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Cutting it Short

Original title: Postriziny
  • 1981
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
2.6K
YOUR RATING
Cutting it Short (1981)
Comedy

An evocation of the childhood memories of Bohumil Hrabal in his provincial town of Nymburk, dominated by the local brewery.An evocation of the childhood memories of Bohumil Hrabal in his provincial town of Nymburk, dominated by the local brewery.An evocation of the childhood memories of Bohumil Hrabal in his provincial town of Nymburk, dominated by the local brewery.

  • Director
    • Jirí Menzel
  • Writers
    • Bohumil Hrabal
    • Jirí Menzel
  • Stars
    • Magda Vásáryová
    • Jirí Schmitzer
    • Jaromír Hanzlík
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    2.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jirí Menzel
    • Writers
      • Bohumil Hrabal
      • Jirí Menzel
    • Stars
      • Magda Vásáryová
      • Jirí Schmitzer
      • Jaromír Hanzlík
    • 17User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations

    Photos33

    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Jaromír Hanzlík and Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Jirí Schmitzer and Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Jirí Schmitzer and Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Jirí Schmitzer and Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)
    Jirí Schmitzer and Magda Vásáryová in Cutting it Short (1981)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Magda Vásáryová
    Magda Vásáryová
    • Maryska
    Jirí Schmitzer
    Jirí Schmitzer
    • Francin
    Jaromír Hanzlík
    Jaromír Hanzlík
    • Pepin
    Rudolf Hrusínský
    Rudolf Hrusínský
    • Dr. Gruntorád
    Petr Cepek
    Petr Cepek
    • Pán de Giogi
    Oldrich Vlach
    Oldrich Vlach
    • Ruzicka
    Frantisek Rehák
    Frantisek Rehák
    • Vejvoda
    Miloslav Stibich
    • Bernádek
    Alois Liskutín
    • Sefl
    Pavel Vondruska
    Pavel Vondruska
    • notár Lustig
    Rudolf Hrusínský
    Rudolf Hrusínský
    • Celedín
    • (as Rudolf Hrusínsky ml.)
    Miroslav Donutil
    Miroslav Donutil
    • Podornek
    Oldrich Vízner
    Oldrich Vízner
    • Doda Cervinka
    Josef Vondrácek
    Jaroslav Vozáb
    Jaroslav Vozáb
    • Dustojný pán
    Zdenek Podskalský
    Zdenek Podskalský
    • Farár
    Václav Kotva
    Václav Kotva
    Zdenek Kozák
    • Director
      • Jirí Menzel
    • Writers
      • Bohumil Hrabal
      • Jirí Menzel
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Vladimír Mensík turned down the part of Pepin, eventually played by Jaromír Hanzlík.
    • Connections
      Edited into Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002)

    User reviews17

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    The unbearable lightness of brewing
    The western world paid its dues to Jiri Menzel with Closely Watched Trains, Czechoslovak cinema enjoyed its time in the spotlight for about five years, then as the Soviet tanks moved in on Prague and the UN sat and watched in carefully outraged anticipation, Milos Forman and a bunch of people left for greener pastures, those who stayed behind to make movies devised new ways to sidestep and confuse the Soviet mechanism, and everyone else went home to find the next New Wave/foreign national school of cinema to praise in dumbfounded amazement that movies were actually made outside of LA, Rome, and Paris. Ironically enough, the legendary Filmove Studio Barrandov that lent considerable resources at the hands of the Czech New Wave are now hiring out to major Hollywood productions.

    My girlfriend is half-Czech which means I'm very lucky to get an insider's view of that culture. It's also funny because she doesn't know the famous Oscar material, Closely Watched Trains or Firemen's Ball or The Shop on Main Street, but she was showing me the other day a VHS of a 1931 comedy that is apparently a family favourite. I perfectly understand that because I'm Greek and Theo Angelopoulos is only discussed/ridiculed as "artsy" for his pretentiously long shot by people who haven't sat through one of his movies - he is the prestige cinema we export and send to Cannes every so many years but it's not what we watch as a peoples. Anyway, I wouldn't have seen this otherwise and I've seen no one mention it.

    This is one of those movies the Criterion establishment has not managed to salvage for a world audience yet remains a household national classic in its home country. And it's not one of those movies that don't translate well because, like Closely Watched Trains or most Czech New Wave films for that matter, the humour is mostly physical and visual in the manner of silent cinema, the characters are drawn in identifiable ways because we may need cultural context to understand a ronin or a geisha but a neglectful boss is a neglectful boss in any language, although this is what Italians did in their spaghettis and the Czech always refined/elevated their characters above simple stereotype. Thus the fake priest in Fararuv Konec does the small village better spiritual service than the real ones and the leering doctor in this one is painted in gentlemanly colors. It's the comedy of the running gag and the pratfall so that the viewer is not even required to understand/decipher the political allegory behind it to at least enjoy it. Indeed a running gag in the film is the mention of silent comedian Lupino Lane and the owners of the brewery where the film takes place complain, when one of their meetings is turned into chaos and mockery, that this is not a Charlie Chaplin movie.

    This is a movie where the brewery manager's earnest attempts at professionalism and seriousness are sidetracked by a mocking universe where a motorcycle will never start and where his annoying, loud-voiced, brother destroys his domestical peace, at some degree Bohumil Hrabal takes a jab at the unbearable lightness of being, or as the wife says about her husband who moves around in a constant scowl, with slumped shoulders, "he has the muscles of a gladiator but he feels like a skinned rabbit". But this is also a movie about the wife, the beautiful radiant woman whom everyone at the small village oogles at and yet who glides around life like a breeze, allowing nothing to cling to her, nothing to molest that purity of life and character, and as a testament to the kind of optimist lifeaffirming film Jiri Menzel is doing, that purity is never put to a test, is never groped at or corrupted by outside circumstances. The beauty of this comes with a question; would the husband be the grouch he is if his wife wasn't as breezy as she is? Or better yet, if a person in a relationship takes the lightness for herself, does that mean the other must by necessity shoulder the unbearableness of that lightness? The end is a happy one, like the silent comedians reserved for their audience. By the same token, this is cinema that addresses a broad audience but does so in a simple refined manner. Good stuff.
    helpful•8
    3
    • chaos-rampant
    • Sep 5, 2010

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 1983 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Czechoslovakia
    • Language
      • Czech
    • Also known as
      • Cutting It Short
    • Filming locations
      • Dalesice, Czech Republic
    • Production company
      • Filmové studio Barrandov
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 33 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono

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