Návrat idiota

This was a nice film to watch, in the way that looking out of the window of a bus can be lulling. The plot was saccharine, far-fetched and flimsy. It was too bad that Gedeon relied on the title of Dostoevsky's book "The Idiot" to generate interest for the story, since it was completely unrelated to the Russian novel. Calling it "Return Of The Idiot" implies that Gedeon's story had some precedence. Here he presents a sad crew of (fairly attractive, at least) inbred characters that revolve around a typical sad-sack anti-hero who, I think, the world could have done without. Thinking of the film, I almost want to rate it at less than seven out of ten, but I enjoyed myself on a cold November night, thinking of the Czech Republic, mildly delighted by the cool, hard blue-grey tones of the images and the film's low-key progression.

This film is about a man who got out of a psychiatric institution after years of treatment.

I must say this film is very boring. The plot is plain and dull, nothing much ever happens. With the amount of material, they could have cut twenty minutes out from the film without compromising the plot. The sets are unattractive, and the characters are flat and unsympathetic. What's worse is that the repetitive background music. The same piercing music plays over and over again, that it really hurts my ears. Unfortunately I could not find any redeeming qualities for this film, maybe except for the fact that it is short.

I have to admit that I was rather skeptical, going to see Navrat Idiota (The idiot's return). Dostoyevsky's Idiot is one of my favorite books and I half-expected to see yet another masterpiece butchered on the screen. I was surprised to find out that it was not so in the case of this film. Sasa Gedeon's story stays close enough to the book to provide you with a sense of familiarity to the story, and yet strays from the book in many ways, essentially creating a film independent from the book. The resulting movie is sure to please the viewer with its subtlety and its atmosphere.

Throughout the movie, we follow the main character, Frantisek. After many years of psychiatric treatment of some kind, he is released from the hospital because according to his doctor `He has no reason to hide from life anymore'. He travels across Czech Republic to a small town where some distant relatives of his live. Arriving there, the day before New Year's eve, he finds himself in the middle of a weird love square between two brothers and two sisters. When things get awry and secrets that would hurt everyone threaten to come to the surface, Frantisek tries to protect them all, and unknowingly, changes everyone's lives. The climax of the movie during the last minutes of the year is one of the bests I've seen

The actors while unknown to the rest of the world, are essentially the creme de la creme of the new generation of Czech actors, most of them recruited from local theaters. Watching the film it is easy to see that they do not come from TV or cinema circles. There's some great acting in that movie! Pavel Liska is wonderful as the idiot and the rest of the crew is just as good. Special attention must be focused in the chemistry between Frantisek and the younger sister Olga, played beautifully by Tatiana Vilhelmova. The dialogues are refreshing in their simplicity. No wise-ass jokes, no cliche phrases. I think that Sasa Gedeon has done a great job there too. The lines are delivered free of any pretension. It's the everyday talk between friends and lovers. In our days of FX and ultra-high budgets where plot and dialogue play a minor role in the making of films, it was really pleasing to see a film that it's all about plot and dialogue. There are no special effects in this movie, no action scenes, no sex, no comedy that will kill you with laughter. There is definitely lots of humor, but the kind of humor you really need to get before you start laughing. The main character does a lot of things that may appear comical, but the viewer does not know if he has to laugh or cry.

All in all it's a great film and at the end of it, you will leave the cinema with a big smile on your face. I've seen it already three times and still cannot get enough of it. Go rent it if you can find it, or even better go see it in a cinema somewhere. It would make a perfect first date movie.....

This film has captured my heart from the day I saw it previewed at Riverside Studios in 1999. Ever since, I have been trying to track this film down on DVD.... anyone who is into laughing and crying at the same time will love this film..... It doesn't matter if this film is in Czech or English, the simplicity and sweetness of it will capture your gaze.... It's one of those films that will stay in your heart forever as its very clever in its story. excellent... can't wait till its released on DVD..... I don't want to hype this film too much as i know hyping a film can disappoint, so watch it and feel it and enjoy it with all the passions inside you....

A person arrives from an institution into the "normal" world and sees our everyday reality with fresh eyes. What is normal? What is sane? Where does reality end and dreams begin? Can a pure, vulnerable person cause his segment of the world to clean itself from a contagion that threatens to wipe it out?

These questions and characteristics are equally relevant to the Czech movie "The Idiot Returns" and to Terry Gilliam's "12 monkeys". The basic difference is one of scale: in "12 monkeys", James Cole is expected to save the entire human race from a deadly virus, while Frantisek in "The Idiot Returns" blunders into a maze of tainted personal relationships within the circle of a family. James is physically and mentally strong in order to have a chance to withstand the strain of time travel, while the most challenging journey Frantisek makes is the train trip from his mental institution to the small town that his relatives live in. The two protagonists are strikingly similar in that it is their openness and vulnerability that enables them to become the catalysts of a hopeful development. James perceives objects of wonder in a spider, corny music on the radio, even the open air itself. Frantisek sees something good in everyone, holds no grudges, can find a positive interpretation for every seemingly nasty utterance or reaction.

Nonetheless, "The Idiot Returns" is a thoroughly Czech movie. We find none of the usual trappings of mainstream American film: there are no firearms in evidence, the physical violence is as restricted as it is significant, quarrels happen mostly between the lines of dialogue instead of outright in Ricki Lake-ish shrieks. In particular the dance hall scenes, the trivial fun and games while people's individual universes are falling apart, bring us right back into Forman's "The Firemen's Ball", together with his particular variety of Feliniesque parades of bizarre-looking characters.

Those of us with a Central European background get jolted right back into a familiar claustrophobia of meticulously tidy Christmas sitting-rooms and the keeping up of appearances, where people over coffee and cookies participate in carefully subdued mental dog fights that would make any sane person renounce family life forever. ("We have to show Frantisek what it's like to be a family!" Yeah. Right.)

And yet James Cole and Frantisek are at least cousins, each of them adapted to their own corner of the woods. If "12 monkeys" is a big concerto, "Návrat idiota" is a string quartet, or rather a clarinet quintet (a foursome and one divergent voice) - over the same theme.