Loves of a Blonde (1965) User Reviews

Gentle, Winning Czech New Wave Romance

[FANatic-10 · 8/10 · 17 May 2005]

"Loves of A Blonde" is a catchy, racy title for what is actually a gentle,low-key and affectionate look at a love affair in communist Czechoslovakia in the mid-60's. The film concerns a young (yes, blonde)girl who seems to be the prettiest one working in what looks like an extremely bleak factory setting in northern Czechoslovakia. The female workers in this shoe factory seem to far outnumber the males of the town. A band travels through town to play at a weekend dance, and the titled blonde (maybe its just me, but I think she resembles Reese Witherspoon a lot at various times)takes up with the piano player. Complications ensue.

There are a number of sweetly comic moments in the film, and it has a great deal of affection for its various characters. Its not all laughs, though, as there is a melancholy undertow to all that goes on. The portrait of Czech society seems decidedly bleak...ugly towns, dreary jobs, precious little fun. The ending is rather ambiguous, but I felt it to be definitely more downbeat than upbeat. You smile, but I felt sad afterward - a feeling rather common after a youthful love affair, I suppose.

LOVES OF A BLONDE (Milos Forman, 1965) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 28 June 2006]

This is the second of Forman's Czech films I've watched after the other Criterion release, THE FIREMAN'S BALL (1967) - though that was via a late-night Italian TV broadcast some years ago; these two films constitute his most celebrated work from this early phase in his career.

While a pleasant and sharply-observed comedy-drama in itself, which must have seemed fresh at the time (particularly the intimate detail of its teenage romance), I feel that a lot of these unassuming but critically-acclaimed foreign films - often made under strained political conditions - tend to come off as overrated when viewed today (a similar recent example I encountered was CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS [1966]). That said, the film benefits immensely from the wonderful cinematography by Miroslav Ondricek (Forman's longtime collaborator).

Besides, it also includes a couple of lengthy - and delightful - set-pieces: the party sequence, in which the heroine and her two best friends are picked up by a trio of geeky middle-aged soldiers; the scene at the home of the girl's 'boyfriend' (with whom she had a one-night stand), where she causes a commotion by turning up unannounced on his doorstep with a packed suitcase!

The DVD supplements comprise an amusing but irrelevant deleted scene, and an interesting 17-minute interview with Forman - in which he discusses the film's genesis and how the mix of professional and untrained actors proved providential, sealing its essential charm.

Love That Check New Wave

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 16 March 2016]

A factory manager in rural Czechoslovakia bargains with the army to send men to the area, to boost the morale of his young female workers, deprived of male company since the local boys have been conscripted.

Loves of a Blonde has often been identified as one of the most significant and ambitious productions of the Czech New Wave, a movement in which a group of young filmmakers, many of whom were educated by the national film academy in Prague, including Forman, Ján Kadár, Věra Chytilová and Jiří Menzel, among others, took significant political risks by using cinema to protest the hypocrisy and absurdity of the Communist state.

I'll say it before and I'll say it again, of all the "new wave" movements in Europe, by far my favorite is the one that came out of the Czech cinema. The beauty, the honesty and sometimes the surrealism (though not here) is just spot on, and for me really captures what it means to have film as an art form. That Forman went on to become an international success is no surprise.

Simple and Touching Story

[Galina_movie_fan · 9/10 · 7 July 2005]

Milos Forman's "Loves of a Blonde" which he made in Czechoslovakia in 1965 way before "Cuckoo Nest" and "Amadeus" tells a very simple bitter-sweet tale about a teenaged girl who works in a shoe factory in a small town. With sixteen girls to one man - her chances to find a man of her dreams were not very high. One evening, she meets an attractive and young piano player who tells her about Prague and compares her to a guitar that could've been painted by Picasso. After they spend the night together, he leaves and she travels to Prague to find him. The film has been one of my favorites for many years and my opinion did not change after I saw it again a week ago - funny, sad, tender, and realistic film about searching for love, broken promises, shattered hearts, and universality of hope.

In a class by itself

[jtur88 · 10/10 · 19 January 2005]

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that so faithfully captured the sense of place. I spent many months in the mid-60's in Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe, and when I recently saw this film, it brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. The scene in the parents' house, when the family was faced with the arrival of the unexpected stranger, is documentary in its portrayal of how a household would look in those times, complete to the smallest details of housekeeping and behavior. It is light-hearted without being slapstick, and it is poignant without being corny. Every character is right on the mark. On my very very short list of the greatest movies ever. In short, it is perfect. See this film, and take the whole family.

Milos Forman from Czechoslovakia

[Petey-10 · 18 September 2009]

Andula is working-class girl living in a Czech town.She sleeps with a pianist called Milda after a party.When she doesn't hear from him, she travels to his parents place, where he still lives.Lásky jedné plavovlásky (English title Loves of a Blonde) from 1965 was the first big hit of Milos Forman.This Czechoslovakian film was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for best foreign film.In my country, Finland, it won a Jussi Award.Hana Brejchová is wonderful as Andula.Vladimir Pucholt is terrific as Milda.Milada Jezkova and Josef Sebánek are great as his parents.The dialogue is marvelous.Like when Andula and Milda are lying in bed and he explains to her how she's angular.That the woman is shaped like a guitar but she's one painted by Picasso.And there are some terrific scenes.The restaurant scenes are fantastic.Those men on their table are checking on the women on their table, trying to find a way to approach.And when Andula arrives at Milda's place and the mother can't deal with it.Great work from the Czech master.

ring guy gone

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 24 May 2020]

Due to bad planning, a fading Czech factory town has 16 young females for every man. They rush to organize military maneuvers near the town which brings in a large number of reservists. Neither side gets what they want. The girls want young men for relationships while the mostly middle-age married men just want a fun time with the pretty young girls.

It's awkwardly creepy for a little while. I'm not sure where this is going until the guy loses his ring. That's hilarious. The comedy comes from the humiliation for the old guys. Otherwise, it's creepy to have the old guys trying to get young girls drunk. It's not fun and rather sad. The young boy trying to get it on isn't that funny either. What I want is the blonde having a life affirming night of talking with the bald married guy. I miss the old ring guy after spending so much time with him. In the end, this is a sad tale of confused sexual awakening. That's interesting but it only has one truly funny sequence.

The poignant, sweet story of Andula; one of Milos Foreman's fine, warm and subversive movies

[Terrell-4 · 9/10 · 11 July 2008]

Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is a wonderful movie...sweet and awful. Sweet, because Forman gives us no one we can dislike as he tells us the story of Andula (Hana Brejchova), a young factory worker in the depressing town of Zruc, making endless pairs of shoes alongside dozens of other young women. Not Milda (Vladimir Puchott), the young piano player who comes to town with a band, seduces Andula, and then leaves for Prague. Not the factory bosses, or the other young women who are bored and eager for husbands (they outnumber the men 16 to one). Not even the regiment of aging, smoking, unattractive soldiers who were based in Zruc to lower the odds a bit. Not Milda's parents, who one day find Andula at their apartment door, suitcase in hand, because she gave her heart to Milda and took him seriously when he told her to come visit him in Prague sometime.

And awful, in a desperate sort of way, because Forman let's us see the lives all these people live in a Communist society that is petty, officious and incompetent. We can smile at a lecture an older woman gives the young factory girls about maintaining their honor and dignity with boys; we can even smile when two young leaders stand up and call for a vote to dedicate all of them to this idea; and we can smile when every girl in the room raises her hand to vote in favor, none against and none abstaining. Then we realize it might not be a good idea to snicker at a vote in favor of honor when a boss thinks it would be a good idea.

There are two long set pieces in the movie that are terrific. The first is a dance in town, held by officials so that the soldiers can meet the girls. We move around with the camera, listening in to the appalled girls as they really see these desperate, coarse guys, and listening to the guys as they eye the girls, drink for courage and, in one case, surreptitiously remove a wedding ring and then dropping it on the floor for all to see. There's that safe, chirpy dance music...the angling to get a girl to take a walk in the woods...the possibility that the bored girl will agree. The second set piece is in Milda's apartment in Prague. Andula has arrived unannounced. Milda is playing with the band at a nightspot and there are only Milda's parents to welcome her. And welcome they don't. They've heard nothing about her. It's clear Milda is in for a surprise when he gets home that night. Milda's mother is not someone you'd want for a mother-in-law. Milda's father is more realistic but not exactly comforting. Their apartment is a living space of ancient appliances, chipped paint and doilies. The nagging opinions of the mother and the exasperated gruffness from the father make us smile. Of course, they have the opposite effect on Andula, who now is close to tears. Forman seems to be quietly pointing out to us what living in Communist Czechoslovakia has come to mean. Poor Andula. Will she have a happy future with Milda? Or will she return to Zruc...wiser, perhaps, but with nothing better ahead for her. Watch the movie and hope for the best. Andula a nice person.

Loves of a Blonde is so poignant and sweet it hurts a little. Forman used mainly non-actors for most the roles and he had a genius for either eliminating their self-consciousness or for making it work in the context of the story. The movie at the basic level of story-telling is effective because the people, from Andula to the bit parts of people at the dance, look and act like people who aren't acting. We wind up liking most of them and feeling indulgent toward the rest.

The Communist regime eventually caught on to the picture of life in Czechoslovakia which Forman presented with such apparent good humor in Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball. It was happy to see Forman leave the country during the crackdown in 1968. Anyone who thinks Forman, when he came to America, lost his subversive sympathy for people who are at the mercy of institutions and governments needs to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ragtime or The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Drab, artless comedy with some affecting performances

[Andy-296 · 6/10 · 23 January 2008]

This Czech film from the mid 1960s is a drab piece of socialist realism, in the form of a quite bitter comedy (by Milos Forman, one of the most overrated filmmakers ever). The story: Milda, a young pianist goes to drab industrial small town to play one night, meets the bird-brained working class blonde Andula during the ball, they make love at his hotel room, he returns to Prague, she breaks with her boyfriend after a fight, and decides to go to Prague to meet Milda. As it happens, the pianist lives with his parents, who are totally opposed with Andula staying at their rundown apartment (Not that Milda wants her to stay). It is a quite artless film, and it is also ugly the way Andula is treated throughout. Only redeeming feature is Jana Brejchova's affecting performance as Andula, a not very bright person who seems to have been bruised more than one time by life.

This is about a shocking case of gender imbalance : more girls but less boys.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 17 September 2008]

It is true but sad that no one in the world would have known about a small Czech town named Zruc if Czech director Milos Forman had not made this film.It is a good thing that he has made it as its fresh appeal would ensure that it is remembered as a supreme example of a famous cinema movement of the sixties called Czech new wave."Lásky jedné Plavovlásky" is a touching film about sad realities, disappointments in love faced by innocent people when they pursue an idle romantic relationship.It is based on a real event which took place in Milos Forman's life when at Prague he saw a beautiful albeit a lost girl roaming in the middle of the night.We see the lives of young people especially young girls who feel bored as there is hardly any male companionship available to them.As this film was made in socialist times we also get to see the attitude of parents belonging to a socialist system.Milos Forman makes his film memorable when he deals with risks which young people take when they fall in live.He conveys that it is not so easy to continue a relationship which has remained frivolous from its inception.Loves of a blonde maintains it serious stance as there is a talk of a serious problem of dwindling male female ratio faced by many European nations.One of the most funny moments of this film include a good social experiment when an army unit is asked to move to Zruc in order to woo its lonely girls.

Early Milos Forman

[RODAN4-1 · 7/10 · 15 November 2006]

I was channeling surfing when I came across this movie. I was apprehensive at first when I realized it was a Czech film. I'm glad I gave it a chance. The conversations were amusingly realistic. I enjoyed the parents bantering about their son and his women. The easy flow of the story line and character development is something I like in my films. Woody Allen's black and white films came to my mind while I was taking in this undiscovered gem. I was only familiar with Milos Foreman's American releases such as Cuckoo's Nest and Hair. Now I will need to seek out his early overseas releases. The black and white celluloid accompanied with the 60s Czech background music made this a nice find.

Hard to fault

[dlpullar · 10/10 · 2 January 2003]

I hadn't seen any of Milos Forman's work before I saw this, and it really surprised me (pleasantly). It was a really funny film, with clever characters, very realistic interactions and some surprisingly cheeseless slapstick moments. Also has a movingly downbeat finale.

I doubt many people will make the effort to watch a little known black and white Czech film from the 60s, but those that do will be rewarded.

Czech Mates

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 9 September 2016]

This movie was made and released when Czechoslovakia was still a single country and still very much a part of the Communist bloc so that Westerners like myself with absolutely no experience of day-to-day living under a Communist regime (I have since visited East Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic but long after the Wall came down in 1989) may sometimes miss the more subtle nuances of movies like this, Closely Observed Trains, The Fireman's Ball, etc, being more or less obliged to compare them with the more familiar fodder from Hollywood, UK, western Europe. One thing that does come across powerfully is that the actors, both male and female, are almost without exception as drab as the landscape and as I know from personal experience Czech girls of today are as stunning as girls anywhere I can only assume that life under the Communists bleached all traces of glamour out of the people. This is an excellent and moving film but none of the twentyish girls, including the leading actress would be cast as love interest in even the most modest 'B' picture from Merton Park or Poverty Row. Having said that this remains a watchable and entertaining film.

overrated

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 16 September 2005]

I had very high hopes for this film, as I LOVED several other Czech films I've recently seen. However, once I finished the movie, I wondered WHY is it rated so highly? It had very poor and cheap cinematography and the story just did absolutely nothing for me. It was all about a town where there were MANY single ladies and not enough men. One of these women falls for a pianist and he convinces her to lost her virginity to him. Then, she travels to the city where he lives only to find out he really didn't love her but just wanted to get in her dress (i.e., he wanted sex--he was not a transvestite). THAT'S IT!!! Nothing more to this very bland story. It seemed like they had about 1/2 of a movie and just padded it.

Lovely.

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 25 July 2020]

Part of what was known as the Czech New Wave in the 1960s and this particular title a great favourite of Film clubs and societies back in my younger days. Director Milos Foreman, of course, left what is now known as the Czech Republic for the US where he made films as diverse as The People vs Larry Flynt, Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Before leaving he mad a trio of film in his native country of which this is probably the best although his similar and later film The Firemen's Ball had, perhaps even greater impact internationally being in colour. For A Blonde in Love Foreman uses mostly local people from the village where he shot with, I believe, only one professional actor who it turns out was as influenced by the non actors as there were by him. The young blonde of the title was the sister of the director's wife and gives a wonderful performance. Indeed the whole piece, barely a story, is a joy to watch despite the cringe worthy moments, on the dance floor in particular. A warm and caring film that is beautifully shot and despite an obvious air of austerity throughout still managing to convey a feeling of positivity. Lovely.

Delightful, smart, sensitive awakening to life

[chaos-rampant · 24 February 2013]

This is such an exquisite cinematic weave of feelings, I was taken aback. But only half of it is there, the rest you'll have to supply which is even better in a way. Films come into being after all in that space between what is there and the experience in the eye.

But first. Watch it once straight through because it's funny as hell in that gentle way the Czech know so well, just light and bitter enough to be like getting tipsy on life, delighted at the tipsiness. It's well made and well acted, you can see why Milos Forman was quickly tapped by Hollywood.

Watching it once, you'll have this as your template—a teenage girl's impressionable drift through male sexual whims, and bittersweet realization in the end of heartbreak every time. Now bring all these other things to it:

The guys are only looking to get laid, this isn't about them.

It's a story the blonde girl tells to her girlfriend using the photograph of a boy, both real and imagined. Knowing this, is knowing everything else including the seduction is her exploring by allowing herself to be explored.

The gaffe with the bottle of wine sent by horny soldiers to the wrong table, the ugly ducklings instead of the pretty blonde. But it makes its way to the right one, and we have the two soldiers go after the two girls (but not the blondie), and that subplot abandoned with inviting glances.

Now her seduction (remember, still a story she will tell) but we actually skip sex, and go straight to the intimacy and youthful joking around on the bed which is what she yearns for, connection. And as she leaves the room, she meets the ugly duckling coming back to her room after her parallel night with the soldier.

The lecturing by a teacher on girls guarding a woman's honor, and she boards the first bus out of there. Is she mad? Looking for answers?

The cut from her alone in a country road boarding the bus, to a dance floor in the city filled with young couples, to TV footage of dancing girls in the parents' home. Amazing storytelling, because it is not of the story but the air around the girl lifting her from that road to wait for him in his house.

Her being 'locked' in the house, falling asleep to the mother's incessant nagging. Waking up again, now the boy is there but he's not who she would like him to be—she watches heartbroken through a peephole (a cinematic device) as the pettiness of family life is revealed.

So this is wonderful. It ends with her telling this story better than it is.

I would change a single detail—we'd never be shown who is in either of the two photographs.

It would be about any of these girls dreaming up all we've seen. (we see them all asleep in the end)

Sex safely explored inside the fantasy, and the fantasy both 'real' and imaginary, helter skelter so you wouldn't know where last day's glances end and the pillow book starts. The ugly duckling as the blonde. It can support all that and more, excellent, excellent stuff.

In order to appreciate why this is special, watch another Czech film called Daisies (Sedmikrásky), more inventive on the surface, more irreverent on the same subject, but it doesn't hit deep. It has the images but not the life that gives rise to them, there are both here, and how.

It's so good, it rivals Celine and Julie Go Boating on my list of great films, a similar film on the layered dreaming of a girl.

Captivating, funny chronicle.

[ozebra · 8/10 · 10 June 2008]

Very captivating movie, even though the story as such is not much. It has a very subtle and bitter-sweet humor attached to it and the character of the blond girl is deliciously seductive, in her innocent and naive behavior.

Most of the movie is made-up by a few very well executed scenes, rather than an elaborated story: the dancing hall scene, the musician's room scene, and the parents' house scene. Each of these brings forth both an emotion and a subtle humor.

The movie has one flaw, in my opinion: the sudden ending that gives the impression they ran out of budget before finishing... The ending does not add anything to the big picture, it just gives the impression the whole thing was only a chronicle of a few events in a girl's life.

A movie in search of itself

[SamsMom825 · 6/10 · 11 December 2006]

"Loves of a Blonde", for some obscene reason, is listed as a comedy.

Perhaps that was Milos Forman's intention when the movie was first released in 1965. I ask anyone who has seen the movie to please enlighten me on what was funny (aside from the scene with Milda's parents, which was more pathetic than humorous).

What really makes the film intriguing is its unintentional voyeuristic quality. The Black & White film magnificently highlights the Czech countryside, where we meet Andula - a worker in a local shoe factory. Andula and her friends outnumber the men by some ridiculous margin and the factory owner gets the People's Army to station soldiers there. Unfortunately, the soldiers are old and mostly married. They have a party one night at a local bar and she meets Milda, a musician with the band.

The seduction scene between Milda and Andula takes up most of the film but everything about it still resonates today (which is basically a guy will do or say anything to get into a girl's pants). Unfortunately, Andula takes him seriously when he says to come visit him in Prague, which she does.

SPOILER ALERT Andula, with suitcase in hand, shows up at his home in Prague. What she doesn't know is that Milda lives with his parents. The father is actually a likable character who feels sorry for Andula. Milda's mother on the other hand gave me nightmares (condescending, controlling, and downright creepy). Milda eventually comes home (after seducing yet another girl) and to his parents pretends not to know Andula and denies ever inviting her. (When with Andula alone he's quite different). His mother eventually grabs him and throws him into the parents' bed to get some sleep. Mind you, this is not a 4-year old having a nightmare - this is a grown man who likes to seduce young virgins. Perhaps the comedy is in their trying to position themselves as they try to sleep (which is hard, considering its three adults and the mother refuses to shut up. All the while, Andula is on the other side of the door, listening)

SPOILER ALERT Although Andula and Milda are quite fascinating (as is the conditions and times they live in), I was quite disappointed with its beyond ambiguous ending. Its as if the last pages of a book you were reading were ripped out. You see Andula back with her friends (you have no clue how she got there) and lying about how it was great seeing his parents. Duh??

For style and historical content, however, I would recommend it.

a gem of a film about girls wanting love

[matt-szy · 8/10 · 24 June 2006]

At a club that looks more like a high school dance during the 60s in some remote factory town in Czechoslavokia three girls are trying not to make too much eye contact with three of the many soldiers who are in attendance. After much arguing and hesitation the three soldiers approach the girls, not before ordering drinks for them that ended up at the next table of girls. But one of the girls, the main character of the story, has her eye on the young piano player. And with this Milos Forman's socially conscious odd-ball romantic tragic comedy called, Loves of a Blonde, gets rolling.

The soldiers, in spite of much persistence, don't get the girls who end up going home, bored and tired, I mean except the main girl who ends up in a room with the piano player. Subtle humor and youthful and lustful recklessness are portrayed so precisely in this scene where the piano player cleverly gets the girl in bed before ranting about Prague and the girls resemblance to a Picasso-esquire guitar.

To cut a long story short, the girl ends up falling for the guy and goes to visit him in Prague, but ends up meeting his parents. The mother's and the father's argue for some time about the girls arrival, for this is Eastern Europe and girls just don't come to a boys house to stay the night after a one night stand (or maybe its like this...). So the mother and the father partake in some of the most entertaining dialog I've seen in any film about this girls arrival, about their sons travels and job, and ultimately about the issues prevalent to the times, echoing an European conservative sentiment. The boy ends up coming home late after a gig and who knows what else and is met with much heat from his pants wearing mama, and he claims to have never invited any girl...

If I had to say something bad about this film at gun point I might say that it is too small. Its so compact and grounded and so simple. But then again, without any gun to my face, that is exactly what makes this film work. Its like a hidden little gem from the former commie infested corner of Europe.

Forman is a true auteur and this film demonstrates it well. Its a study of youth in the need for love and overworked women in search of something unfamiliar and maybe life saving, maybe city life, more likely love, and simply its about the need to find what you don't have. The factory filled with girls, the soldiers, the dance halls, the parents, the girls dormitory, all paint a very real and comically tragic picture, definitely worth seeing. 8 out of 10.

Takes too long to come to the point

[ilovesaturdays · 6/10 · 9 August 2021]

I must confess that during the first half of the film, I was seriously doubting my decision to watch this film as it felt like a movie about people who were just trying to get laid. Granted some of the situations, like with the wine bottle & the ring were funny, but mostly I felt like I was watching a crass film with no message whatsoever.

Fortunately, the later half of the film is better. It is only then that the theme is revealed. The search for true love is an uphill battle. More often than not, it can end in tragedy. Our blonde protagonist is a beautiful girl in a small town. Like everyone else, she wants to be loved. At the beginning, she shows her friend a ring & a picture of her fiance. She convinces her friend that she could not be happier. Then she meets a pianist from the city & gets romantically involved with him. So, she breaks off with her fiance & calls him a brute, which he most probably is. Afterwards, she goes to the city to meet her lover but realizes that his parents know nothing about her (quite a few funny moments in these scenes). Besides, her lover doesn't seem thrilled to see her either. Realizing that she has been taken advantage of, she returns to her dormitory. In the final scene, she's again seen showing a friend a photo & lying to her that her lover's parents were very nice to her. This makes the viewer realize that perhaps she was lying in the first scene too about her previous fiance. He probably was a brute & she didn't like him very much but was involved with him just so that she could make everyone, including herself, believe that she had someone who loved her. Perhaps, it is the lot of our flawed yet beautiful protagonist to be desired for her physical attributes but never truly loved for herself.

An Ironic Tragicomedy

[ilpohirvonen · 8/10 · 20 February 2011]

In Loves of a Blonde Milos Forman continued dealing with the same subjects he did in his first feature film Black Peter (1964); the aimless youth and the Czechslovakian society. After Loves of a Blonde he started working on his next film, The Firemen's Ball (1966). Once the film was released it caused an incredible strife; over ten thousand firemen announced a strike and Milos Forman was about to get sentenced to jail for 10 years. Fortunately Francois Truffaut, the master of Nouvelle Vague, helped Forman out of the trouble and, so Forman went to United States where he has made some of his most remembered films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.

Loves of a Blonde is often overlooked even that it is one of the finest representatives of Eastern Europe new wave or Novi-film. Alongside with Yugoslavian Dusan Makavejev and Czechslovakian Jiri Menzel, Milos Forman was an integral auteur for the movement. It had the same cheer that the Nouvelle Vague did but the Novi-films were much more politically bold and took clear statements against the Communist government - due to which many of the films got banned.

Loves of a Blonde is a cheerful tragicomedy. Its protagonist is a working-class girl, Andula who works at a shoe factory. One day she becomes acquainted with a young pianist to whom she falls in love with. The film is quite ruthless but also humane and Forman treats his characters with warm love. He accepts his characters as they are, with their flaws and controversies. In the beginning he portraits a group of three middle-aged army men who try to hit on three teenage girls. The soldiers are portrayed as dumb and self-thinking but also as humane, sympathetic characters.

It's strongly a social film. It portrays the 60's Czechslovakia as a dull place with nothing to do; so people try to find their amusement from sexuality and other pleasures. The officers are stupid and selfish, as is the society. The teenagers are also naive but try their best to survive. The first sequence where the men try to hit on the girls is brilliant and full of significance; one man takes a wedding ring off his finger, drops it and follows it as it goes through the dancing floor. The men try to send a bottle to the girls but the waiter messes up and takes the bottle to the wrong table. Nothing works.

Loves of a Blonde is an ironic social film but also a warm story about love and soul searching. Its characters are lost in a country which has lost its course as well. Whether it's the middle-aged men or the teenage girls, or the young pianist, no one really knows who they are. This is a basic tragicomic element in the films of the new wave. The film is clearly naturalism as it describes Czechslovakia as realistically as possible; mud, old clothes, bad wine and cruddy vehicles. It's paradoxically truly a melancholy love story but also a cheer comedy.

nice wee film for a quiet weekend afternoon

[thekesslerboy · 7/10 · 21 December 2013]

Maybe a strange observation, but feels a wee bit English to me. It's not that there is a 50's franticness or a 60's anger about it - indeed, the opposites apply. It's maybe just the social-club feel with it's drinking and smoking, dancing and courting.

So, what's it about? A blonde girl falls for a young musician who knows how to make the most of his charms. He then just wants to move on to his next affair, but she has decided that they are in love, and tracks him down to his parent's house. That's about it, and this is where Forman is clever - biting off only what he can easily chew, a simple situation that most adults can relate to, adorned with comedy, romance and, for those not Czech, a wee bit of foreign curiosity.

It's genuinely funny, engaging, light and gentle.

Wonderful

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 20 August 2022]

A film that's beautifully shot, has wonderfully natural performances, and deals with the universal theme of longing to find someone in life, told from the perspective of Andula, a young woman (Hana Brejchova, in her debut film). It's a pretty simple story but one of the things that sets it apart is how realistic its scenes are, e.g. The three middle-aged men awkwardly trying to make time with Andula and two of her friends at a dance, creepily plying them with alcohol, or the husband and wife bickering over the behavior of their son (Vladimir Pucholt), upset that Andula has turned up on their doorstep unannounced after the two have slept together. Once the son shows up in the early morning hours himself, fresh off of seeing some other woman, he's forced by his parents to sleep in their bed to avoid impropriety, where the arguing continues in a humorous (yet heartbreaking) way. The dialogue and mannerisms of the mostly non-professional actors in scenes like these, as well as in smaller moments, felt incredibly authentic.

The other thing that sets the film apart is how it shows the game of love between the sexes to be unfair, when played under the rules of conventional "morality." The men at the dance are already married, and yet they try to get the young women drunk to get them back to their place. The young piano player seems like a nice guy, but we find out he's also just doing what it takes to get laid, after which he moves on. Meanwhile, the young women are lectured on the importance of keeping their virginity intact. "A girl's honor is a precious thing," their housemother tells them, "If you don't treat it as such, don't be surprised if boys behave badly." The mother of the piano player blames Andula for showing up and calls her foolish, caring more about what her neighbors might think than the young woman's feelings. It's clear that for the men, sex=natural=good, whereas for the women, sex=shame=bad, but director Milos Forman is deft at showing us this, as well as the emotions that result. Andula has learned a painful lesson, one she'll later hide behind a false front with her friend, but it's doubtful that the young man has learned anything at all. We can easily imagine him as one of those boorish married guys at the dance in a couple of decades. This is just a lovely, heartfelt film, and was a near-miss for an even higher rating.

The Loves of a Blonde - Review

[Muelko · 6/10 · 11 July 2022]

Another Forman's flick, but this time, it's not that great. It's fun, sure, but not many storylines are uncovered and it's just a mediocre movie as a whole. There are some bizarre and cringe moments, which were funny, but it's nothing that would blow my mind or so. Liked the characters, and liked the story, which technically didn't exist, but it has some story points, which drafted the movie to another act. One thing I love and that's how Forman knew how Czech folk behaves in certain moments. Forman's genius in depicting real human emotions on the screen, and it doesn't matter if it's a Czech or American movie, the results are almost always very interesting. His The Firemen's Ball is a better movie in this matter. I finally got to watch Amadeus, because I've heard a lot of things about it and it's quite possible that I've written this in my previous review of his other movie, but I don't know what else to say about this movie that it certainly entertained me, but I'll probably never watch it again.

Been there, haven't seen much of that

[jwb001 · 2/10 · 15 January 2016]

This evening, my wife and I will attend a performance of "Lásky jedné plavovlásky" at a local theater, so I wanted to watch this film as preparation. My wife grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia. I immigrated here 25 years ago, and we've been married for 21 years.

The first 99% of the film disgusted me. I rated it 1/10. After the final 1%, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's the point they were trying to make". I raised the rating to 2/10.

THE FIRST 99%

My reactions jumped from...

Andula is a slut. Why do I want to watch a movie about a slut? "Loves of a Blonde", huh? Well, in Czech culture, a "blonde female" has the same derogatory connotation as elsewhere.

to

This film reminds me of Milan Kundera's book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Everyone claims it's a classic, but it lacks actual classical substance.

to

Utter disgust at one event after another:

* A man removes his wedding ring with the intent of committing adultery; * Three middle-aged soldiers try to force three young women to get drunk; * Andula tells Milda that she previously tried to kill herself (with a razor blade that broke? yeah, right); * More than one instance of a man trying to take advantage of a young woman in emotional distress; * Milan's attempted rape of Andula; * Milan rolling up the window shade while unknowingly revealing his "package"

Warped, perverted, and 12 other words with the same meaning. In this film, men treat women horribly. They act like lascivious lechers. I haven't seen such behavior in Czechoslovakia. In general, men treat women quite well (that's why feminism has never gained traction here).

Oh, by the way, dialog in this film is idiotic and insipid.

GOOD ASPECTS OF THE FILM

The film has some good scenes, including the loss of the wedding ring at the dance as well as Milda and his parents arguing in bed together.

CONCLUSION

If you want to view truly excellent films about pleasant, simplistic life in Communist Czechoslovakia, see Jiří Menzel's "My Sweet Little Village" and "The Snowdrop Festival".