The "Master Review" unit of the 15th Beijing International Film Festival, which ended a few days ago, will focus on displaying nine masterpieces such as "The Pearl on the Bottom", "The Train on Close Surveillance", "Loneliness on the Edge of the Forest", "Magic on the Screen", "My Sweet Home", and "I Have Serve the King of England" directed by Iri Menzel, one of the flagships of the "New Wave of the Czech Republic" film movement.

　　Although these works born at Menzel's different creative stages reflect the impact of the changes in the environment and social atmosphere of the times on his creative direction, whether it is the tracing of collective memory, the reappearance of national trauma, the depiction of civilian life, and the capture of innocent humanity, they all adopt the form of comedy and are lyrical, reflecting the optimistic nature of the Czech nation to joke about itself.

　　The robe of comedy and the lyrical background did not weaken the ideological depth, poetic concentration and artistic height of Menzel's works. He was rated as "the most important Czech comedy director" by Peter Hams, the author of the book "Czech and Slovak Films: Themes and Traditions". Menzel said about comedy, "A good comedy should be about serious things. If it is taken too seriously at the beginning, it will eventually become ridiculous." He said so and did the same.

"Strictly monitored trains"

　　1 His legend was created by the times

　　Born in Prague, Czech Republic in 1938, Menzel, although the number of films is limited, he is a legend in the Czech film industry and even the world.

　　His first feature film "The Train with Strict Monitoring" was released at the age of 28, and he won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968; "The Lost Winged Bird", which was filmed in 1969, was banned for 20 years, and just saw the light of the sky again, he won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990. After redirecting the column in 1974, his extraordinary talent once again attracted the attention of the international film industry. "My Sweet Home" directed in 1985 was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "Goodbye, Old Time" in 1989 won the Best Director Award at Montreal and other international film festivals for "Goodbye, Old Time", directed in 1994, "Ivan's Adventure Life" was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and "I Have Served the King of England" directed in 2006 won the International Film Critics Ferbissi Award and other awards.

　　His legend is created by the changes in the fate of the Czech country in the context of the times. In the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia was renewed in the field of culture and art, and the "Czech New Wave" film movement came into being. During this period, Czechoslovakia gave birth to directors such as Jan Kadar, Milos Forman, Vera Shitilova, Jan Nemetz, Yaromier Iresh, Woycek Yasni and Iri Menzel. Most of these directors have received systematic film education at the Prague Film Academy. Influenced by film movements such as "Italian Neo-Realism" and "French New Wave". They used experimental and innovative lens vocabulary to shoot a group of masterpieces that not only reflect on history, observe reality, and lay a foundation for personal aesthetic style, forming a Czech power that cannot be underestimated in the international film industry. Among them, "One Day, One Cat" directed by Woycek Jasney in 1963 is regarded as the beginning of the "New Czech Wave" film that has gained international reputation. The film uses magical realism to tell the story of how a magician can see the hearts of the town through a magical prop cat wearing glasses, reflecting the social mentality at that time, and winning the Cannes Film Festival jury award in one fell swoop.

"The Lost Wings"

　　2 "The New Wave of Czech" learns from literature

　　Czech films have an excellent tradition of learning from literature. After Ya Hasek's long humorous satirical novel "The Good Soldier" was released in the early 1920s, it continued to produce movies. The director of the "Czech New Wave" inherited this tradition.

　　The 1964-directed "Diamond of the Night" by Jan Nemetz is based on the novel by Arnowste Lustig. The film uses documentary footage to tell the story of two Jewish boys fleeing from the Nazi death train, trying to avoid the Nazi sight and escape in the forest, inserting a flashback to the past and the surreal fantasy future. "Shop on the Street" co-directed by Jan Kadal and Elma Kloss in 1965 is based on the novel by Radislav Grossman. It uses the story of a kind Aryan carpenter trying to protect a weak old Jewish woman when the Nazis expelled Jews in Slovakia during World War II, and explores the moral dilemma of a small person forced into the big era, winning the first Oscar for the foreign language film for Czech films.

　　The outstanding cases of films drawing creative inspiration from literature include Menzel's six-degree adaptation of Helabar. In 1965, five "Czech New Wave" directors including Menzel and Hitilova made five stories from Hrabar's short story collection "The Pearl of the Bottom" into five short films, forming a long work of the same name. The highlight film "The Pearl of the Bottom" caused a sensation when it was released, as if announcing that the creation of the director of the "Czech New Wave" has become a string of pearls. Among them, "The Death of Mr. Batisbeck" directed by Menzel, like his previous short films such as "Prefabricated Board Apartment" and "Our Mr. Felster Dies" filmed at the Prague Film Academy, promotes narrative progress and renders the emotions of the characters with the help of the flickering changes of natural scenery. They show the prototype of Menzel's comedy creation style with lyrical elements.

　　After "The Pearl of the Bottom", nearly ten works of Helabar have been adapted into movies. Five of these movies were written by Menzel, namely "The Train of Close Surveillance", "The Wingless Sparrow", "Golden Memories", "Snowdrop Festival", and "I Have Serve the King of England". All four films, except "I Have Serve the King of England", were co-written by Helabar and Menzel. The reason why these movies have become classics like the original is that Menzel's adaptation of Helabar did not follow respectfully, but all have unique creations.

"Capsy Summer"

　　3 I have a special love for Hrabar

　　Born in Brno, Czech Republic in 1914, Hlabar traveled at the bottom of society when he was a young man and worked as a steel worker, railway line administrator, train dispatcher, and waste paper packer. The rich experience and direct experience given him by life provide strong material support for his creation. He is keen on writing dialogues between ordinary people in daily life, and is good at using poetic brushstrokes and cutting methods to present observations and understandings of human beings and the world.

　　Menzel once commented on Hrabar: "In the 1960s, an entire generation was fascinated by Hrabar and his worldview. He was able to describe real life with a remarkable keenness, not naturalism, but through his own poetic way, recombining things that seem unconnected, perhaps events and characters he heard or imagined, and revealing facts by explaining new connections and strange relationships of things."

　　Menzel and Helabar both prefer characters who still maintain pure humanity and optimistic attitudes in the changes of the times. When he explains the theme of Helabar's works, he will use panning mirrors, close-ups, jumping to present the life texture, poetic atmosphere, and jumping between the lines of the original work. With Menzel-style humorous elements and humanistic expressions, he will express the efforts of ordinary people who have certain physiological or personality defects but are innocent and kind to get out of the dilemma created by the external environment.

　　Hrabal's novella "The Train with Strict Surveillance" is based on his real experience as a train dispatcher in a remote town during World War II, involving suicide issues and many trivial and strange events. In Menzel's movie of the same name, the hero of the novel, who was originally at the core of the story, became a young boy who needed to advance to the point of pushing others. The film uses his experience of overcoming sexual confusion to tell the absurd behavior of several strange colleagues. They seem to have no concern for war, but only focus on how to relieve trouble and create joy, but they destroy the German train loaded with arms in a playful way, mocking the Nazis.

　　"The Lost Winged Bird", adapted from the short story of the same name by Hrabar, uses the intertwined fate of a group of prisoners to outline the real life of the Czechoslovak people in a specific period after the war, praising the nobility and beauty of human nature and love in a high-pressure environment. In a dirty steel mill filled with steelmaking materials, male and female prisoners who came here for false or even extremely absurd crimes work in an open air environment. Although they were separated by barriers and were monitored by prison guards, the boy gained love by using a small mirror to refract the sunlight onto the girl's face. When the two were allowed to get married through various obstacles, the boy was outside the prison and the girl was in prison. When the girl was about to be released from prison, the boy was sentenced to prison for telling the truth. The girl also told him his determination to love by using a mirror to shine the sun on the boy's face.

　　Hrabar's novels "Golden Memories" and "Snowdrop Festival", as well as the films of the same name made by Menzel in 1981 and 1984, respectively, are all products of their allowed to continue to create but not really restore the period of creative freedom. "Golden Memories" comes from the small town life of Helabar's parents. "Snowdrop Festival" is written in the background of rural life. In these two movies, Menzel either uses warm-toned lenses to stare at the heroine with both female charm and male personality traits for a long time, or uses cool-toned pictures to slowly spread the countryside scenery. Both are a look back at the beautiful old times that never return. Peiping, who returned to the town with war trauma in "Golden Memories", could only speak loudly, sing out of tune, and talk to himself because he could not control his voice, which brought great trouble to the lives of the people around him, but his posture of living happily also infected everyone.

　　Menzel's 2006 directed "I Have Served the King of England" was his last adaptation of Helabar, when Helabar had already passed away. The original work of the same name uses the first-person perspective of an autobiographical novel, telling the chronological order of the restaurant waiter Diet, who pursues wealth and women in many restaurants in Prague when he was young. He was imprisoned for 15 years in prison in middle age. He came to remote areas to build roads and live in seclusion. With Diet's life experience, he brought out the decades of changes in Czech society in the mid-20th century. The film opens with the scene where Diet was released from prison when he was in his twilight years. When telling the story of his road construction, he constantly inserts his memories of the past, allowing the audience to feel Helabal's thoughts on the cruel relationship between individual destiny, national memory and events in the juxtaposed time and space.

"I've served the King of England"

　　4 Like a flowing moving poem

　　Most of Menzel's other films do not have a relatively distinct political color like "The Train of Close Monitoring", "The Wingless Sparrow", and "I Have Serve the King of England", but are full of praise or imagination for utopian life, like "Golden Memories" and "Snowdrop Festival", yearning for ideal interpersonal relationships that are harmonious in the end, and suggestions for optimistic responses to life changes.

　　In "Capsy Summer", the husband-wife relationship between the owner of the riverside bathhouse living in the countryside, his wife, his friend relationship with the priest and the major, was once broken. Although neither relationship could be restored to normal after the magician and his assistant left, life continued.

　　In "Loneliness on the Edge of the Forest", the husband takes his wife and two children from Prague to the countryside on the edge of the forest to escape the summer heat, and wants to buy the old house of a lonely and somewhat weird old man, so as to use it as a clean land to escape the hustle and bustle city life from time to time. At first, the wife could not communicate happily with the elderly like her husband and children, nor could she adapt to the simple living conditions, but in the end, she treated the elderly and the old house as family and home like them.

　　In "My Sweet Home", Otik, who lives alone in the countryside, is simple-minded but mentally retarded, regards Carrel, the truck driver who takes him to work as his father. He is stupid and angers Carrel, who always makes mistakes while working, and threatens to send Ortik to another truck driver who scares him as soon as the work is over. Otik tried to change his mind in a clumsy way, but to no avail. He was sad and decided to follow the arrangements of those who wanted to use him to get benefits and go to Prague to work and live. But he obviously could not adapt to the rhythm of life in this strange metropolis. When he was frowning, Carrel, who had long regarded him as his son, came to Prague and took him back to his hometown. In this movie, Menzel depicts an ideal rural model that is opposite to the city. The picture of Carrel and Otik walking on the country road at the same pace is like a moving line of poetry.

　　In the film, in addition to Otik's image reminds people of Peping in "Golden Memories", some recurring jokes, such as Carrel and Otik can always encounter problems with the village doctor's car while walking in line, and also reminds people of the workers who will be injured in "Golden Memories". "No matter how you hide, you can't escape" has become a comedy plot in the film.

　　However, "can't escape" is also the fate of Menzel and many directors of the "Czech New Wave" with a black humor. In 1994, "Give Me a Dad" written by Zdanek Sverak, who worked with Menzel and other "Czech New Wave" directors, and directed by his son Jan Sverak, became the third Czech film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film after "Shop on the Street" and "The Train of Close Surveillance". This film, together with the father and son, "Green School Tree", "Fiber Optics", "Prague Etude", and other Czech films in the new era, such as "Sweet Forever", "Don't Go Way" directed by Jan Hobrak, brings a glimpse of some of the "Czech New Wave" movies. (Plum Sheng)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]