Wow! Such a good movie.

Boring

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Getting near the end of viewing one Czech film from the Cold War era every day for April,I decided to look around on YouTube for any hidden gems.Finding nothing but non-Eng Subs movies,I suddenly spotted the first part (with Eng Subs) of a Czech movie that a fellow IMDber had mentioned,which led to me getting ready to be stung by the bees.The plot:Joking around with his dad, Ondrej soon discovers that his dad is unable to take a joke,when he is almost beaten to death.Feeling guilty, Ondrej's dad decides to send him off,in order to become a member of the Order of Teutonic Knights.Joining the Knights,Ondrej follows their rules as closely as possible,and begins to admire fellow Knight Armin von Heide. Restrained by the rules,Ondrej decides to escape from the Teutonic Knights.Feeling betrayed,Heide decides to go in search of Ondrej,in order to cleanse him of his sins. View on the film:Draining any mythical aspect from the film,co-writer/(along with Vladimír Körner) director Frantisek Vlácil & cinematographer Frantisek Uldrich dig into the rustic edge of the Czech New Wave,by laying the castles and the outdoor wilderness bare,with the saturation of white giving the title a brittle atmosphere.Limiting the background soundtrack to chants,a small amount of folk singing and the eerie sound of bees, Vlácil gives the film a cold "saintly" mood,where the burnt-out whites are broken by the black tar of blood running down the screen.Reaching the screen just as the Soviet Union invaded the country,the screenplay by Körner and Vlácil displays a sharp allegorical sword,by making Ondrej's discovery of his individuality one that struggles to break free from the dogmatic rules/religion that the Knights have decided to follow without the slightest of whisper of doubt.Getting very close to the edge,the writers give the relationship between Ondrej and von Heide a strikingly homo-erotic undertone,where the wounds of jealousy fuel Heide increasingly fanatic nature,as Onedrej enters the valley of the bees.

The Czech movie "Údolí vcel," directed by Frantisek Vlácil, was shown in the U.S. with the title "Valley of the Bees" (1968). The film is set in the Middle Ages, in a time of unrest and ceaseless war or preparations for war.A young man, Ondrej, (Petr Cepek) is attending the wedding of his father to a much younger woman, Lenora (the famed Czech actor Vera Galatíková). The boy presents flowers to the bride, but underneath the flowers he has placed bats. His father is so furious that he seizes his son, and flings him against a stone wall. The young man is unconscious, and appears dead. His father vows that, if the child is saved, he will dedicate him to a religious life.The boy does, indeed, survive and enters an order of religious knights, who are sworn to piety and celibacy. At the home of the order, Ondrej is taken under the wing of a somewhat older knight, Armin (Jan Kacer). Armin has an obvious homoerotic attraction towards Ondrej, although it's not clear to me whether there is a mutual attraction. The rest of the drama plays out when Ondrej decides to return home, which is forbidden. Other knights who have attempted to leave the order have been caught and (literally) thrown to the dogs. Armin follows the younger man, presumably in order to bring him back safely to the order. Events really begin when Ondrej reaches his destination.Another reviewer has compared this film to Bergman, and I agree. Think "Seventh Seal" with rampant self-flagellation, superstition, and violence. Not an easy or a pleasant movie, but a powerful and memorable one.We saw the film in the wonderful Gene Siskel Theatre in Chicago. Where else could you see a Czech movie made over 40 years ago? The Siskel Theatre is one of Chicago's cultural treasures. Like The Seventh Seal, this film will work better on a large screen, but if it's available on DVD, by all means see it. You may or may not like it, but you won't forget it.

This is, without a doubt, one of the finest films I have ever seen. It works so well on so many levels. It is a religious drama, an historical drama and a darn good yarn. The acting is first-rate throughout and the cinematography and music are breathtaking in their beauty. Vlacik had an obvious fondness for deep poetic and metaphysical image and story-telling. But, he also had a gift for sheer drama. There are many shocking moments that almost take your breath away. You really feel you are in the Middle Ages with all of its existential isolation and horror.The previous reviewer describes the film fairly well so I will not get into the actual story. But if you have a chance to see this film at a film festival, see this film. This film is as good as the best of Kurosawa, Rivette, Bergman, Angelopoulos etc. 10 points out of 10.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A widescreen black and white 13th century Middle Ages drama that, with a few spoilers here, opens with a wedding A shy young boy offers his gift of flower petals to the bride, but underneath are bats, so his father, in a rage, literally throws his son against a brick wall, promising to offer this child to God if he survives. Later, the boy is seen joining the Order of the Teutonic Knights, befriending one of the brethren there by lying naked in the cold sea together, nearly numb from the cold as the waves continuously roll over their bodies, concluding `One must suffer to find God.' Oddly, they remain friends, but develop differing religious views, which pits one against the other. The boy returns home to his village after his father dies and develops an attraction for his step-mother, which evolves into one of the best sequences in the film. There is a procession of children singing and chanting, a sign of complete innocence, while the boy, now a young man, assumes his father's position and takes hunting dogs out into the countryside where they release a young deer, then let the dogs give chase until they consume the deer. This is juxtaposed against the scenes of the children, while the step-mother enters a private room that resembles a dungeon, removes her garments above the waist and flagellates herself, but the young man catches her in the act. She rejects him, claiming `I am your mother,' but then in the next scene, leads him out into the woods where she proclaims they can be married, and lo and behold, they are lovers, only to be spotted by the other brethren from the Order, who has maintained his religious zealotry, and feels the need to stop humans from behaving like dogs. So of course, the prominent scenes in this film are scenes of humans being mangled by wild, hunting dogs, who were thought of as werewolves, possessors of evil, supernatural powers. The contrast of this kind of paganism and a more ordered, structured religion, both equally intolerant, both causing a great deal of suffering, frames the story, while outside the Order's walls, the ocean is ever present, timeless, and never ceases to cleanse man's sins away.