The Joke (1969)

In the 1950's, Ludvik Jahn was expelled from the Communist Party and the University by his fellow students, because of a politically incorrect note he sent to his girlfriend. Fifteen years ... See full summary »

Director:

Jaromil Jires

Writers:

Zdenek Bláha (dramaturge), Jaromil Jires (screenplay)

Stars:

Josef Somr, Jana Dítetová, Ludek Munzar

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Josef Somr	...	Ludvik Jahn
Jana Dítetová	...	Helena Zemánková
Ludek Munzar	...	Pavel Zemánek
Evald Schorm	...	Kostka
Vera Kresadlová	...	Brozová
Milan Svrcina	...	Jaroslav (as Milan Svrciva)
Milos Rejchrt	...	Alexej
Jaromír Hanzlík	...	Lieutenant
Jirí Sýkora	...	Cenek
Michal Knapcik	...	Soldier
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jana Andresíková	...	(voice)
Jaroslav Blazek
Vladimír Cech	...	(voice)
Jirí Cimický	...	Soldier
Bohuslav Cáp	...	(voice)

Storyline

In the 1950's, Ludvik Jahn was expelled from the Communist Party and the University by his fellow students, because of a politically incorrect note he sent to his girlfriend. Fifteen years later, he tries to get his revenge by seducing Helena, the wife of one of his accusers.

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Plot Keywords:

czech new wave | 1950s | communist | communist party | revenge | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Release Date:

28 February 1969 (Czechoslovakia)

Also Known As:

The Joke

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmové studio Barrandov

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Vsechnopárty: Episode dated 26 February 2016 (2016)

User Reviews

THE JOKE begins as a reproof of an inequitable polity but ends up in close proximity of a pessimistic take on an individual's ingrown corruption

A vehement indictment of Czech's Communist Party cropping up in the aftermath of Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion, THE JOKE is the politically engagé Jaromil Jires' sophomore feature, adapted from Milan Kundera's novel and banned immediately after its release, it has been hailed as the last keystone of Czech New Wave movement. Nevertheless, viewed as an independent art piece shorn of its erstwhile political context, it still can hold courts in terms of Jires' nifty visual and editing modality, but at the same time, is severely undermined by several unsavory blemishes, not least its blinkered misogynous treatment.

In 1968, a middle-aged scientist Ludvik Jahn (Somr) returns to Prague after almost two decades and gestates a vengeance to his former college schoolmates, who have expelled him from both the college and party due to a facetious "Long Live Trotsky" postcard he sends to his sweetheart Marie (Obermaierová) to cheer her up. The joke recoils badly and Ludvik is sent to "re-education" in the military where sadistic corporeal punishment is subject to those political dissenters. In the face of the film's 20-year-apart past-and-present correlation, Jires adopts an impetuous cross- cutting technique to juxtapose those two time-frames together, often predicating upon the incidents in the present time (a celebration of newborn babies, a music rehearsal of his old band-mates etc.), which evoke Ludvik's memory of tonally diametrical situations, and subjective angle is also craftily applied to give the audience a vantage point of a haphazard-ish narrative.

So, Ludvik's half-baked plan is to seduce Helena (Dítetová) ("Why don't you grow a pair?"), the wife of Pavel (Munzar), who is his former friend and treacherously betrays him in the trial of his "joke". His plan works, to our utter incredulity because Somr's Ludvik is the antithesis of his dashing counterpart in Kundera's source novel, a bald, portly, reticent type, inept in his action and disaffected in his cynical gaze, so, the reason why Helena falls for him so hard is a total myth and very much contrived, loneliness maybe, but as a successful TV anchorwoman, she is not shy of suitors, even younger, prettier ones. It is a plain pathetic male wish-fulfillment in establishing Helena as a desperate erotomaniac albeit Dítetová's willed attempts to extract some compassion out of her poorly devised character arc, and overall, the female characters are either a masochistic cougar, a priggish party devotee, or a candy-floss trophy girlfriend, no wonder Ludvik frankly admits that he prefers whores.

To shame a man by sleeping with his wife, the stratagem itself is petty, malicious and misogynous to a fault, if Jires' intention is to make Ludvik a miserable reprobate, he has it on a silver platter. A trenchant reproof of an inequitable polity or a pessimistic take on an individual's ingrown corruption? THE JOKE begins as the former but ends up in close proximity of the latter, that is a letdown with a capital L.