Capricious Summer

Most of the Czech films I've seen follow a familiar pattern: a history lesson revolving around war or occupation, along with lots of bohemian irony and iconic images, usually of Prague. This one's different. I enjoyed Kolya, and Menzel's other films (Closely Watched Trains and I Served the King of England), but I prefer this one for leaving out the pathos.

The irony would come through more clearly if I spoke any Czech beyond "dobre den", but this film still has plenty. A tattered little town with unpaved streets, drenched by miserable summer rain the whole way through. A visit by a fleabag circus supplies a limited amount of merriment - about what the little town deserves. About all they've come to expect, too, in their sodden little corner of Bohemia.

I wouldn't have watched this film at all if I hadn't already "read" the book. Josef Capek's witty illustrations for the novel led me to a movie which is every bit as good, and which fills in the details I couldn't read between the pictures.