Summary:
A satire on communism. A Fire Department in a small village in Chechoslovakia throws a party for their former boss, inviting the whole town, but nothing goes according to plan.
My Thoughts:
Milos Forman was one funny, brilliant man. I had never heard of his film “The Fireman’s Ball" before too long ago, but of course I’d seen his more famous works, “Amadeus" and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. I found this film by reading about the influences of Mike Leigh (“Naked”, “Happy-Go-Lucky”), a British director whose work I’ve become very fond of over the past few months (look for reviews of his films in November). Leigh absolutely gushed over this film, and since it is currently available on Amazon Prime, and only an hour and fifteen minutes long, I could think of no reason not to watch it, and I’m incredibly glad I did. The film is largely allegorical, though when Forman released the film in 1967, he was unable to say so outright. The film is a satire on the bumbles of communism; it shows that even the most well-intentioned plans can go awry when corruption is rampant. The film ran for a short time before being pulled from the cinemas due to the controversial satire, and Forman’s producer abandoned him, leaving him to face up to ten years in prison for damages to the state. Francois Truffaut (“Day for Night”) and Jean-Luc Godard (“Breathless”) stepped in and picked up the rights to the film. While Forman was in Paris negotiating with Truffaut and Godard, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, and Forman chose not to return to his country. Well, after that short history lesson, lets get down to the film!
“The bathing suit just looks better…”
A volunteer fire department goes to great lengths to plan a party for their former boss, but as the party gets under weigh, things begin to fall apart in the most hilarious ways possible. The raffle table is rifled through, the beauty pageant contestants aren’t particularly enthusiastic about the contest at all, and all of the hosts are a touch too drunk to bring any of the planned events to fruition.
This film’s premise is extraordinarily simple, the entire plot revolving around a party that goes awry, and much of the film feels like we’re just at this party, watching things unfold before us. The gags that play out before us all seem to be contained into small groups of people, so that this film feels like a series of recurring and escalating vignettes more than a story focusing on one or two people. There aren’t really any main characters in the film because the camera flits back and forth between the different situations. Some of the characters include a man and his mother that were charged with watching over the raffle table, a committee of middle aged drunken men trying to corral a group of uninterested teenage girls into a beauty pageant, and the deaf elderly fire chief for whom the party is thrown (there are a few other surprises too- but I’d hate to spoil all the fun). The real humor comes from watching the drunken men scrabble to try to maintain a sense of order and dignity. The film is a great blend of satire, slapstick, and smart dialogue.
Verdict:
As the film is rather short, and a great deal of the humor comes from the surprises that happen throughout the film, I find it hard to write too much more about it without spoiling some of the fun. I highly encourage you to watch this film if you are a cinephile; it’s a wonderful piece that provides great insight into the Czech culture in the 1960s, and it’s also a hysterical Milos Forman film. Even if you aren’t a cinephile, this film is light and funny enough that I honestly think most people could enjoy it; plus, if you like this film, it’s a great gateway into other foreign language comedies.
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