A Masterpiece!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I expected to enjoy this film but I'm afraid I had an overwhelming problem with a central element of the plot. If it wasn't for that I would probably have given this film an eight out of ten because I was fairly impressed with how it was executed.The thing that spoilt the film for me was the way that the rape of the titular female character was handled. It was not the rape scene itself that bothered me, but the fact that the perpetrator was the lead male character whom we were evidently expected to feel some sympathy for as the film progressed. I also didn't like the fact that the titular female character seemed to promptly fall in love with her rapist for no apparent reason.It might be that if this element of the plot had been portrayed slightly differently then I wouldn't have had any problem with it but as it stands I found it extremely off-putting. Personally I wouldn't even class this film as controversial, it is just that I think that the aftermath of the rape and the subsequent relationship between the two central characters was depicted in a cack-handed manner. Although I usually want and expect creators to refrain from transferring present day social mores on to the past, in this particular instance such theoretical considerations didn't obviate my adverse reaction to how the plot proceeded. As I have previously appreciated plenty of controversial content I didn't feel inclined to give this film the benefit of the doubt. It also is fairly obvious that the director has a penchant for gratuitous female nudity. I certainly wouldn't recommend this film to anybody who identified as a feminist. However there were aspects of this film that I did appreciate and I can fully understand why others would rate it very highly. Chief among these is the verisimilitude of the medieval setting. I enjoyed seeing all the dirt and the mud and all the buildings looked suitably dilapidated. The music helped to create an appropriate atmosphere and the cast and their clothing were similarly well chosen. I also liked the cinematography and the frequent use of unusual and interestingly varied camera angles. Even though I didn't like this film I feel certain that other filmmakers must have been inspired by it and although I'm not aware of any link it reminded me of "A Field in England".

Some of the most rewarding film experiences I know of annotate the medium itself, oftentimes than not so elliptically it's almost impossible to see at first. I don't mean Fellini's "8 ½" (1963) or "F for Fake" (1974) and their ilk; these are explicitly self-referential films, not that there's anything wrong in that. The films I am referring to aren't really self-referentially about film on narrative level, rather about something else entirely; they become film allegories by extension, as if in the periphery, accidentally."Marketa Lazarová" (1967), so audaciously otherworldly, is a film like that. I've seen it twice now, and slowly it's starting to reveal its riches. The first time around my expectations misled me to approach it as something closer to Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev" (1966), and while there are similarities, the film is so radical it's not that fitting a comparison in my mind.The backdrop for the film is a profound historical and cultural paradigm shift where Christianity and paganism battle it out. Two opposites, the film can be seen as a poetic exploration of this struggle, and thus as a social document. While interesting, something else speaks to me more. For me the two allegorical forces at play are those of image and sound, and their use in film world, in filmic language. They often go their own ways, images showing us something and the narration swerving to somewhere else altogether, and the complex array of characters and their unorthodox introduction and presentation in the film underline the effect of confusion very powerfully. The overdubbed, echoing dialogue, often out of sync with the image, distracted me on first viewing, but it's unmistakably fitting in the grand scheme of things. Some images are so powerful I can't get them out of my mind (not that I'd want to, mind you!) And the music! It's the highest compliment I can think of when I say for a film so visually rich that you should not only see it but listen to it. Liska's contribution to the film in some ways contributes to the modest thesis I've been trying to form in so short a space, that is the wonderful interplay of sound and image. Kieslowski's "Trois couleurs: Bleu" (1993) might compare if I wanted to search for something as equally stunning as this.And I can't write about the film without mentioning the most wonderful sound I've come across in film. It's the convent bell, and one can hear it towards the very beginning, during the revelation and just before the intertitles, I think, and I think it's repeated at least once later on.All in all, what an experience. We're lucky to have two Blu-rays of the film, the first a Czech Region B, the second a Criterion Region A release. The first one does have English subtitles.

Just wanted to add a note about the apparent slightly negative comments about the visual quality of the Second Run DVD release - well, how petty can you get! This astonishing film is incredible to look at and is surely one of the most beautiful films ever made though not, it has to be said, in a conventional sense. Although some scenes feature genuinely authentic brutality, there is a strange dream-like quality to the film's look. The story itself demands total concentration throughout but, by the end, you will be fully rewarded for your efforts. A poetic masterpiece. Great work again by Second Run for making such a cinematic rarity available to view.

"Marketa Lazarova" was a film I saw in 1970 at a small film theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It left an indelible memory, and I've spent years trying to find a way to see it again. At least once a year, I find a note I left about a phone call I've made to some obscure library or other such place in the hope of finding a way to see it.The film won an Academy Award, and it should be remembered. It is stunning in black and white; the story is remarkable in its content and direction. If anyone has ideas about how we fans can possibly revive this movie, we should try to do so. It is worth all the trouble and more just to see it again and again.