Atulur

Of course, this Czechoslovak film ranks among the best of the 70's. The movie came to being at the time after the ominous 1968, the directors were allowed to shoot either political (i.e. communist) propaganda pieces, or if they did not want it, they chose fairy tales. Kachyna tried the Little Mermaid and he did right.Time has not washed away its magic and inner beauty... The Safrankova sisters are excellent in their competing roles, the depiction of the Deep Blue Sea is flawless. The score is also fitting. The whole mood of the film is rather sad, the end, of course, tragic. If I compare the Czechoslovak films coming from those days to the films that are shot at present, it is clear that despite all modern computer methods and tricks the present ones lack the atmosphere of those in the past. It is not only the production that makes them worse but also the quality of screenplay and acting. Very sad.

Those who like Scandinavia`s best hardrock export ever - the band Europe will find this movie a very interesting piece. Otherwise, this movie is not a big quality. It`s just a 30- minute film intended for schools, produced by the Swedish "Landorganisations". But as I have said, Europe fans will find there a very rare insight into their pre-The Final Countdown period - a concert performance of Rock The Night, held in a far-northern Swedish town from On The Loose Tour `85, the early version of the song On The Loose and the most unique track - the ballad Broken Dreams, which has not appeared on any Europe official album... So Europe fans go ahead and get this film! It`s in Swedish, though...

I really do not understand how it is possible that one of the greatest movie series of 1960`s has got such a small amount of comments on this site. This opening movie of the five-part series is in my opinion one of the best. We can see a successful portrayal of rural France of 17th century, the splendour of the golden age of Lous XIV., the debauchery of the court of Versailles etc. Michelle Mercier is simply beautiful, Toja as Louis XIV. is very good as well. The film features some very well-acted scenes. I can recommend it to anyone who loves historical spectacles. This is one of the best ever filmed, I have doubts whether the present film-makers would manage to match it!