The film that established Milos Forman as the foremost Czech filmmaker of his generation displays his early mastery of understatement and the poignant, emotionally devastating subtlety that would become his trademark. Forman allows us to observe the naturalness of his characters' behavior—as in the simply staged but emotionally complex sequence in Milda's home—and lets the truth of a scene emerge before us through their actions rather than through their declarations. As with subsequent American films of Forman's, such as Taking Off, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and The People vs. Larry Flynt, the marvelous comic sequences in Loves of a Blonde are the director's way of easing us into what is essentially an unhappy story; it's a seductive storytelling method, and it ultimately allows the film's underlying tragic dimension to stand out in powerful relief. Brejchova and Pucholt are natural and convincing, and the images of cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek (who would accompany Forman to America) provide an extra level of intimacy. Academy Award Nominee, Best Foreign Language Film.

NEXT STOP … The Fireman's Ball, Heartburn, Nights of Cabiria

1965 88m/B CZ Jana Brejchova, Josef Sebanek, Vladimir Pucholt; D: Milos Forman. Nominations: Academy Awards '66: Best Foreign-Language Film. VHS HMV, COL