Czechoslovakia, 1963. Jan Díte is released from prison after serving 15 years. He goes into semi exile in a deserted village near the German border. In flashbacks, he tells his story: he's a small, clever and quick-witted young man, stubbornly naïve, a vendor at a train station. Thanks to a patron, he becomes a waiter at upscale hotels and restaurants. We see him discover how the wealthy tick and how to please women. He strives to be a millionaire with his own hotel. Before the war, he meets Líza, a German woman in Prague. Is this his ticket to wealth or his undoing? Meanwhile, we see Jan putting a life together after prison: why was he sentenced, and who will he become?
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, War
Runtime: 120 minutes
Rating: 7.4/10 (2,566 votes)
Release Date: 19 December 2006
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia
Languages: Czech, German
Company: AQS
Sound: Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content and nudity.
Director(s): Jirí Menzel
Producer(s):
Rudolf Biermann – producer
Petr Dvorak – co-producer: TV Nova
Andrea Metcalfe – executive producer: AQS
Robert Schaffer – executive producer: AQS
Helena Uldrichová – co-producer: Barrandov Studio
Writer(s):
Bohumil Hrabal – (novel)
Jirí Menzel – (writer)
Cast:
Ivan Barnev – Jan Díte, younger
Oldrich Kaiser – Jan Díte, older
Julia Jentsch – Líza
Martin Huba – Skrivánek
Marián Labuda – Walden
Milan Lasica – Professor
Josef Abrhám – Hotelier Brandejs
Jirí Lábus – Hotel Boss
Jaromír Dulava – Waiter Karel
Pavel Nový – General
Music: Ales Brezina
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Maybe, like me, you don't know that much about the history of thecountry wherein sits Prague, and its remnants of regal splendour. Afterwatching I Served the King of England, you will know more. A lot more.The politics. The humour. The cultures. The aspirations. The troubledrelations with neighbouring empires. And the incredible resilience ofits individuals.
I Served the King of England is very ambitious. It condenses an epicnovel into two hours and squeezes in more styles than a catwalk. Thereare nods to the wit of Charlie Chaplin. The visual eulogies of PeterGreenaway. Penitentiaries, bars, brothels, woods, invading armies. Allare collected in a dizzying montage as Jan Díte reviews the highs andlows of his life and loves in flashback.
He has just been released from Prague Correctional Facility, havingserved almost 15 years. He is also in rather humble circumstances. Thisseems to contrast with his lifelong and apparently successful ambitionto become a millionaire. The first half of the film has a theatricalfeel of unreality – much like a musical. Serving lad Díte manages toscore with a local beauty at the nearby bordello. He then get variousjobs that involve him working with sophisticated women of pleasure, orin top hotels, or sometimes both together. His short stature enableshim to play many tricks, like surreptitiously throwing a handful ofcoins on the ground for the pleasure of watching rich men get down ontheir hands and knees with their bums in the air. One of his favouritepenchants with the ladies, on the other hand, is to ornament theirnaked and prostrate forms with anything from flowers, to fruit, tofunds from his growing pocket book. One particularly striking moment iswhen he decorates a naked brothel girl (who looks worryingly like KylieMinogue) in large margarita daisies. The scene is as arresting as thenude-and-rose-petals shot in American Beauty, or thefemale-served-for-dinner in The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover.
Menzel's taste for a decadent protagonist is in no way sullied byshame. His whores are creatures of beauty: "The scent of raspberrytrailed behind her. She stepped out in that silk dress, full ofpeonies, and bees hovered around her like a Turkish honey store."('Bees' you will note, not 'flies'.) The description follows anincident where the lady in question pours raspberry grenadine overherself – to stop Díte from getting into trouble.
I Served the King of England soon becomes rife with political andsocial comment, even before we get to the eponymous and very loadedcomment by Díte's boss boasting his resumé. Having treated us tosumptuous society, the film reminds us of the cost: "I discovered thatthose who said 'work is ennobling' were the same men who drank allnight and ate with lovely young ladies seated on their knees." Thepalatial buildings, over-refined manners and ostentatious egregiousnessof old Europe belie the fabled shangrila on which they are modelled. Aswe witness the Nazi and then Communist take-overs, the film touches onmany issues that have affected the creation and difficult continuationof the country now known as the Czech Republic. Amusingly, the Naziideal of 'racial purity' enables Díte to continue his lifestyle – hisGerman fiancé secures him a job at a breeding ground for top militarystuds.
The best parts of the film are full of beauty and sadness. An old manreminisces: "We, in the 20th century, are inclined to see the glory inourselves and the shame in others – that's how the mess got started."The latter half of the film gradually becomes more serious in tone,even didactic. Here is your history lesson, insight into human nature,poetry and great literary adaptation all in one, it seems to be sayingto us.
I Served the King of England is a film on an enormous scale. It makes avaliant attempt to be a masterpiece, but feels as if it didn't havequite enough time to display its flaunted genius. One cannot help butadmire it. Even if it doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights to whichit aspires.
Menzel's film is a modern masterpiece. It tells the story of one man'sfate, as seen through the mythical pen of Bohumil Hrabal, one of thegreatest Czech writers of the 20th century. The film is interspersedwith documentary footage of the occupation of the remnants of the Czechrepublic in 1939. It tells how one man grows up in one system, survivesanother, and willingly submits himself to a third (Communist). Theslogan "my happiness was always in the fact that some unhappinessovertook me" belongs to the East European theater of the absurd. Forthose of you who have seen the amazing performance of Julia Jentsch in"Sophie Scholl – The Last Days" it will come as a surprise, if not ashock, to see Ms. Jentsch play a character exactly opposite to the onewhich brought her such fame — a true blue Nazi! But that's what greatactors are made of — anti-Nazi heroine this year, Nazi lover of themain protagonist the next. She learned some Czech for this role, butwhen she speaks in German, the screen shows Czech subtitles. Somescenes are really priceless, as when Dite is escorted out of his hotel(presumably in 1948), by two members of the Communist people's militiawho at first are inclined to allow him to stay on as administrator ofhis now nationalized enterprise, but when he keeps insisting he is amillionaire and needs to be arrested, they willingly oblige. Ironystays with us through the film, starting with the opening scene whenthe elder Dite is released from a Communist jail in Prague and heexplains: "I was sentenced to 15 years (for being a millionaire), butbecause of the amnesty, I only had to sit for 14 and 3/4."
A solidly made film with some good performances, especially from MartinHuba as Skrivanek, the maitre d'. The film seems to linger too much onsome of its set-pieces, usually involving naked women either bedeckedwith an assortment of fruit and flowers or being leered at by rich oldduffers. This criticism might be a bit harsh as the sumptuous visualsare integral to the film but I did feel the pace slowing down a bit.
The director, Jiri Menzel, is famous for another Hrabal adaptation,'Closely Observed Trains' and may have been regarded as a safe pair ofhands for this job. However, I do wonder whether a younger directorwould have made more of the adventurous weaving together of episodes inthe book. That said, the film does have a real feel for the flavour andatmosphere of the book. The cast are particularly well chosen and thereare some wonderfully characterful faces cropping up.
In short, a pleasant experience but shouldn't garner any awards outsidethe Czech Republic.
Like the butler played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 film "The Remainsof the Day", the waiter at the centre of "I Served the King of England"(Jiri Menzel, Czech Republic, 2006) is not interested in politics.Major historical events surround him, yet these completely escape hisattention. His ambition is simply to become a millionaire, like the fatcats he serves at table. In 1930s Prague, Hitler, in Berlin, is makinga radio announcement about his aim to "liberate" the Sudetenland.Bored, Jan Dite, the waiter, simply turns the dial to a dance musicstation.
He manages to float through the Nazi invasion, first of theSudetenland, then of Czechoslovakia. By a combination of hook andcrook, he achieves his ambition of owning his own hotel through thesale of valuable stamps, stolen from a vanished Jewish family. Thisdoes not give him a moment's pause but later, when he sees a trainloadof Jews in cattle-cars moving off to Auschwitz, he has a rush ofcompassion and chases after the train in an attempt to hand thedeportees a sandwich. After the war, as a self-confessed millionaire,he is sent to prison when his hotel is nationalised. He emerges fifteenyears later, older, but not much wiser. He is Schweik, but without thelatter's sly intelligence.
This sketchy summary cannot do justice to a film which has beendescribed as a near-flawless masterpiece, in which "Prague has neverlooked better". It is permeated with the ironic wit which markedMenzel's earlier films, such as the Academy Award winning CloselyWatched Trains (1966). Dite befriends the German girl Liza, describedby one reviewer as "the sweetest little Nazi in the history of thecinema". They are in bed, making love in the missionary position. Lizakeeps pushing his head aside so that she can gaze at the big picture ofAdolf Hitler on the opposite wall. Such was love in the Third Reich.The scene in which Dite is undergoing a racial fitness test whichinvolves giving a sperm sample is intercut with young Czech men beingunloaded from a lorry at an execution ground. Of this, Dite isblissfully unaware.
The Remains of the Day was based on a serious and perceptive novel byKazuo Ishiguro. The genesis of I Served the King of England, bycontrast, was a comic novel by Bohumil Hrabal, a book I cannot wait toget my hands on. Any offers?