Cheap Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Milos Forman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection

Classic Czech film about young love
A comedy of sorts about first love, though ultimately a sad movie, too, as befitting the subject. A factory town outside of Prague has a mismatch of 16 girls for every boy, so a group of army recruits are sent to liven things up. Only they're a wash-out, and the scene with the girls trying to get out of having to go with these duds and vice-versa is pretty funny. <
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>At a dance, Andula (Hana Brejchova) falls for the piano player Milda (Vladimir Pucholt) and spends the night with him. He is just interested in a one-night stand and uses all the come-on lines he can think of to get her to spend the night with him, including his wish for her to come visit him in Prague and meet his parents. Andula naively falls for all this and goes to his house in Prague, where Milda's parents bully her for being there (they bully Milda, too). He does nothing to defend her and she leaves - but tells all her friends back home what a great time she had. <
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>The movie is very comical in spots and very honest, but Andula is so naive and used, and so accepting of the abuse dished out to her, that we feel sad watching her and pity her greatly. It's this mixture of humor and pity that makes the movie so remarkable. We also pity Czechoslovakia, which appears utterly depressing a place as depicted here. An excellent movie, the one that made Milos Forman a highly respected director.

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One for filmmakers
This Criterion edition includes an interveiw with Forman that sheds a lot of light on how this film was constructed. The use of long singles, especially when the pianist's mother and father are in dialogue, was undoubtedly influenced by budget constraints, but Forman makes an aesthetic choice to linger on the mother while she wears down all around her with her world-weary nagging. The effect is that you get to share what the husband, son and protagonist are going through; "Get me away from this woman, please!" The expressions on the faces of both the professionals and amateurs in the cast tell the story not only of drudgery under an oppressive political regime, but the hopes and despairs that people suffer in the kind of fraught romantic episodes the story is woven around. Andula's story is not quite compelling enough to justify the price tag on this DVD - there is a whole episode involving a missing ring and an enraged suitor that pops up and disappears without much relevance. Modern cinema-goers expect more meat to a story, I think. However, budding filmmakers will learn a lot about pacing, reaction from actors, not moving the camera, and the difference between directing professional and non-professional actors (in the Extras interview).

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Milos Forman enters the spotlight.
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. <
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>Loves of a Blonde, with the original Czech language title of "Lásky jedné plavovlásky" is another important film of the 1960's Czech new wave movement. The film gave director Milos Forman his first Academy Award® nomination. The Criterion edition is also fully approved by the director. <
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>The film is about a young woman desperate for a boyfriend. when a pianist comes to town she thinks she found the man of her dreams, but will the relationship last? <
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>The Criterion edition contains only two special features which are a deleted scene and an interview with Milos Forman.