Kytice

I think the movie is absolutely great. I got stuck by the camera and stories that every Czech know from the primary school so good. Camera is amazing, somewhat like "Hidden dragon crouching tiger". Next thing which stunned me was a music and I knew I must have the OST. Actors were pretty good, I don't know what the writer of the before comment was awaiting. It is more an epic play made of Erben's verses than a movie. Story is not narrated only by the actor's performance, but also by the mood of scenes (colours, music, costumes). One must think a little more as it isn't an action movie. Though some action can be found there too. With exception of the last story which is incomprehensible without knowing the original poem, remaining parts are simply perfect.

I saw this film before two weeks. It's kitsch, boring and totally unintelligible for people, that haven't read the original book. There are many fact mistakes too... actors plays rather poor, you must laugh even in the sad moments. It was a totally waste of time.

Like the guy from Alaska, I just came back from Europe this winter vacation, and in my stay at Prague I saw this movie. I had been seeing movies in all the countries I visited just to get a feel for their cinema (these are all non-subtitled foreign films i couldnt understand a word of), Schule in Germany, MeseAuto in Hungary, Billy Elliot in Austria and this.

This film was extraodinary. The interestin thing is that we never understood any of the other movies and just had to figure things out from the visuals, like watching TV on mute. But this movie had very little dialogue anyway, so it didnt matter. I found myself overwhelmed by the cinematography. It reminded me a lot of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

As far as I know, there was a famous poet who wrote 15 short stories, and this film is 7 of them (complete with 7 candles that one by one get blown out before each story). I'm not sure, but I took this to be a little like the movie Seven, where each candle, and thus, each story, represents one of the seven deadly sins. But because there were 15 stories in all, I'm not sure how well this theory holds up.

This is an incredible movie to try to pick apart. THere is so much symbolism and there is no language barrier. If you ever make it to the Czech Republic or Prague, specifically, check this movie out.

Beautiful compendium of seven Czech tales: in "Kytice" (Wild Flowers/Garland/The Bouquet), three little girls miss their dead mother and make her come back in a very special way; in "Vodnik" (Waterman), a young woman disobeys her mother and falls into a lake, where she is seduced by an amphibious man to whom she bears a child; in "Svatební košile" (Wedding Shirts), a woman begs to the virgin Mary for her soldier husband's return and he does come back as a ghost; in "Polednice" (Noon Witch), a housewife, worried by the crying of her baby, invokes the presence of the terrible witch Coca; in "Zlatý kolovrat" (The Gold Spinning-Wheel), an innocent and beautiful peasant girl who is asked in marriage by a king, is murdered by her ambitious mother and twin sister, to take her place in court; in "Dcerina kletba" (Curse of the Daughter), a young woman is punished for abortion; and in "Štedrý den" (Christmas Day), two girls go out into the dark, frosty forest to solve an enigma, without realizing Death is after a dear one, completing the circle of stories, based in ballads written by Karel Jaromír Erben in 1853. All the tales belong to the mythic and poetic spirit of Romanticism, with elements of fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, eroticism, death and predestination. A highly rewarding cinematic experience.

This movie is superb! It is a great way to learn more about Czech and Slavic culture.I strongly recommend to read the book first, to get some idea what it is about. The movie itself gives useful hints how to interpret the ballads in the book. Some hints are really unexpected and may change your interpretation crucially. For instance the portrayal of the water spirit. It is breath-taking! Various bright and dim colors back up the overall mood and create amazing atmosphere. Some horror and/or thriller-like elements are used, making the overall impression stronger. It is not an easy movie at all. The life portrayed in the movie and our present day life have a lot of common features, too.