Kolya
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Movie Reviews of Kolya
Movie Review: The Great Funeral of Communism
Summary: 5 Stars
Very charming indeed. It's about a cellist in his late forties when his country Czech was under the domination of the Russians. As the story unfolds, viewers are taken into some beautiful sceneries in the most beautiful city of the world plus Prague's counrtyside and some village life in Czech.
The cellist used to be a member of the Czech Philharmonic but was ousted for political considerations. He played in the funerals and renewed tombstone engravings in the graveyard to survive. He was talked into a to bogus marriage to help repairing his mother's house and to get himself an old car. Unexpectedly he was landed with a 5 years old kid ( acted by one of the rarest young actors ever) who only spoke Russian and very little Czech whom he treated with much humanity. And like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", the Communist Party suddenly fell apart...
The music, the vocal, the cello and the chamber music that formed the Requiem was just beautiful-- and it turned out to be the funeral of Communism.
Definitely a great Eastern European movie. Recommended.
Movie Review: Superb
Summary: 5 Stars
This is definitely a movie for people who like intelligent and under-stated film making. Everyone gives superb performances but the greatest praise must be for the director Jan Sverak, who always under-plays the drama while at the same time capturing the very best performance the five-year-old Andrei Chalimon, who plays the eponymous Kolya. Other reviewers have summarized the plot - suffice it to say that everything is beautifully balanced and finely presented. The political background of the closing years of the CCCP does not over-shadow the emotional relationship between the two protagonists, but permits the final reconciliation between the boy and the mother who abandoned him for a life in West Germany.
There is so much to enjoy in this movie that it merits being watched several times, just as a fine painting merits close and lengthy study. While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the English-Czechk subtitles, the English-Russian subtitles were almost completely accurate - a pleasant surprise!
Movie Review: Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure
Summary: 5 Stars
A beautiful film which takes its time and trusts in its hugely likeable characters. The incredibly affecting relationship between Louka and Kolya is allowed to grow organically and believably. Frankly, my only criticism of the film is that their time together is far too brief. I'd have happily watched their interaction for several more hours! Both Zdenek Sverak and Andrei Chalimon are mesmerising performers. The boy is angelic and completely true-to-life at the same time. I can't think of a child's performance that has moved me so much. Also, unlike lesser films where minor characters often seem like afterthoughts, here every single one seems like a real person. This is truly astonishing, life-affirming film-making. If you don't find yourself in puddles of tears during Kolya's bath-time phonecall to his Baboushka, you must have a heart of stone!
Movie Review: Charming In Substantive Way (not cute or silly)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a sensationally good movie.
Sorry to say, but that little Kolya boy has more substance and aesthetic sense than most Americans (and I am a native born American, so I'm allowed to say that -- one good thing about America).
The movie is charming. But it also shows how there is a whole world out there wherein there is appreciation for, and the living out of, aesthetics and substance.
There is culture and cultural distinction (Czeck -vs- Russian) aplenty in the movie.
As a bonus, if you are trying to learn Russian, the little-boy enunciation of Kolya is, for some reason, far easier than an adult's speech for a Russian-as-a-foreign-language listener.
In truth I just got the DVD but I've watched it on my LaserVideoDisc (the old 12" analog video disc).
Movie Review: Enchanting tale: another Czech gem!
Summary: 5 Stars
A very lonely man is forced to bring out his invisible walls due an unexpected housemate. He has experienced a visible status in his career as cellist, having to play in funerals when he decides to play the game to arrange the plans of a young Russian woman who desires to acquire the Czech citizenship. But some days before the illegal act was made, she will change her mind and return with her old German lover, leaving behind her a disoriented six years old boy, who simply does not understand any particle of Czech language.
That tragic premise will become a fantastic opportunity to prove the untamed spiritual reserves of the human soul are not frozen yet. So between the smile and the weeping this film will develop its own stature becoming a an instantaneous classic.