Marketa
Lazarova (1967) – F. Vlacil
Whoever said that life in the Middle
Ages was nasty, brutish, and short could have been thinking of Marketa
Lazarova. Director Frantisek Vlacil
evokes the same dank world as Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev with the kind of
stunning black and white cinematography favoured by Bergman or Bela Tarr. Evoking these masters is not out of line,
given that the film was voted the best Czech movie of all time. Two
neighbouring families take to waylaying travellers as they journey past their
land, but when one gang accidentally attacks the King’s men, trouble
unfolds. The families (Christian and
pagan respectively) are set upon by the Captain of the King’s troops and also
have cause to fight each other -- until all or most are dead. Marketa Lazarova herself is abducted from her
family on the eve of becoming a nun, finding a more difficult fate in store for
her. The plot here (though discernible) is less the point than the creation of
the context through the piling on of episodes and anecdotes and even symbols
(one suspects). Enthralling throughout
its necessarily epic length.
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