Loves of a Blonde by Zach Mason

Title/Year:

Loves of a Blonde / 1965

Director/Birth Country/Year Born:

Milos Foreman Caslav / Czechoslovakia / 1932

Budget:

n/a

Gross:

1,000,000 (imdb)

Synopsis:

In a small Czech town called Zruc, a mixer is pulled together for lady workers of a shoe factory by the manager. The reasoning behind this gathering is to keep the young women distracted from the fact they're working long, tenuous days for a communist government that is isolated from a evolving outside world. Andula, a young women at the gathering, does not fall for the pudgy, middle-aged, army reserve decoys brought in by the manager, but yet falls for the handsome pianist. She runs off to find him in his home town of Prague where an awkward dance of love and disillusionment ensues.

Narrative and Visual Keywords:

young love, romance, naive, controversial, political

Characterization/ Dialogue:

The characters in this film seem to be sheltered from what is real. The factory workers are longing for something, anything in there lives. Love is the only thing they might be able to achieve. They are like puppets on strings that are so long they descend up into the darkness where giant hands control them. This also is how the dialogue comes across, naïve and innocent.

Camera/lighting/editing technique:

Camera kept tight in and held framing that seemed to add to the affectionate shots. Lighting was evenly distributed, not distracting from the action on the screen.

Political/ Social Commentary:

This movie had strong commentary about what was going on in Czechoslovakia at that time. It had quite a bit of political satire. The film showed how fake the communist government was and how it tried to cover up that same fact with arbitrary gatherings and promises.

Historical Relevance/ Recognition:

It made quite an impact in America when it premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1966

Notable Collaboration:?

Random fact, Etc.:?

Questions.

1. The women in the factory just seemed like work was mundane and droll. There is an interesting scene where the man in charge is walking through the factory and is so delighted at the work of the women, and the viewer can tell the women hate his enthusiasm.
2. The ring seemed like a symbol to me. When Andula doesn't return the ring and doesn't want to see the man who gave it to her, that seems like she is also rejecting her way of life in that town.. The mother seems surreal to me. She seems way over protective of her son, Milda; kind of like the factory towards the women workers.
3. At the first of the movie Andula seems like there is no way she is going to take control of her life, but at the end she surprises me and leaves the small town. Now that may not get her out of the control of the communist government, but it does give hope to her as an individual. I did not pick up on a view point of divine or God... maybe that in itself is a point.

1.Balio, Tino. The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946-1973. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2010..

2. http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/188-loves-of-a-blonde