marshalskrieg This 1966 Czech film is a gritty post apocalyptic cautionary tale. A senior lady guides a troupe of young women through a desolate and presumably radioactive future wasteland- a quest to find other people.The women are very easy on the eye, in a natural, 'cowgirl' or farmers daughter kind of way. They also harbor a darkness that unfolds as the film progresses. The black and white cinematography perfectly conveys the horror and sensibility of a land ravaged years ago by nuclear war.This film is direct, without symbolism. The women eventually meet up with an old man who......The film offers clues about humanities future emotional tone, our end maybe, in a world bereft of the humanizing elements of stability and civilization.This is a must see film for any serious aficionado of science fiction, or any other genre, for that matter.Animal lovers beware: scenes of actual animal cruelty appear in this film. Remember, this was made in 1966 in a non western nation, so standards were different.

davidadamec I like the slow pace of the movie. Nothing happens for ages... And there's a lot of theatrical pathos. Nonetheless, what I like very much, is a kind of budget-wise method applied in the movie. Most of it happens in the open meadows - I suppose in some old abandoned army area somewhere in Czechoslovakia. Nothing much is shown, we can just guess.I have to admit, the film is really interesting. It is one of those few sci-fi films which have been made within famous Czechoslovakian film industry. There are few more rare and interesting titles which I recommend to see. Try "Upír z Ferratu" = Vampire from Ferrat (funny quotation of the classical film horror icon "Nosferatu") - film from 80' from a Czech director Juraj Herz. Kind of weird biotech sport car movie about a racing car which sucks the driver's blood... Reminds David Cronenberg.to hall 900: I just wanna mention, the old woman Martha, you like so much, is not called Ondřej Jariabek - he is the old man, but she is Jitka Hořejší.

Kevin Schwoer Depicting a dark and nomadic future, The End of August at the Hotel Ozone is a film that was ahead of its time. Much of Hollywood and television have generated many post apocalyptic material in the last twenty years. Whether it has to do with nuclear war becoming more and more realistic or Nostradamus' predictions that the world will end in 2012, or somewhere in between, we will never know. But the entertainment business has cashed in on the very real and terrifying idea, or perhaps actuality.The film directed by Jan Schmidt and made in 1966, is set in an unknown year. To the characters it doesn't matter what year it is and realistically speaking it wouldn't matter anyway. The world has ended through nuclear holocaust and a strong opening conveys this narrative with countdowns spoken in every language, counting down the end of the world, which is fantastic.Following eight young women born after the end, the story involves an older woman who is leading them to find civilization, if any. Everyone else has died including all the males leaving the women to fend for themselves. Much of the film depicts their lives out in the country and it makes for needless and boring stuff, though it has a point. At the end of the world these women have nothing and the director captures a very authentic realism. These eight young women are held at bay by the will of the older woman who is the last inkling of the old, civilized world. Yet the realism goes beyond the boring stuff. The actresses in this film are seen catching runaway horses and mounting them bareback while running and diving doing all their own stunts. In this sense the film sometimes seems as if it is a documentary instead.Halfway through the film they meet up with an old man, a partner for the old woman. The young women don't know what he is, never having seen a man before. The relationship between the two older people is truly heartbreaking. The young women look like savages in front of them and there is a scene where everyone is eating which depicts just that. The old woman on one end and the old man on the other while all the young women in between. In scenes like this the director's voice can be heard loud and clear. This film isn't just about the end of the world; it is a commentary on the human condition which is timeless. The younger generation comes up and destroys what the older generation worked for. Without guidance the children become savages, and generations of the vicious circle will eventually lead us back to the Stone Age, nomadic and primitive. The film ends with the two older people dead and the "children" alone, doing and taking what they please. Jan Schmidt's outlook on life is grim though maybe not entirely untrue.

Gangsteroctopus I saw this last night at the American Cinematheque as part of their tribute to screenwriter Pavel Juracek, and I have to say WOW. I was thoroughly impressed, completely engrossed from the first frame. The Cinematheque's schedule described this as "MAD MAX directed by Andrei Tarkovsky", which isn't far from the mark. The actress who played the Old Lady, the leader of the amazons, has one of the most beautifully expressive faces I have ever seen onscreen, and this quality was only emphasized by the razor sharp black-&-white cinematography that brought out every tiny detail of emotional nuance. I found myself imagining that the Old Lady had been the teacher at an all-girl elementary school, and that after the Apocalypse she had merely extended her role of den mother into chief of the amazons' little tribe. The actresses who play her young charges, nearly all apparently amateurs (only a few have any other film credits), are all attractive to a greater or lesser degree, but not in a slick, Hollywood way. They're like healthy, athletic peasant girls and farmer's daughters. Many appear to be expert equestrians - how to describe the thrill of seeing one of them mount a galloping horse sans saddle or stirrups? Of particular note is the young woman who played Barboura, the Old Lady's heir apparent, a statuesque red(?)head, a Balkan Sophia Loren. What a shame that she and nearly all of the other amazons made only this film and no others. They're all completely believable in their roles as young women transformed by the rigors and loneliness of their post-apocalyptic environment into hardened, even cruel near-barbarians (all without any male influence, mind you). A word of caution for animal lovers: there all several scenes in which real animals - a snake, a cow - are actually killed onscreen, and very graphically. By today's standards this may seem callous, even evil, but in the context of the film I can understand how the filmmakers might have felt justified in doing so as these killings make the point of who these women are and what they've become (unlike, say, some of the egregious mondo thrills of onscreen animal slaughter in nearly every Italian cannibal film ever made). As for the dog mentioned by a previous reviewer, I'm uncertain whether or not it was killed. It may have been merely snared by one leg and pulled down to simulate its being shot, and it does appear to still be breathing after one of the amazons knocks its skull in just below the frameline; but it's hard for me to imagine an animal in such obvious distress being well-trained enough to suddenly go quiet after a 'pretend' blow to the head with a rifle butt. Besides, it's obviously a malnourished mutt and earlier in the film one of the actresses does connect with its head when she hurls a small log at it. Well, you can be the judge if you ever have a chance to see the film - which, if it does come up, I highly recommend you take.