Knoflíkári

Nobody does film like the Czechs. While they're most known for the Czech New Wave of the 60's and 70's, a foreign film buff should not ignore their contemporary works. Zelenka's "The Buttoners" will convince you to further explore the dark humor, twisted logic, and tranquil fatalism characteristic of Czech film. While I realize anyone who has dug so deep into Czech films to come across this has probably seen these, I want to take my soapbox moment to recommend the following: Classics - "The Joke," "Closely Watched Trains," "Fireman's Ball," "Diamonds in the Night," "Larks on a String." (Please don't consider this an exclusive list--keep exploring) Contemporary - "Panel Story," "Kolya," (Best Foreign Oscar, 1996), Another one, whose name I can't remember, but it is called the Czech "Reality Bites." Anyway, get into Czech film. Always keep in mind their history over the last century. It definitely matters.

It makes me angry when people describe this film as funny even I cannot avoid the fact that Petr Zelenka has unusual sense of humor. But he is a person that rarely laughs himself. He looks serious and distant like any other self-aware genius. I am much more delighted with his intelligence, his perfect feeling for details and his ability to entirely connect all little parts of this quite complicated story. He is not only a brilliant scenarist but also an extraordinary talented director who truly knows how to chose his actors. There are so many reasons to see this movie, not only once - so, if you have a chance, just grab it!

This is one of the better films I've seen in a while. It takes you to a series of bizarre inhabitants of Prague exactly fifty years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. We get to see the man who cuts buttons of sofas with false teeth between his thighs, a man who spits at trains, the ghost of the pilot who dropped the bomb, and many more. At first the different stories don't seem to be connected, but gradually it all falls together.

This is the best Czechs film ever! It's seven stories which on the first side have nothing to do with each other but they are connected by small small details, and that's the magic in it. You discover throughout these seven stories how they are connected, and it's lovely! It is a film about people, how they feel, what they're like, and it's about ridiculous little things as well! It's about the daily life of common people, but they are presented as heroes. You have to pay attention to the small details and to the wording, the way sentences are being said to truly understand the whole film and not just one story. It's very funny as well! You have to see it!

Like one of the characters in the movie, Zelenka underlines human originality in his beautifully written, directed, acted, photographed and edited film. The film has a great sense of humor. Too bad it's not easy to find around -may be P.T. Anderson would have liked to see it; since he has a lot to learn from Zelenka on connecting various characters with each other, in a way that makes sense.