Markéta Lazarová

"One of central European cinema’s major masterpieces."  MICHAEL BROOKE, SIGHT AND SOUND

A near-unanimous selection as the greatest Czech film of all time in a 1998 survey of 100 Czech critics and film professionals, František Vláčil’s monumental Markéta Lazarová is a “crazed musk ox of a movie, a nightmare epic of warring medieval tribes . . . the most convincing film about the Middle Ages made anywhere” (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice). Bergman’s The Seventh Seal meets Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in a sprawling, visually dazzling, brutally realistic portrait of 13th-century Europe at the crossroads of paganism and Christianity. The striking Slovak actress Magda Vášáryová (a candidate for the Slovak presidency in 1999) is title character Markéta, beautiful daughter of the clan Lazar, who is kidnapped by merciless Mikoláš of rival clan Kozlík on the eve of her entry into a convent. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, the film abounds in haunting, hallucinatory animal imagery that evokes a profoundly predatory and alien world. The production was painstakingly prepared by Vláčil, who insisted on absolute historical authenticity in the costumes, props and sets; he also secluded cast and crew away for an extended stay in the Šumava forest in order to immerse them, physically and psychologically, in the harsh conditions they would be portraying. “Primitive and brutish . . . rich and evocative . . . a powerful and fascinating film unique in the history of Czechoslovak cinema” (Peter Hames). B&W, 35mm, in Czech with English subtitles. 162 mins.