Froma Zeitlin
The Fifth Horseman is Fear is one of those remarkable classics of the Czech so-called New Wave film making, until it was suppressed by the Communist government (and this film, incidentally was banned there). This is one of my most favorite films and I have been waiting and waiting for it to become available (it used to be distributed by Orion Films). Finally, the DVD was issued, and I discovered that one of the key scenes is omitted. This scene, the protagonist's visit to a Nazi brothel (in the course of his search for morphine for the wounded resistance fighter) was one of the original highlights of an already wonderful film. So what happened? Was it censored in the copy that the DVD people used? If anyone has any information about this or as to how I can find the "real" thing, I'd be grateful.
didier-20
I spent one winter systematically going through each & every film in the London Czech Centre's Video library, & of all the films, I returned to this one time & again. It's a fantastic & bizarre film, where the state of despair that existed under communism is encoded in a strange blending of the past , the present & filmnoir. There is the feeling that an ad-hoc attempt to get past the censors unwittingly produces an utterly Czechoslovakian perspective.To those familiar with Eastern Europe pre 1989, the sense of time having become stuck & disorientated & playing games with your perception is part ofthe magic of this film.My fondness for this film is rooted in a nostalgia or need to remembercommunist Europe. I first visited Prague in the mid 1980's & i was so struck that the Prague of this film replicated almost identically the Prague i found & came to know 20 years later, in the last years of Communism. My nights at the CafeSlavia were exactly as the Jazz club scenes depicted in the film, with the same dramas & the same characters. Also the sense of mistrust , betrayal & of being watched & listened to & the perverse relation to Psychiatry. I thought this connection was very profound, & it made me think this film was, in some way, important . Both the film & my experiences in Prague sat either side of the Brief thaw of the late sixties. They bypassed that optimistic period & looked directly at each other; the one reflecting a National trauma of the war & Communist conversion & the other reflecting the trauma of 2 decades ofstagnation. Often when people think of Czech New Wave, they think in terms of 60's youth & Prague spring. But this film brought home to me how brief thatperiod really was & it's focus is the context from which that period rose &returned to; a shockingly, relentless, hyper-unreal, oppressive isolation which was the former state of Czechoslovakia. Go see, fantastic -
honza-tesa
Really great Czech film of the 60´s. I think the best picture by the director Zbynek Brynych. Armin Braun (performed by Miroslav Machacek) is a doctor of Jewish origin. In spite of the fact he could be killed by the Nazis and the whole block-of-flat with him, he is performing an operation of an injured revolter. While the operation is finished he has to find morphine to give it to the revolter because of big pains he has after the medical help.We can see the excellent performance of Miroslav Machacek in the monologue part (by the way which lasts 3 minutes!!) in which he is deciding to help or not to help. I can recommend this movie to everyone who likes great acting in a good story.
LONNISAN
I remember seeing this film when I was much younger and was so taken / moved by it that I've been trying to find it to own. The depiction of the main character's descent into near madness by the evil Nazi occupiers is probably one of the finest performances ever! This movie should DEFINITELY be taped and released as soon as possible.
AD
