autumn spring (babí léto) 2001 region free dvd5 czech bcbc

Autumn Spring (Czech: Babí léto) is a 2001 Czech drama film directed by Vladimír Michálek.

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Synopsis

Frantisek Hana (Vlastimil Brodský) is a 75-year-old Czech man who refuses to believe his days are nearly over, even as his wife prepares for their impending death. He doesn't want to while away his last few years on Earth living like a hopeless, aged crone. As a tonic, he spends as much time as he can with his friend Eda, engaging in pranks and other frivolities to infuse hope into his daily existence.



Cast

Vlastimil Brodský, Stella Zázvorková, Stanislav Zindulka, Ondrej Vetchý, Petra Spalkova, Jirí Lábus, Zita Kabatova, Katerina Pindejova, Lubomir Kostelka, Juraj Johanides



Movie Review

Autumn Spring

April 3, 2003

Keeping the Reaper at Bay With Mischievous Exuberance

By Stephen Holden

Fanda (Vlastimil Brodsky), the incorrigibly irresponsible codger whose misbehavior in ''Autumn Spring'' is a canny strategy for warding off death, is one of those adorable but exasperating old folks who refuse to play by the rules or act their age. In this soothing comedy from Czechoslovakia, directed by Vladimir Michalek from a screenplay by Jiri Hubac, breaking the rules means racking up expensive restaurant bills, staging madcap pranks and impersonating others.



In one of his favorite games, the old man poses as a ticket-taker in the Prague subway. In another more elaborate ruse, Fanda, accompanied by his best friend, Eda (Stanislav Zindulka), pretends to be a wealthy and renowned opera conductor shopping for a mansion. While being chauffeured around estates by greedy real estate agents, Fanda likes to grumble about the shabbiness of the premises no matter how opulent they are.



These pranks, alas, aren't cost-free. Fanda, a pensioner who lives with his wife, Emilie (Stella Zazvorkova), on a tight budget, eventually gets billed for all this wining, dining and chauffeuring, and the expenses are draining the couple's meager nest egg.



While Fanda thinks nothing of spending the money, his wife obsesses about the rituals of death and has stashed away money for their funerals. The couple live in an apartment owned by their son, Jara (Ondrej Vetchy), who is pressuring them to move to an old-age home so he can occupy the place with his second wife. Jara is sharing quarters with both his wives, and their household is a battleground.



This sentimental movie, which the New Directors/New Films festival is showing today and tomorrow, is one of those potential crowd-pleasers that want to wrap old age and death into a cozy blanket. If its advice to stay young at heart and to savor every moment is unassailable, that is easier said than done. As a metaphysical fable, the movie pits those on the side of eternal youthfulness (Fanda and Eda) against those who have given up pleasure to dwell on death (the stern, morbidly solemn Emilie).



For all its sweetness and light, ''Autumn Spring'' is not obsequiously upbeat. Its sugarcoating consists of a single thick glaze on an otherwise bittersweet cookie. Fanda weathers two crises. In the first he goes too far and fakes his death (with Eda's help). When Emilie rushes to the scene with a casket and discovers the ruse, she loses patience and files for a divorce, but has a change of heart in the courtroom. Later Eda is hospitalized and Fanda finds himself without his beloved playmate.



This movie, loosely inspired by the life of its Czech star (''Closely Watched Trains'' and ''Jacob the Liar''), was written expressly for Mr. Brodsky, who became seriously ill soon after it was completed and committed suicide last April at 81. Ms. Zazvorkova, a leading Czech theater performer, was a close friend of Mr. Brodsky for 55 years, and the two lend the bond of a long-married couple a stirring emotional resonance. While her character spends most of the movie nagging her husband, Ms. Zazvorkova unfailingly projects the tenderness and devotion underneath that irritation.



Mr. Brodsky's final screen performance in one of his richest roles finds overlapping layers of humor and pathos in a man whose best defense against his wife's harangues is to put on a poker face and tune out. At the same time, Mr. Brodsky conveys the powerful survival instincts motivating his character's pranks. What better way to rage against the dying of the light than to play these delicious games of let's pretend?