Summary
Director Miloš Forman made three major contributions to the Czechoslovak New Wave – Černý Petr (Black Peter) /1963/, Lásky jedné plavovlásky (Loves of a Blonde) and the tragicomedy Hoří, má panenko (Firemen’s Ball) /1967/. With screenwriting input from tried and tested collaborators – Ivan Passer and Jaroslav Papoušek – Forman built on his own chance meeting with a girl from Varnsdorf searching for her lover at a false address in Prague. The narrative’s protagonist, young worker Andula, has a job at a big provincial shoe factory and a one night stand – the young pianist Milda Vašata – does not attempt to deceive her. Little does he expect, however, that the naive girl, whom he has already forgotten, will follow him to Prague with a large suitcase. The parents of the devil-may-care young man waste no time in passing judgement on Andula’s “impossible” idea, so, like it or not, she is forced to return to the old life she was hoping to get away from… Loves of a Blonde is a bitter tale of a fateful disillusionment, though it retains the status of comedy thanks to its refined poetics of embarrassment. An important role is played by the cliché-filled dialogues that deaden the conversations of the older generation personified by Milda’s parents – his mercilessly attentive mother and diffident father. The depiction of a disaffected world is completed by the sensitive camera work of Miroslav Ondříček and a score drawing on vacuous festive brass band music, TV theme music and national anthems. Forman’s casual take on Czechoslovak reality is unsentimental but sympathetic and he bases a poignant individual story on a real situation – the shortage of men in a small town housing 2,000 young female workers. The title role is played convincingly by the younger sister of the popular actress Jana Brejchová – Hana. The male lead is filled by Vladimír Pucholt, while the seasoned Vladimír Menšík appears as a member of group of army reservists who makes a play for Andula. Debutant non-actors Josef Šebánek and Milada Ježková were cast as Milda’s parents.
Loves of a Blonde also won acknowledgement abroad, where it was markedly more successful than Forman’s other Czech pictures thanks to its palatable love plot. The New Wave gem opened the 1966 New York Film Festival and earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2000 the UK film magazine Empire ranked it among the 100 greatest foreign language films ever.
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