Director: Jiří Brdečka, Miloš Makovec, Evald Schorm
Year: 1969
Country: Czechoslovakia (now Czechia)
Alternative Titles: Pražské noci; The Nights of Prague
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Staying in Prague for business, a lonely middle-aged man meets a strange woman in the city and decides to court her, only for her to drag him to a remote cemetery and regale him with three tales about the city.
Review:
The Last Golem-Fearing for his villagers' safety, a rabbi is tasked with creating a Golem for his people, but a woman he secretly yearns for may become a greater complication than controlling his creation. Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable starting point for the film. The initial setup involves the need to create a bigger, more powerful Golem as a display of his power and capabilities over his rival, who refuses to bring a used one back to life, there's enough personal animosity at the heart of everything that it justifies the creation of such a massive beast. This is created through a series of impressive visuals featuring the towering size of the creation interacting with his handlers, which leads to a series of shocking revelations that occur here for a somewhat puzzling attempt at a morality play that doesn't have as much bite to it as it would have had it just included the shocking twists without tacking on the idea of it being done as a morality tale.
Bread Slippers-Trying to court a prospective suitor, a woman instructs him to create a specific brand of clothing for an upcoming ball only to find herself subject to a devastating curse instead. This was a rather underwhelming effort without much going for it. The main storyline here of the noblewoman's desires going beyond the norm and being the reason for her undoing, with an outcome that meets her behavior, gives this the kind of classic format this type of storyline excels at, which becomes apparent at the end when everything gets revealed and spelled out. Otherwise, this one fails to hit the mark considerably with a lot of issues, mostly stemming from the lame setup that requires her to be so completely moronic that wearing a pair of shoes made of bread is a good idea. It's such an unlikely and idiotic concept that the idea feels far too tacky and stupid for this type of feature is going for, and with none of the characters being interesting or likable, it just skates by on its lavish production values without offering anything else.
Poisoned Prisoner-After spending time with numerous suitors over the years, a woman finds that killing them is not as beneficial as she believed. This was a rather bizarre and avant-garde way to end things, as it could've been fine in a more straightforward manner. The whole idea of the plotline to this one here is merely guessed at based on what's going on visually, as the idea of what's going on with the poisoning of the various lovers and brutally killing them is a fine idea that takes on a wild touch with how it plays out in the fashion it does. The visuals of everything, alongside the rather unusual presentation, are present here. However, there's no real purpose to what goes on here, as the dialogue-free presentation is told with a sing-song narration that's used to bring the story along, but it's all so clumsily handled that it just makes everything much more confusing, not having proper context for what's going on. Being the shortest one doesn't help it much either, and it sticks out badly here.
Fabricius and Zuzana-Staying in Prague for business, a lonely middle-aged man meets a strange woman in the city and decides to court her, only for her to drag him to a remote cemetery and regale him with three tales about the city. This is a decent enough wraparound that has some intriguing points to it. The central idea of him trying to court her and spending the time being receptive or rejecting the advances as they wander through the city, leading to a location where the inspiration strikes her to tell a new story about something that happened there, works wonderfully to introduce a new segment. Some of these, especially the initial meetup and the trip through the cemetery, offer some atmospheric touches, but several of the interstitial moments also drag on too long, wearing out their welcome, waiting to get to the next story.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally effective if somewhat problematic anthology in parts, there’s enough to like here that it’s enjoyable for what it is while still being held back by some problematic segments and aspects. Those with an interest in this style of anthology or curious about genre fare from this area of the world will have a lot to like, while most others might want to heed caution.
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