Fin d'août à l'hôtel Ozone

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.

There isn't much of a story line in this film. But the characters and atmosphere are very effective.

There is one somewhat disturbing, but brief, sequence where a nice looking German shepherd dog is killed. I think they just simulated it's death by catching one of it's legs in a humane trap, but the dog's piteous yelps are still very heart rending.

The rest of the movie is very good, especially towards the end when the group of women are staying at the nearly abandoned hotel.

In a way, this movie was very well structured, even though there isn't much of story. It starts out slow and sets a scene, and then the plot thickens fairly smoothly and progressively towards the end. And it has a really tremendous ending, but I don't want to reveal it.

And, of course, the best thing about this movie are the feral young Amazonian women.

I'd love to have a copy of this film. It's a pity that it's out of print.

I saw this last night at the American Cinematheque as part of their tribute to screenwriter Pavel Juracek, and I have to say WOW. I was thoroughly impressed, completely engrossed from the first frame. The Cinematheque's schedule described this as "MAD MAX directed by Andrei Tarkovsky", which isn't far from the mark.

The actress who played the Old Lady, the leader of the amazons, has one of the most beautifully expressive faces I have ever seen onscreen, and this quality was only emphasized by the razor sharp black-&-white cinematography that brought out every tiny detail of emotional nuance. I found myself imagining that the Old Lady had been the teacher at an all-girl elementary school, and that after the Apocalypse she had merely extended her role of den mother into chief of the amazons' little tribe.

The actresses who play her young charges, nearly all apparently amateurs (only a few have any other film credits), are all attractive to a greater or lesser degree, but not in a slick, Hollywood way. They're like healthy, athletic peasant girls and farmer's daughters. Many appear to be expert equestrians - how to describe the thrill of seeing one of them mount a galloping horse sans saddle or stirrups? Of particular note is the young woman who played Barboura, the Old Lady's heir apparent, a statuesque red(?)head, a Balkan Sophia Loren. What a shame that she and nearly all of the other amazons made only this film and no others. They're all completely believable in their roles as young women transformed by the rigors and loneliness of their post-apocalyptic environment into hardened, even cruel near-barbarians (all without any male influence, mind you).

A word of caution for animal lovers: there all several scenes in which real animals - a snake, a cow - are actually killed onscreen, and very graphically. By today's standards this may seem callous, even evil, but in the context of the film I can understand how the filmmakers might have felt justified in doing so as these killings make the point of who these women are and what they've become (unlike, say, some of the egregious mondo thrills of onscreen animal slaughter in nearly every Italian cannibal film ever made). As for the dog mentioned by a previous reviewer, I'm uncertain whether or not it was killed. It may have been merely snared by one leg and pulled down to simulate its being shot, and it does appear to still be breathing after one of the amazons knocks its skull in just below the frameline; but it's hard for me to imagine an animal in such obvious distress being well-trained enough to suddenly go quiet after a 'pretend' blow to the head with a rifle butt. Besides, it's obviously a malnourished mutt and earlier in the film one of the actresses does connect with its head when she hurls a small log at it. Well, you can be the judge if you ever have a chance to see the film - which, if it does come up, I highly recommend you take.

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.

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.