La festa e gli invitati

Masterfully lensed film. Wonderful black and white compositions with great placement of figures in the frame.

This is a fiercely anti-Stalinist work that can relate to anyone who hates unquestionable authority. It's opening scenes are pure Kafka-horror. A sadistic magistrate sent down to interrogate people just trying to live their lives seems to have absolute freedom to torment and humiliate.

Then, the magistrate is himself humiliated by a benevolent, yet all- powerful, "host". At this point the tone becomes one of blackest satire. Clearly a commentary on the post-Stalinist USSR and eastern block, the authorities "banned the film forever."

This simple and intelligent movie skillfully and effectively questions conformism and obedience to authority. It was made within the framework of the Czechoslovak New Wave and banned as "subversive" after the Soviet intervention in 1968. The critique developed in this movie is applicable to every society, not just Cold War Czechoslovakia, and therefore is still very topical and significant.

The plot is surrealist: a picnic turns into an interrogation, but the guests are soon escorted to a birthday party, which then becomes a manhunt for the one man who refused to participate in it. Along with conformism and silent consent of the oppressed, the movie shows how those who have the monopoly over means of coercion and violence arrogantly enjoy their power and control, how they meet people's fear and uncertainty with smugish delight. Each scene is ambiguous and filled with symbolism - every conversation, as well as many one-liners, can be interpreted outside of their context and applied to various social issues, which makes the movie additionally provocative and politically interesting.

Bland and pointless. At just over 1 hour in length, it drags on for what feels like a much longer time. At best, this movie might be useful for its soporific effect; it could very easily lull a tired person to sleep with its slow pace and meaninglessness. Beyond that, it's just another pretentious "art" project by someone who wanted to make a movie but had nothing to provide the viewers other than a small bit of surrealism.

A group of friends are going on a picnic. They are stopped by unknown men during the way. They don't actually notice the moment when they become slaves of a game of absurd. A game they agreed to take part in. They were softly persuaded. Or they were trying to be kind. None of them is able to cross the line drawn on the sand. Except for one who will run away. The fugitive will be chased by the guest who do not do it because of fear. Simply said, they don't want to do any harm to the host...

An idyllic party turns into a prison camp, but the guests don't seem to notice that at all. It was a film about the world we used to live in. We were invited to a similar party and tried to pretend with keeping a smile on our faces. And the cinema was able to film that "escape towards freedom".

Jan Nemec was one of the biggest individuals of the young Czechoslovakian cinema of the 60's. It was already at college were he had trouble with censorship. It stated that he was picking the wrong subjects and that he reached out for wrong authors (Hlasko, Dostojevski). He was also accused of their wrongful interpretation.

The Czech film O slavnosti a hostech (1966) was shown in the U. S. with the translated title A Report on the Party and the Guests. It was co-written and directed by Jan Nemec.

This movie starts off innocently enough. Several friends are enjoying a picnic in the woods. Suddenly, about a dozen men interrupt the picnic, and, politely, but firmly, escort the group to a new location. One of the picnickers is roughed up, but no one is badly hurt.

Then, another man, who is in charge, invites the picnickers to an outdoor wedding party. The whole situation is threatening, but not terrible. Much is made of one of the picnickers who decides to leave, but the other picnickers decide to stay to enjoy the party.

This film was immediately banned when it was completed. The government knew that it was an implied attack on the authorities who ruled Czechoslovakia with an iron fist. It was released during the Czech Spring period, but then banned again after the Russian tanks rolled into Prague. It wasn't released until Soviet rule ended.

This was a difficult movie to enjoy. After the first few minutes, the plot was very tense. On a more basic level, we saw the film on an old VHS cassette, which was in bad condition, and may have been a duplicate. The subtitles were often white on white, so we missed some of the dialog.

The film has an IMDb rating of 7.1, which is pretty good, all things considered. I rated it 8 for the movie I would have seen if I'd watched it on DVD.