The Firemen's Ball [P&S] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Firemen's Ball was Czechoslovakian director Milos Forman's final film in his home country; he was scouting locations in Paris when the Russians moved their tanks into Prague in 1968 causing Forman to decide to remain an expatriate. Because of the supercharged political climate of the era, critics read all sorts of allegory and hidden meanings into the Firemen's Ball. Other critics simply accepted the film as the slapsticky tale of a disastrous small-town celebration in honor of a retiring fire chief, and laughed accordingly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: PCM Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Pan and Scan
• Features:
  • New digital transfer, with restored image and sound
  • Video interview with director Milos Forman
  • A behind-the-scenes look at the transfer process, featuring cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek and comments from Milos Forman
  • New & improved English subtitle translation

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1968 (Milos Forman)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Vaclav Stockel - Fire Brigade Commander
       Josef Svet - Old Man
       Jan Vostrcil - Committee Chairman
       Josef Valnoha - Adjutant
       Josef Kolb - Josef
       Frantisek Debelka - 1st Committee Member
       Josef Sebanek - 2nd Committee Member
       Marie Jezkova - Josef's Wife

• Director:

  Milos Forman

• Screenwriter:

  Milos Forman, Ivan Passer, Vaclav Sasek, Jaroslav Papousek

• Cinematographer:

  Miroslav Ondrícek

• Composer (Music Score):

  Karel Mares

• Editor:

  Miroslav Hajek

• Production Designer:

  Karel Cerny

REVIEW:

• Milos Forman's last film in his native Czechoslovakia is a mordant attack on the pettiness and hypocrisy of the middle class. Essentially plotless, the 73-minute feature is set at a ball thrown by the firemen of a small town in honor of their retired chief. The party gradually devolves into a farcical mess, culminating in a fire that burns down an old man's house. Throughout the film, the townspeople are revealed to be mean and self-serving. People steal raffle prizes meant to benefit the victim of the fire; a veteran fireman is caught stealing; the memento for the retired chief turns out to have been filched as well. Faintly absurd and borderline cruel, The Firemen's Ball contains some amusing comic set pieces, such as a thrown-together beauty contest organized by the leering old men of the fire company and a melee that ensues over the stolen prizes. The movie has lost some of its punch with the subject of its satire so distant now, but its anarchic spirit is still infectious. As it turned out, the satire was too strong for some in the home front: the movie's 1967 release was temporarily blocked by the president himself, while 40,000 Czech firemen quit their jobs in protest, only to return to work after Forman assured them that the movie was not criticizing firemen specifically. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi