The Firemen’s Ball (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Firemen’s Ball (1967) – M. Forman

You don’t have to be an overly sensitive Communist official to grasp the gist of Milos Forman’s comedy or to see its body blows hit the target.  The leaders of the local fire brigade organise an annual ball that is a showcase for all the failings of Iron Curtain communism.  The committee running things can’t agree on anything. For example, they plan to present a gift to their aging former leader (portrayed as completely out-of-it) and to hold a beauty contest to find someone to award it to him, but every member of the committee has a different view.  The parents are shown as either sucking up to the committee or avoiding them completely. The girls themselves are vulnerable and exploited (one strips while the others flee to hide in the bathroom).  A table of raffle prizes is slowly depleted before the raffle is even held, with the committee at pains to argue that they themselves are not stealing, despite it being obvious that their family members are guilty.  In the end, even the present for the leader has gone missing.  When a real fire breaks out at a nearby house, of course, the firefighters are unable to stop it being completely demolished and they offer only verbal support to the victim who has lost his house.  Fifty years later, this could be seen as “merely” a ridiculous rollicking comedy (successful on its own merits) but just before the Prague Spring you can see how its acute not-very-veiled criticism is a prelude to the brutal crackdown by the Soviets (and Forman’s escape to the USA to ultimately direct One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and other hits).  Brave and lacerating.