Since finding Romeo, Julie a tma (1960-also reviewed) to be magnificent, I've been trying to keep a look out for other titles from film maker Jiri Weiss. Taking a look at the Czech flicks I've downloaded that are yet to be watched,I was happy to discover that I had unknowingly got hold of a Weiss title! This led to me picking up the fern.
View on the film:
Opening with a dialogue-free 9 minute sequence deep in the heart of the fairytale woods, writer/directing auteur Jirí Weiss & cinematographer Bedrich Batka conjure up a magical abstract atmosphere, woven in sawn-off tracking shots lit by the beams of light entering the forest,and jagged, obscured angles giving the Golden Fern woman a mirage appearance. Getting out of the woods, Weiss displays a spectacular taste for the outdoors, with Weiss bringing out a lyrical quality in the rumbling sound of war taking place against the backdrop which Jura enters, and the crisp black and white becoming fractured as Jura falls under the spell of a deadly enchantress Generálova.
Adapting Jan Drda's fairytale, the screenplay by Weiss thoughtfully continues the exploration of outsiders in a dangerous land,doom-laden romance and the horrific mark of war featured in Romeo, Julie a tma, with the pure,protected love Jura shared with the Golden Fern woman becoming ripped as he prowls deeper into the war and becomes poisoned by his love for Generalova,only to be left screaming in the wilderness for his lost Juliet. Reuniting with Weiss for the final time before he fled the country to escape the Commie government, Daniela Smutná gives a superb performance as Generálova. Completely different from the humanity she gave Hanka, Smutná fills Generálova to the brim with seductive venom, caring little for others and wrapping Jura (a fantastic, rugged and ruthlessly determined Vít Olmer) round her fingers,as the golden fern breaks.
View on the film:
Opening with a dialogue-free 9 minute sequence deep in the heart of the fairytale woods, writer/directing auteur Jirí Weiss & cinematographer Bedrich Batka conjure up a magical abstract atmosphere, woven in sawn-off tracking shots lit by the beams of light entering the forest,and jagged, obscured angles giving the Golden Fern woman a mirage appearance. Getting out of the woods, Weiss displays a spectacular taste for the outdoors, with Weiss bringing out a lyrical quality in the rumbling sound of war taking place against the backdrop which Jura enters, and the crisp black and white becoming fractured as Jura falls under the spell of a deadly enchantress Generálova.
Adapting Jan Drda's fairytale, the screenplay by Weiss thoughtfully continues the exploration of outsiders in a dangerous land,doom-laden romance and the horrific mark of war featured in Romeo, Julie a tma, with the pure,protected love Jura shared with the Golden Fern woman becoming ripped as he prowls deeper into the war and becomes poisoned by his love for Generalova,only to be left screaming in the wilderness for his lost Juliet. Reuniting with Weiss for the final time before he fled the country to escape the Commie government, Daniela Smutná gives a superb performance as Generálova. Completely different from the humanity she gave Hanka, Smutná fills Generálova to the brim with seductive venom, caring little for others and wrapping Jura (a fantastic, rugged and ruthlessly determined Vít Olmer) round her fingers,as the golden fern breaks.