Special Events 2018 / Bloudění / Czechoslovakia 1965
In this depiction of a generational conflict of values, the film’s title symbolically conveys many of the characters’ frame of mind. The father, a one-time communist of Stalinist bent, is trying to find a way to excuse his past. The son, affected by his dad’s moral failings and with his soul in disarray, is endeavouring to choose the right way to live his life, as are the three youngsters he encounters when he runs away from home.
Young Michal’s disapproval of his father in this quasi-existential drama is to some extent more fundamental than the usual rebellion parents have to face as their children become adolescents. His father, a communist, was involved in shady party practices during the 1950s and now, in a somewhat more relaxed political climate, he attempts to deflect his guilt with bombastic speeches and recollections of his purported wartime heroics. His behaviour nevertheless reveals his uncertainty; he is groping in the dark just like his son, vainly seeking values to depend on. The “searching” of the film’s title is cleverly projected into the overall conception of the work: the characters speak to each other without understanding, and they roam restlessly from place to place without ever heading towards a specific goal.
Zdena Škapová
79 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Jan Čuřík, Antonín Máša
/ Screenplay Antonín Máša
/ Dir. of Photography Jan Čuřík, Ivan Šlapeta
/ Music Jan Klusák
/ Editor Miroslav Hájek, Jaromír Janáček
/ Art Director Věra Vainarová
/ Producer Jiří Krejčí
/ Production Filmové studio Barrandov
/ Cast Jaromír Hanzlík, Jiří Pleskot, Jiřina Jirásková, Vladimír Šmeral, Alexandra Myšková, Jana Brejchová
/ Sales Národní filmový archiv
Antonín Máša (1935, Višňová, Czechoslovakia – 2001, Příbram, Czech Republic). Selected filmography: Searching (1965), Hotel for Strangers (1966), Looking Back (1968), The Silence of Larks (1989), Was That Really Us? (1990). Screenplays: Courage for Every Day (1964), What’s Up, Doc? (1984)
Jan Čuřík (1924–1996, Prague, Czechoslovakia). Filmography: Searching (1965)
Národní filmový archiv
Závišova 5, 140 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
E-mail: [email protected]
Tomáš Žůrek
Distributor, Sales Agent
Jaromír Hanzlík
Actor
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