Pleasant Moments

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2006, 108 min
Section: Czech Films 2006-2007

Synopsis

Psychologist Hana has problems in both her private and professional life: her unemployed husband is jealous of her work and, one day, he finds himself a “better” partner; her pubertal son is just interested in playing computer games. It doesn’t help that dozens of frustrated couples and lonely people pass through her clinic who – like Hana – are trying to find a sense of balance and happiness in a chaotic world governed by the war of the sexes, the loss of solid moral values and the relentless passing of time. Through her heroine, experienced filmmaker Věra Chytilová adopts a bitter yet humorous approach to track the collision of human relationships rooted deep in the destabilised heart of Czech society. The screenplay of this episodic narrative was written in collaboration with psychologist Kateřina Irmanovová who drew on her own professional experience. “Filmmakers have certain obligations towards their era,” states Chytilová. “I’m trying to discover why we are incapable of taking a dispassionate view, why we are all self-centred. I hope that the film is a reflection of today’s society. We all have our own problems but we have to be aware that it is up to us to decide what we do with our lives.”

About the director

Věra Chytilová (b. 1929, Ostrava) has secured professional accolades since the 1960s thanks to her highly distinctive and controversial films. She began with feature documentaries (Ceiling, 1961, A Bag of Fleas, 1962, Something Different, 1963) and successfully returns to the documentary from time to time. She demonstrated her affiliation with the Czech New Wave generation in the collection of Hrabal tales Pearls of the Deep, 1965. During the 1960s she was highly acclaimed for films such as Daisies (1966) and, despite censorship by the Communist regime, she continued making satirical comedies – The Apple Game (1976), Prefab Story, 1979 and Calamity, 1981. She kept up her critical stance even after 1989 (The Inheritance or Fuckoffguysgoodday, 1992, Traps, 1998). In 2000 the Karlovy Vary IFF awarded her the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.