Fine agosto all'Hotel Ozon

I remember seeing a small handbill in a college basement around 1980. One of the films to be screened was THE END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE. The title intrigued, but, being the typical "too busy College Student" I did not attend the showing. So, for about a quarter century the title just lingered in my memory. Unreachable. I've NEVER heard of it screening anywhere, playing on TV or available on video or DVD (even in bootleg form). The title itself was so tantalizing, promising perhaps something apocalyptic (END OF "THE WORLD" not "AUGUST" perhaps?) or mysterious (a Hotel in the Ozone Layer?). And, of course, its sheer scarcity could only enhance the mystery, the suspense. Then, there it was in the American Cinematheque schedule. Oh, NO, I wasn't going to miss it this time! I had been up for work since 4 AM (!) and had worked a full 12 hour day. But, I was NOT to be denied! While the film does not quite live up to its evocative title (there was no reasonable way it could), it's still a fine Eastern European contribution to the Post-Nuke, End-Of-The-World and Lord of the Flies sub-genre(s).

After an oblique reference to the Nuclear calamity that man inflicted upon itself some 15 years earlier, the film proper begins slowly as we come to find a band of young, presumably fertile women, led by a wise old sage. I emphasize the word slowly, because the pace is off-putting at first. Events do happen and we get a picture of the women's pathetic and lonely existence. I particularly admired the fact that they are not scrubbed clean, shaved, manicured and primped and prettified as they doubtless would have been in an American production - Remember all those "lost women" films where the tribal women look like beauty contestants (indeed a couple of the actresses are very attractive, just unkempt)?! But, the glacial pacing is almost enough to drive most viewer's patience beyond the brink. Once the group stumbles upon an old man and his "Hotel Ozone", the film comes into its own. While the viewer is naturally inclined to sympathize with the women (if they had been men would we be so accepting?) despite some cruel, savage and disturbing activities (particularly towards animals), slowly we come to see a fuller and less positive view towards them. This reversal is doubtless intentional and packs a strong visceral punch. The final images of this band of lost ladies wandering a barren landscape is both heart-breaking and depressingly believable.

It's to the film's credit that we are not given a false or tidy ending: Befitting a title as gloriously ambiguous as THE END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE.

It is 25 or so years after a nuclear war, and a few hardy young women, and an older leader, are wandering (in Czechoslovakia?) in search of canned food from before the war that can be safely eaten. No men apparently survive, being less resistant to radiation. They come across a mountain resort hotel, the Hotel Ozone, where an old man lives alone with a wind-up record player and old books and magazines. The young women, raised as barbarians, act the part. The person who introduced me to this chilling movie pointed out that science fiction movies were supposed to have monsters, and suggested looking for the monsters in this one. The B&W cinematography is great, especially in scenes of the women practicing their horseback riding skills and exploring a ruined town. You'll never be able to hear the tune "Roll Out the Barrel" the same way again.

A group of women, perhaps the only female survivors of a nuclear holocaust, encounter an elderly man living in a decrepit hotel who has thoughts about rekindling the human race. Viewers are offered a sketchy time-line of the post-apocalyptic world (cleverly done using tree-rings) but little is said about the catastrophic events that led to the empty world other than the multi-lingual opening 'countdown motif' and a character's comment that leukemia was a common cause of death, hinting at atomic war. Life in the now desolate world seems bleak and aimless, as the increasingly feral girls wander in search of other people who may or may not exist. The imagery is imaginative at times, such as the image of a human footprint disappearing and the earth cracking after the opening countdowns. The cast and script is quite good (note: I watched a sub-titled version), and the black-and-white cinematography is stark and harsh: the final shot of the girls trudging along a high ridge, perhaps in a world now devoid of hope, is memorable. All in all: a post-apocalyptic tale with no action or adventure, just a bleak vision, a sad closure to our tenure. A CAVEAT: the film has several unpleasant scenes in which animals (a snake, a dog and a cow) are killed (or if they are not, the effects are extremely realistic).

I like the slow pace of the movie. Nothing happens for ages... And there's a lot of theatrical pathos. Nonetheless, what I like very much, is a kind of budget-wise method applied in the movie. Most of it happens in the open meadows - I suppose in some old abandoned army area somewhere in Czechoslovakia. Nothing much is shown, we can just guess.

I have to admit, the film is really interesting. It is one of those few sci-fi films which have been made within famous Czechoslovakian film industry. There are few more rare and interesting titles which I recommend to see. Try "Upír z Ferratu" = Vampire from Ferrat (funny quotation of the classical film horror icon "Nosferatu") - film from 80' from a Czech director Juraj Herz. Kind of weird biotech sport car movie about a racing car which sucks the driver's blood... Reminds David Cronenberg.

to hall 900: I just wanna mention, the old woman Martha, you like so much, is not called Ondřej Jariabek - he is the old man, but she is Jitka Hořejší.

The movie was made during the communist era and regardless of the directors/screenwriters political stance, the film definitely has a slighty disgusting, uncomfortable communist touch to it.

It's one of this films that nobody gets and that's gloomy, minimalist and hermetic. The characters speak in riddles and nothing ever happens, nor does anything ever get explained.

A "troupe" of barbarian like women (so much for communism) walks around through a desolate landscape and doesn't do much, as said before.

The only actual motif or repeating element in the film is the animal cruelty. Dogs are getting beaten (to death), women throw snakes around and at other women and horses are getting pulled by their mane.

Not of it ever makes sense or is getting explained. Needless to say that self professed armchair critics don't seem to have a problem with animal cruelty in this film (or when women are the perpetrators).

All in all this isn't even a good film for the usual undemanding b-movie-fans, sci-fi-nerds or other advocates of bad taste.