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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD EAN: 9780780024977 Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Mono ISBN: 0780024974 Label: Criterion Languages: Manufacturer: Criterion MPN: FIR140 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Criterion Region Code: 1 Release Date: February 12, 2002 Running Time: 71 minutes Studio: Criterion Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 1968 Editorial Review: Description: A milestone of the Czech New Wave, Milos Forman's first color film The Firemen's Ball (Horí, má panenko) is both a dazzling comedy and a provocative political satire. A hilarious saga of good intentions confounded, the story chronicles a firemen's ball where nothing goes right-from a beauty pageant whose reluctant participants embarrass the organizers to a lottery from which nearly all the prizes are pilfered. Presumed to be a commentary on the floundering Czech leadership, the film was "banned forever" in Czechoslovakia following the Russian invasion and prompted Forman's move to America. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Dry Humor, Witty and FunI still love this movie. It's an exaggeration of how people behave, under all forms of government, in my opinion. That's why most viewers can identify with it and find it amusing. Just read the book, Five-Finger Discount, which humorously outlines the every day petty theft of the American author's middleclass family and relatives, one an established lawyer. Of course the idea of incompetent firemen responding to a fire in the manner of the Three Stooges is another matter, and this wouldn't be ... Read More Rating: - You can ring the bellI decided to fast forward Milos Foreman's statement which proceeds the picture after hearing him say that 40,000 Czech fireman resigned in protest to his film. After all, that proves to be a hell of an achievement, call it what you want to, a more volatile response to a work of art I'd like to hear, and it seemed a charged spiel that might have been too much before the picture. I watched the remainder of his speech after the film, and it turns out what he has to say does not preclude an objective ... Read More Rating:  - poignant and subtle political satireMilos Forman's 'fireman's ball' is a classic among political satires.. It is remarkable that a film so subtle would be condemned by the czech government. It, in fact, appears harmless to our sensibilities today.. this indicates just how repressive the czech government was at the time.. Not to indicate any superiority in the U.s. (think of all the books and movies that have sadly been censored and banned from schools and the like here)... The fact is this film is a great satire of a desperate nation ... Read More Rating: - Otto! Ottiku!Hori, ma panenko (Firemen's Ball) is perhaps the finest example of the fresh, amusing, and humane style of the Czech New Wave. Milos Forman's movie is funny, sweet, and highly memorable. This is one of my very favorite films. Look especially for Josef Kolb and Milada Jezkova as an honest fireman and his perhaps less-than-honest wife; they are especially charming in this fine, mostly non-professional cast of real Czech firemen and townspeople. Rating:  - A little disappointedIt's being hailed as one of Milos Forman's greatest films. He moved to America from Czechoslovakia after his film was banned "forever" in that country. I did find it somewhat amusing. When a fireman's ball dissolved into anarchy, the movie then became truly interesting. One actor had a gift for showing a lot of emotions with his face and I enjoyed watching him. I suppose that the film says a lot about small town life in that country at the time it was made, and it certainly wasn't flattering. ... Read More |
