RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
NÁVRAT ZTRACENÉHO SYNA
Czechoslovakia
1967
103 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Czech
SCR Sergej Machonin, Evald Schorm
DP Frantisek Uldrich
CAST Jan Kacer, Jana Brejchová, Jiří Menzel, Milan Morávek,Dana Medrická
ED Jirina Lukesová
PROD DES Bohumil Pokorný
MUSIC Jan Klusák
Return of the Prodigal son is pretty much an archetypal nihilistic film. The protagonist has tried to commit suicide and is now being treated as if he was mentally ill when his problem is nothing but plain nihilism. He is a liberal who seems to have got tired with the phoniness and immorality that seems to come along with it. He hates his wife sleeping around with other men but being a liberal himself, he can’t complain about it. He is sick of being fed and pampered by his in-laws yet he knows he really has nothing to complain. He also shows his frustration with the phoniness of his employers, the homophobia of people with respect to the dancer and other social ills that seem to vex him but he simply cannot complain as he also is a part of that same society. In a telling scene he gets chased by people calling him a murderer until they realize that it was a case of mistaken identity. That scene pretty much encompasses the story of this prodigal son who essentially has no problem other than a growing conscience that seems to push him back to the ways of morality. It’s just that returning proves almost an impossible task unless of-course, life itself were to end.
No comments:
Post a Comment