Eighty Letters

Original title: Osmdesát dopisu

2011
1h 15m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

YOUR RATING

Eighty Letters is autobiographically based. The source of the film are the memories of the director and the surviving correspondence between his parents. The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to be reunited with him. Husband, wife, child Â– even at a distance they are still together, but the forced break-up of any family is an abnormal situation. The events of the film are viewed from the boyÂ’s perspective, the exasperated gaze of one lacking experience, his initiation in the course of this single day - the film. It is the day when the youth gets a glimpse of adulthood and overcomes fear. His motherÂ’s movements are part of an intensified daily routine, as she maps it out hour by hour. It is a battlefield situation for her. She is on her way, her son catches up with her on that path, but she must act alone if they are to achieve completeness together.

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The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to reunite with him. The film is told through... Read allThe story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to reunite with him. The film is told through the eyes of the fourteen year old boy, his rankled look without the veneer of experience ... Read allThe story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to reunite with him. The film is told through the eyes of the fourteen year old boy, his rankled look without the veneer of experience and initiation in one day. His mother moves about in an intensified daily routine, mapping... Read all

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IMDb RATING

6.6/10

YOUR RATING

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Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination

Soundtracks
Pari intervallo
Composed by Arvo Pärt
Organ performed by Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Recorded at Karlshöhe Ludwigsburg
Published by ECM Records 1987
With kind permission of Universal Edition AG, Vienna

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

10/10

"It's always the details that take roots in your memory, never the whole."

Osmdesát dopisu | Eighty Letters

Czech Republic 2011

The most gorgeous, luminous film I've seen this year. Every shot is a masterpiece. A film essay on the interface of aesthetics and humanity, composition and the human experience.

A boy searches for his mother in the early morning commute. Mother and son want to go to the UK to reunite with the father who has emigrated there ahead of them.

A lesson in attentive observation. A most closely observed sound design. The scratching of a pen.

A mother's perfectly organized file. "If they throw me out one door, I'll come in another." Two brilliant actors playing mother and son, maestro Zuzana Lapčíková and the genius Martin Pavlu. Re-creating the great silent film actors. Falconetti.

Two moments of score as the past comes alive – Arvo Pärt. Accompanying old classroom photo, and letters the two read together.

"It's always the details that take roots in your memory, never the whole." Re-creation of documents and journal must have been a formidable task.

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