Marketa Lazarová: František Vláčil

Held by native critics and publicists as the single greatest Czech film of all time, František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová isn't so much a movie as a cinematic experience that transports the viewer into a different mindset. In this sense, the film shares the stage with such other brain-bending masterpieces as Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Béla Tarr's Sátántangó (1994). These films cannot be approached just through an analysis of their narratives. Trying to describe Marketa Lazarová to someone who hasn't seen it by merely summarizing its plot would be like trying to describe a painting by Van Gogh or Monet to a blind person by only telling them its subject (i.e. a boat, a field, a starry night). This is a film of moods, textures, and atmospheres; of stark, snowy landscapes, barren fortress walls of stone, and mud made with water and mud. It is a mediation on the nature of mankind, of the struggle between Paganism and Christianity, and of righteousness born of hypocrisy versus evil forged from honest self-indulgence. The film essentially follows the feud between two families during the Middle Ages. The first is a band of pagan robber knights who prey on the weak. The second family is headed by a feudal lord who used to rape and steal but has since converted to Christianity and attempted to earnestly reform himself. Along the way young men are massacred, fortresses are attacked, and a young daughter of the Christian feudal lord is kidnapped, raped, and forced to marry one of her father's enemies. This is a film that scholars could devote entire careers towards studying. But I was fascinated by the aforementioned struggle between whether or not well-intended hypocrisy is better than wickedness that is true to one's basic instincts. Yes, the Christian feudal lord is a hypocrite. But it was the pagans that drew first blood and essentially forced the local king's hand in quelling their violent activities. But in the end, Marketa Lazarová isn't about answers. In fact, I'm not even sure if it's about questions. It simply is.

10/10