Dörfchen, mein Dörfchen

At the beginning I thought this might be rather arty and hard to follow, but it develops into a pleasing story of relationships in village and working life that at times is hilarious. It came out two years after Local Hero to which there appear to me to be quite a few nods.

There are good characters across the generations. The humour is witty, with some darkness and good quality slapstick. Some of the comedy was crafted in a very unexpected way that really made me chuckle and admire the writing and execution.

I felt for the pigeons.

I watched this movie for about 30 minutes, as I understand it already touched upon everything that happens in the village. One of the main characters is an autistic person, "a village idiot". I felt pain watching this person. However "authentic" the portrayal of the village in the 80s in Czechoslovakia might be, I am not sure I can feel the humor here as so many situation show relatively pitiful existence of the village idiot. Though it is great to see that the community is making an effort at helping him adapt, it is also taking advantage of him. It is the reality, but from the perspective of me, a person living in an urban setting, where various things are done to make disabled feel more empowered, the village community seems some steps behind. As portraying this condition, which can never be helped ('he either strikes or has killed himself') -- the movie is very very sad, not a comedy at all. I still gave it 4/10, because of the atmosphere of the village that it creates, and it is very interesting from historical perspective.

Czech comedy about the occupants of small village, focussed mainly on the lives of driver / odd job man Pavek and his trials and tribulations with his working mate Otik, who is rather simple. It becomes so much hassle it is decided to move Otik away to Prague.

Very gently, somewhat Tati-esque take on the many eccentric characters in the village and the trouble they get into. It is slow, gentle, often quite funny and indeed very sweet and certainly worth catching.

A pleasant comedy with several laugh-out-loud moments. A cross between an Abbott and Costello comedy (with roles reversed), and the drama of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". Well worth watching.

My review was written in May 1986 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"My Sweet Little Village" finds director Jiri Menzel in the warm winning form of his "Capricious Summer" as well as other more recent of his pictures such as "Cutting It Short". This comedy about small-town life in Czechoslovakia is a modest but very entertaining opus, and elicited a rarely heard ovation at its conclusion upon screening in one of the smaller salles in the Cannes market.

Simple story emphasizes situation comedy and running gags as bumbling young Otik, thought by his friends and neighbors to be mentally retrded, is rejected by his older workmate, Mr. Pavel, on delivery jobs. Pavel is not the only one tired of Otik, as an influential type is working on getting the boy transferred to a job in Prague so his local house can be lucratively modernized and resold, complete with an "English garden".

There are all sorts of goofy local intrigues, such as the young married woman who is always conspiring to get Otik out of his house (one time he is sent off to catch a "must-see" Romanian film) so she can dally there undetected with her young boyfriend. The town doctor (Rudolf Hrusinsky) is forever crashing his car into almost everything in its path, and though he is sympathetic, he is given to talking his patients out of their symptoms rather than prescribing any treatment.

Using a lowkey, simple style that perfectly snatches the rural setting and unsophisticated characters. Menzel very warmly coaxes humor out of familiar material. Some of his running gags are priceless and no matter what happens, including inevitable physical violence (as in the cuckolded husband's reaction), there is no hint of malie here. Menzel very gently pokes fun at the provincialism of his countrymen, in a universal way, as when two guy discuss how the bra-less look has caught on in the West -and how glad they are it has spread as far as their village.

Cast is uniformly excellent as an ensemble, with stalwart Rudolf Hrusinsky particularly delicious as the doctor.