AUTUMN SPRING (Babi Leto)
# stars based on 4 stars: 3 Reviewed by: Harvey Karten First Look Pictures Directed by: Vladimir Michalek Written by: Jiri Hubac Cast: Vlastimil Brodsky, Stella Zazvorkova, Stanislav Zindulka, Ondrej Vetchy, Petra Spalkova, Jiri Labus, Zita Kabatova Screened at: Sweetland, NYC, 3/13/03
Think of "Autumn Spring" as "About Schmidt" plus fifteen years. In the award-winning American picture, Jack Nicholson performs in the role of a 65-year-old man who has just retired and, having learned that his replacement at the company does not need his advice and faced with the death of his wife soon after his last day at work, is confronted by a vast emptiness. What to do with his life, especially when not even his daughter wants to spend much time with him on the phone? There is a movie that speaks to baby boomers about to retire, wondering what life will be like when they have to fashion their own structure.
By extension, the two principals in Vladimir Michalek's "Autumn Spring" know quite well what retirement is like Fanda (Vlastimi Brodsky) has had some experience as a stage actor in Prague, though that part of his life is left undeveloped. He is now approaching his eightieth birthday and rather than think of what dreams may come, he is seizing the day to the frustrations of his wife, Emiilie (Stella Zazvorkova) who wants him to grow up and face the fact that this may be his last birthday. Instead Fanda is having the time of his life playing practical jokes with his pal, Eda (Stanislav Zindulka). Their principal shtick involves pretending to be a rich emeritus opera conductor and his secretary, respectively, looking to buy expensive mansions and taking advantage of the real estate agents' complimentary supply of a limo and a French brunch at a nearby restaurant.
The contrast between Fanda and his wife is so great that we don't wonder that Emilie ultimately drags him into divorce court, where despite their forty-four years of marriage they suddenly learn more about each other than they have accumulated over the years. If Fanda is too playful, causing him to lose money recklessly, Emilie is too practical and realistic. What do we make of a woman, also eighty years old, whose hobby is planning every detail of her funeral-to-be, including the specific funding for her services, invitations to the church, and the care and maintenance of her burial plot? Each time her husband opts to live, she seems almost welcoming her demise. Her willingness to have their son Jara (Ondrej Vetchy) take over their spacious flat with her grandchildren while she looks toward stashing herself and her husband in an old-age home is so off-putting that we pray that Fanda will knock some sense into her and that she, in turn, will stop pestering her husband to "grow up."
Movie buffs will remember Vlastimil Brodsky as the title figure in Frank Beyer's 1974 East German production of "Jacob the Liar," like "Autumn Spring" a touching and comic tale--with Brodsky in the role of a Polish Jew who gives false tales to fellow ghetto dwellers in the custody of their Nazi captors. "Autumn Spring" is a typically Czech film, a small one which with a few changes could easily be performed on the stage. The movie works splendidly thanks to a joyous marriage of Jiri Hubac's screenplay to Vlastimil Brodsky's slyly playful octogenarian. Director Vladimir Michalek avoids teary sentiment in favor of giving us a droll, realistic appraisal of a long-term marriage, a homage to male friendship, and a Lear-like warning against the machinations of children.
Life often follows art. In this case, Mr. Brodsky, who had fallen seriously ill before the production began, committed suicide last year because he allegedly did not want to wind up an invalid like Stanislav Zindulka's character, Eda. A heartwarming, subtle comedy-drama in Czech with clear English subtitles.
Not Rated. 97 minutes. Copyright 2003 by Harvey Karten at Harveycritic@cs.com
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