Ball Lightning: Review of the miniseries King of Šumava and other premieres

After a successful series Yvette the domestic streaming service VOYO launched a new miniseries about the prematurely deceased singer Iveta Bartošová KING OF SHUMAVA: PHANTOM OF THE DARK COUNTRY. In addition, both series bet not only on well-known material, but also on the name of the director and (co-)writer. For Yvette Michal Samir is responsible for King of Šumava David Ondříček, who is after crime fiction In the shadea television two-parter Dukle 61 and sports-biographical Zátopek he returns to the communist past to critically evaluate its legacy.

“Aalthough the original film version from the 1950s is visually arresting, I can’t get over its ideological tribute to the time and the black and white depiction of positive and malicious characters. The new treatment in Ondříček’s miniseries sets itself apart from this by its attempt to realistically portray the story of the border guard,” thinks Jana Bébarová. “I appreciate the cast of young actors led by Oskar Hes and Vojta Vodochodský, who bring youthful recklessness to the story, but the pace is uneven, he adds. Jana clarifies that while “the second part is losing momentum, the third is trying too hard to catch up.” In addition, it ends with an unnecessarily awkward cliffhanger,” Jana evaluates the three-part miniseries as a whole.

Marek believes that the creators are hoping, or even counting, for another series when the ending is open. Especially when the fate of Josef Hasil’s life is more interesting even after his Šumava-trafficking adventures. “But if King of Šumava finished with the first row, it would be Ondříčk’s most daring act, namely with its audience dissatisfaction and subversion of the classic narrative”, he intends. “The first two parts mainly tried to revise communist propaganda and leaned towards greater authenticity through colloquial expressions and more explicit sex scenes. The final episode, on the other hand, takes the real historical background and real characters as a pretext for a genre narrative, which, however, leads to something unsatisfying.”

Marek and Jana by se King of Šumava: Phantom of the dark region they had it transferred to the second row, and thus despite – or for – the imbalance they give the whole 70 %.

Netflix’s hidden gem

Both Marek and Jana more or less agreed on WHITE NOISE, which is one of the best films of the past year for them. An adaptation of Don DeLillo’s postmodern novel, directed and written by Noah Baumbach (Meyerowitz’s stories (new selection), marital history) has been available since the end of last year on the Netfix streaming service, where it will be similar to Blonde undoubtedly belong to one of the most exciting ones.

“I have been following the work of the American director Noah Baumbach since his debut Kick and scream (1995). The creator that you are has built a career on dialogically precise family melodramas, with the adaptation of Don DeLillo’s ‘unfilmable’ novel, he moves a significant step further,” Jana assesses the director’s novelty in the context of his filmography. “It adds Steven Spielberg-style adventure action to the family narrative. Lolo Crawley’s virtuoso camera sits alongside the colorful scenography, culminating in the final dance scene to the rhythm of LCD Soundsystem’s new composition ‘New Body Rhumba’,” Jana describes what the shift consists of. “I’m glad I was lucky enough to see it White noise on the screen they deserve,” boasts Jana.

Marek believes that the Netflix audience will have a problem with the film because of the variable structure and the alternation of genres. “The film transforms before our eyes. It begins as a family drama, thus an apt satire of the university environment with useless fields such as Hitlers studies, Elvis studies, film and media studies, etc. It turns into a Spielbergian disaster about the influence of misinformation, and so, despite the age of the original (1985), it is still relevant. It ends as a paranoid thriller, critical of the pharmaceutical industry, and the epilogue is downright musical,” Marek elaborates on the work’s provocative and remarkable volatility. He also draws attention to monologues, i.e. dialogues: “For Don DeLillo’s books, or for their adaptations, a very specific work with dialogues is characteristic. While in Cosmopolis they were emptied, devoid of meaning, and the characters didn’t even react properly to each other, here the speeches have even rhythmic qualities, which is put to good use in the final musical number.”

To what the name means White noiseyou have to come, but Marek and Jana give the picture behind 90respectively 100 %.

Operation Ritchie and Statham

And how did the fifth collaboration between British director and screenwriter Guy Ritchie and actor Jason Statham turn out? According to Mark, a comedic spy action movie OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE “lags behind the previous two frames Gentlemani a Angry manwhich were among the best that could be seen in cinemas in those years, but it is still an above-average affair”. “Compared to other spy films, it is distinguished by the emphasis on sound and music, which are often decisive. In the introduction, we see how one character walks, which is interspersed with the action happening in the past, to which we hear from the plane in the present those footsteps, which then become part of the musical track,” Marek gives as an example – and adds that similarly imaginatively staged there are more passages. He also liked the subversive approach to the legacy of spy shows: “Ritchie pulls from Bond product placement, but doesn’t do it in as flashy a way as it should Kingsmen,” adds the observation.

“I admit that I haven’t tuned in to Guy Ritchie’s films until now. I ended up at RocknRolly,” Jana confesses to one of her audience rests. “Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre is an average action entertainment for me, I enjoyed the hacker character played by Aubrey Plaza and jokes at the expense of Hollywood icons,” shares the impressions of Jan, who would be a suitable representative of Lisbeth Salander in an adaptation of Men Who Hate Women.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre is for Jana s 50 % really only average, but for Marko it is slightly above average, i.e. behind 70 %.

Why is EIGHT MOUNTAINS artistic kitsch for Mark, while Jana would put on her sneakers and set out to tame the mountains? How much does Lukas Dhont move away from art film and closer to melodrama with his CLOSE? Along with a more comprehensive evaluation of the above images, you will hear it in the Ball Lightning podcast!