Cinema
Marketa Lazarová
František Vláčil · 1967
Synopsis
In the middle of the thirteenth century, the knight-brigand Kozlík lives in his stronghold of Roháček with his sons and daughters. In a cruel winter, his sons Mikoláš and Adam attack the escort of a Saxon count and take his son Christian hostage. While the royal prefect Pivo prepares a punitive expedition, the neighbour Lazar refuses to ally himself with Kozlík; Mikoláš then abducts his daughter Marketa, who is promised to the convent.
Context
The film follows Vladislav Vančura's novel of 1931 freely; the director and the screenwriter František Pavlíček spent nearly three years preparing the shoot. Filmed from 1964 to 1966, mostly in the Bohemian forest, around Horská Kvilda and the vanished village of Svánkov, in black and white and widescreen, to music by Zdeněk Liška and with cinematography by Bedřich Baťka, it is divided into two parts, Straba and Beránek Boží, and was distributed from 24 November 1967.
Who it is for
One hundred and fifty-nine minutes in two parts; a mosaic of characters and motifs rather than a continuous narrative.
Prizes and reception
Named in 1998 by more than fifty Czech and Slovak critics as the best film in the history of national cinema; often first in the rankings since.