Poslední lup (1987) User Reviews

Mythical and feverish fantasy

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 12 November 2008]

If you got Kino's "Labyrinth of Darkness" DVD because you were expecting feverish nightmares a la Jan Svankmajer, this particular short is the one that comes the closest to the title-descriptor. Barta's ideas from short to short seem to range over different ideas and conceits, tied together with a similar tone of wit, but this short stands out as one of his most particularly bizarre and disturbing.

A portly thief breaks into a mansion to get its riches, only to come across what he thinks is the owners... who are gratious enough to sit him down to a night of hedonism, gambling, and drinking. He gets really comfortable--and nigh incapable of movement--before realizing that his hosts' concerns are slightly more vampiric.

The approach is beautiful--Barta films the action in grainy black and white, a la a 1920s film, and then tints it so that the colors shift and soak through the screen like a hazy cloud in a fever dream. It's very precise, too, so that something you're looking at that you think is one color suddenly is another color, like in a dream.

It may not be the most original short out there, but it's certainly one of the best-done approaches. A lot of what Barta does reminds me of the "Scary Stories" series of children's books, this one in particular. This is a story well out of popular vampire lore and it just simply cannot be argued with. Along with "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" and "The Design", this is Jiri Barta's best work.

--PolarisDiB

A Return to the Black Lodge?

[Eumenides_0 · 8/10 · 6 January 2010]

Watching this movie I felt I was back in the Black Lodge, that supernatural and mysterious place in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Amazingly, this short movie was made a few years before Lynch started the greatest TV series ever.

What happens is that a house burglar breaks into a derelict house and starts going through the furniture and closets looking for stuff to steal. At one point he meets a group of people sitting around a table playing poker. They're creepy-looking people, greenish pale and looking rather dead. Or maybe they're something more complicated. But they invite the burglar to a game of poker and he makes a lot of money. Then they give him a bad, give him things to drink and then something else happens.

This movie was creepy, it was like a nightmare in which nothing really happens but a sense of unease and menace persists and doesn't let you have any peace of mind. It was an unusual excursion for Jiri Barta, who was up until now an animator. With this movie he showed he could direct real people too.

beware partying with the undead you rob!

[hofnarr · 10/10 · 15 July 2003]

A dark and windy night. A thief crawls over a cemetery wall and picks the lock of a crypt. He steals a gold coin - a door opens to a greenish/yellow light. The thief enters and finds more booty for his bag - silverware, gold, pearls, gems, furs . . . he hears laughter - read no further if you want to be surprised if you have a chance to see the film - he looks up to see 4 people - a young and old man, an old woman, a young beautiful woman and a young girl. They seem to welcome him: the little girl pokes him a little; the old woman motions him to come. They are playing a game of dice. He roles six dice out of a cup - all sixes. They all hand him money. The game continues. He keeps winning. The thief has flesh tones while the others are grey, for the most part. We get an extreme close up of his eyes - he's having a great time. The tongue of the young girl is a delicate pink. The beautiful woman appears to pour some wine for the thief - glasses are clinked - toasts made. The woman pours wine into his mouth; her fingernails begin curling into his neck. The young girl's pink tongue is wagging. The thief in in a tub smoking a cigar with the woman washing him - the old man is sharpening a razor for a shave. The little girl drops a watermelon which breaks open, but no shaving nick results. The thief is clothed in a gold robe - the clock strikes midnight. The girl is feeding him grapes.

He screams - a nurse pushes a tray with lamps - the thief is strapped into a bed and a needle gently inserted into his arm - a vacuum mechanism begins pumping - he turns from pink to grey.

The cock crows - the people turn to statues - we seem to be exiting the crypt and cemetery, seeing lit candles on some graves - an ambulance goes by.

Be careful being entertained in cemeteries . . .

The delicate use of color washes is quite remarkable - reminded me of the red coat in Schindler's List, but this was quite a while after 1987, I believe.

house of the beyond

[lee_eisenberg · 28 September 2011]

Jiří Barta, usually known for stop motion animation, takes a different turn with "Poslední lup" ("The Last Theft" in English). The short film has a thief enter a cemetery and go into a crypt to snatch some goodies, but gets more than he bargained for. This movie has no stop motion animation as far as I can tell, opting instead for live action, but makes perceptive use of colors. As is Barta's style, it remains avant garde: no dialog, no discernible geographic location, and a plot that tests your attention span. But make no mistake about it, this is one that I recommend. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on the computer-animated film that Barta released in 2006.

Uninterestingly over the top

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 24 July 2016]

"Poslední lup" is a 20-minute short film from 1987, so this one will have its 30th anniversary next year. The co-writer and director is Jirí Barta and this film is certainly a contender for his most known work, also scored some awards attention. But I really cannot understand why. This little film with the length of a sitcom episode offers very little of memorable value. But it tries so hard to with constantly going over the top from start to finish. I would call this a very absurd little film, extremely exaggerated and lacks realism completely. I give this one 2 out of 5 stars and there were definitely moments when I felt this is still too much. Judging from this one here I can see why Barta never achieved the fame of Svanmajer for example. Here we have a prime example of style over substance. The good thing is that there is no dialogue in here, so you can watch it without being able to understand the Czech language, but it's also a bad thing at the same time as dialogue may have kept this at least slightly from becoming the disappointment it turned out to be. Watch something else instead.

old Gothic

[Kirpianuscus · 18 December 2019]

A Gothic story about a thief in a rich villa and his fatal mistake. The colors and cinematography more than the story itself. Seductive mix of humor and thrill. And the perfect end, reminding classic horrors . So, just a delight.