Essential Art House: Loves of a Blonde

Loves of a Blonde focuses on a few days in the life of teenager named Andula. She lives in a town with a female-to-male ratio of sixteen to one. At a singles mixer, while several bumbling military men try to hit on Andula and her two girlfriends, she meets a piano player named Rilda. Things pick up quickly with Rilda and she eventually hitches to Prague to hook up with him. The situation turns out to be a little different than she expected as she finds him still living with his conservative parents.

This film is charming. Forman is on top of his game blending comedy and social comment almost seamlessly. The narrative structure is unique too. At the center of the picture is Andula, she is the antagonist for most of the film's action, but the film allows the supporting players to be the main focus of the scenes they are in. Andula watches, she listens, she reacts, and while the story is ultimately about her coming of age, it is her interaction with the people around her that make this story interesting.

From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Amadeus to The People vs. Larry Flynt, Milos Forman always delivers. This film is no exception, and it has stood the test of time. So if you like those films check out Loves of a Blonde.

Forman earned his first Academy Award © nomination with "LOVES OF A BLOND". In 1966, when it premiered in America at the New York Film Festival, it was an immediate sensation. Even Bosley Crowther, the notoriously tight-laced chief critic for the pompous New York Times could hardly contain himself when he experienced this efficacious, subtle social satire disguised as an exploration of adolescent romantic desire. The story is set in the rural Czech town of Zruc. With a ratio of sixteen women to every man, the chances of factory worker Andula finding love are indeed slim. That is until her giggling girl friends talk her into going to a mixer where she meets Rilda, a devil-may-care piano player from Prague. As the three acts unfold, there's a feeling of real time as issues of intimacy, confinement, dreams, delusions, reality and freedom are explored in the context of their relationship And there's nothing preachy or heavy-handed like some other films of the era that are infected with a deadly hidden political agenda that numbs any entertainment value. This one is pure. Universal in its humanity, the romance of Andula and Milda mirrors all our hopes and fears. Extras include a new video interview with Forman, a deleted scenes and new English subtitles.

In many ways, this film is linked to another that is worth noting.

"THE FIREMAN'S BALL" takes place in tiny Czech village of the 60s. Every year the firmen put on a ball and this is a look at the whacky goings. Real townspeople mostly play themselves in this dark comic satire of life under Soviet style communism. Funny, scary and meaningful. The tone is not unlike "American Beauty" in that the naked truth is sharply revealed.

High praise to Criterion for continuing the tradition of gathering the greatest films from the finest filmmakers around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements.