Summary
The “Wine Trilogy” by director Václav Vorlíček and screenwriter Miloš Macourek represents a distinctive chapter in the experienced duo’s filmography – even when it comes to the cinematography of the entire “normalisation” period. The 1981 comedies Bouřlivé víno (Wine Working) and Zralé víno (Mature Wine), along with Mladé víno (Young Wine, 1986), represent an attempt at systematically evaluating mistakes of the nation’s recent past as well as more present missteps along the road to building a new socialist state. While there is an endeavour within the trilogy to address then current affairs, Bouřlivé víno takes place in 1968, the “sensitive” year of the Warsaw Pact invasion. The protagonist, Janák, chairman of a collective farm in the fictional Southern Moravian village of Pálavice, encounters resistance from avaricious winemakers who are secretly trying to return to capitalism through private enterprise. The appeal of the picture, a true tribute to the canons of “normalisation” cinematography, is greatly enhanced by the cast, with Vladimír Menšík in the lead role.
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