1966 · anthology · drama · new-wave
Pearls of the Deep
Directed by Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jan Němec, Evald Schorm, Jiří Menzel1h 47m1966
A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat farmer and his mother; guests at a wedding reception remain oblivious to outlying misery; and a working-class boy romances a Roma girl.
Our read: Pearls of the Deep (1966) reads as a neutral, steady, inventive anthology · drama · new-wave entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Neutral, steady, measured anthology / drama, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured.
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