Cinema
The Firemen's Ball
Hoří, má panenko
Miloš Forman · 1967
Synopsis
The volunteer firemen of a small town at the foot of the Giant Mountains hold their annual ball: they want to honour their former chief by presenting him with a golden axe, and to elect a beauty queen. But the raffle prizes disappear one by one before the draw, the chosen girls dare not climb onto the stage, and the evening slides from clumsiness into disorder.
Context
The idea came from a real firemen's ball that the author had attended in Vrchlabí with his co-screenwriters; the film, his first in colour, was shot with non-professionals. The Italian co-producer Carlo Ponti withdrew and demanded his contribution back, which the French producer Claude Berri repaid by buying the foreign rights. Presented in Vrchlabí in October 1967 and released on 15 December, it was soon banned, shown in 1968, then withdrawn after the invasion for about twenty years. It was released in France on 17 May 1968.
Who it is for
Seventy-three minutes, in colour, with amateurs in almost every role; the comedy comes from the situations more than from the lines.
Prizes and reception
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; one of the high points of the Czechoslovak New Wave.