Marketa Lazarová

Marketa Lazarová
Directed by	František Vláčil
Produced by	Josef Ouzký
Screenplay by	František Pavlíček, František Vláčil
Based on	Marketa Lazarová by Vladislav Vančura
Starring	Magda Vášáryová Josef Kemr František Velecký Naďa Hejná Jaroslav Moučka
Music by	Zdeněk Liška
Cinematography	Beda Batka
Edited by	Miroslav Hájek
Production company	Barrandov Studios
Distributed by	Ústřední půjčovna filmů
Release date	6 October 1967 (1967-10-06)
Running time	162 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech German
Budget	13 Million Kčs
Box office	5.2 Million Kčs[1][2]

Marketa Lazarová (1967) is a Czechoslovak historical film directed by František Vláčil. It is an adaptation of the novel Marketa Lazarová (1931) by Vladislav Vančura. The film takes place in an indeterminate time during the Middle Ages, and tells the story of a daughter of a feudal lord who is kidnapped by neighbouring robber knights and becomes a mistress of one of them.

Marketa Lazarová was voted the all-time best Czech movie in a prestigious 1998 poll of Czech film critics and publicists.^[3]

Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the film.

Plot

Two brothers, Mikoláš and one-armed Adam, along with a small group of men, ambush a small caravan traveling on a country road in the middle of winter. The attackers massacre most of the travelers, one escapes, Mikoláš chases and captures one and his men capture another. The man who escaped, a Saxon aristocrat, turns out to be the new Bishop of Hennau and a close ally of the local king. The two captives are the Bishop's son and his assistant. When Mikoláš returns to the site of the ambush, he finds a group of scavengers, led by Lazar, a neighbor of Mikoláš's, stripping the dead. Mikoláš' first impulse is to kill Lazar, but spares him after Lazar prays to Christ to forgive Mikoláš. Mikoláš returns to his village where his father, Kozlík, is the clan patriarch. Kozlík becomes furious at Mikoláš for allowing a man to escape, for bringing home two captives and for allowing Lazar to live. When Mikoláš explains that he took the captives for ransom, his father asks him if he intends to travel to Saxony to claim the ransom or if Mikoláš intends to invite the Saxons to bring their army to their small clan village.

In the next scene, Kozlík, chased by wolves, is running through deep snow back to the village. It turns out the king had summoned him to the capital. When Kozlík arrived, the king's captain had attempted to take Kozlík into custody, but Kozlík attacked the captain and fled. The narrator explains the captain was previously a merchant who brewed his own beer. Therefore, people call him Captain Pivo (Beer). The king then orders the Captain to take a regiment to rescue the Bishop's son and to punish Kozlík and his family. Anticipating the attack, the family abandons its village and moves deeper into the forest. As they pack, Mikoláš visits Lazar to request an alliance with him against the king. He suggests the two clans could ambush and massacre the regiment. Marketa now enters the story. She is Lazar's virginal, naïve daughter, destined by her father to become a nun. Marketa is horrified to see her father and his men attack and brutally beat Mikoláš after refusing to ally with him against the king. After beating Mikoláš, Lazar allows him to leave. When Mikoláš arrives home, his father sends a small group of men back to Lazar's to take vengeance against him for beating Mikoláš. When they arrive at Lazar's village, they realize the Captain and his regiment have already arrived. Therefore, they begin to return to Kozlík, but not before killing the Captain's right-hand-man who attempted to single-handedly attack them in a fool-hardy charge.

In the next scene, Lazar and his daughter Marketa visit the nunnery. Lazar has failed to bring the required amount of money to allow Marketa to take vows, so they return home. When they enter the village, they find Mikoláš and his men have captured the village. They kill Lazar's mentally disabled son, kidnap Marketa and nail Lazar in a crucifixion pose to the village door. When Mikoláš and his men return to the family's forest stronghold, Mikoláš rapes Marketa then protects her against his father's attempt to torture her with shoes filled with inward-pointing nails. At the same time, a romance has developed between the Bishop's son, Kristián, who is still a captive, and Kozlík's daughter Alexandra. Earlier in the movie, it was revealed that Alexandra had an affair with her brother Adam. During sex, a viper had bitten Adam's arm and the venom was slowly killing him. This led to Kozlík chopping off his son's arm. By this time in the movie, Alexandra's affections had moved to Kristián who has impregnated her. All of this defiance of Kozlík leads him to chain Mikoláš, Marketa, Alexandra and Kristián together and banish them to the hill outside of the fortress stockade. When the Captain and his regiment arrives at the fortress, Kozlík allows the four back inside. In a series of fragmented flashbacks and flash forwards, the movie reveals that after an initial, ill-considered attack was repulsed, the Captain mounted a second attack which succeeded. Kristián thinks he sees Alexandra killed by dogs. He goes insane and begins to wander the country-side. Mikoláš, Marketa and Alexandra, who actually survived, escape, and Kozlík is taken captive to the king's castle. Alexandra comes across the insane Kristián whom she kills by crushing his head with a rock. Marketa attempts to return home, but her father, who survived the attempted crucifixion, rejects her. The Captain's men find Alexandra mourning Kristián's death and arrest her. At the same time, Mikoláš mounts an unsuccessful attempt to free his father from the castle dungeon. Marketa goes to take orders in the nunnery, but leaves during the ceremony to rejoin Mikoláš who is dying from wounds suffered in the ill-fated rescue attempt. The Captain marries Mikoláš and Marketa in an abbreviated ceremony held in the dirt of the castle courtyard. The Captain's men then take Mikoláš and his father Kozlík to their executions. At the end of the movie, Marketa wanders the countryside as the narrator explains that both she and Alexandra had sons. According to the narrator, Marketa nursed both, implying that Alexandra died after she gave birth to her son (she committed suicide in the novel).

Cast and characters

• Josef Kemr as Kozlík, a bandit knight who resides at Roháček. He is Lazar's rival. His clan has to face royal army.^[4]
• František Velecký as Mikoláš, Kozlík's second born son and the protagonist of film.^[5][6] He is considered to be Kozlík's successor. He abducts Markéta and eventually marries her.
• Ivan Palúch as Adam-Jednoručka, Kozlík's son who is in relationship with his sister Alexandra.
• Pavla Polášková as Alexandra, Kozlík's daughter who is in relationship with her brother Adam. She falls in love with Kristián, a prisoner of her family.^[4]
• Michal Kožuch as Lazar, Markéta's father who is a bandit knight but rejects to help Kozlík and eventually helps royal army.^[4]
• Magda Vášáryová as Marketa Lazarová, the only daughter of Lazar. She is a naive girl who is abducted by Mikoláš and becomes his mistress. She eventually falls in love with him and they get married before his execution.^[4]
• Harry Studt as Kristián, Saxon Count whose son is abducted by Kozlík's sons
• Vlastimil Harapes as Kristián - Son of a Saxon Noble who is taken prisoner by Kozlík's clan. He falls in love with Alexandra.^[4]
• Zdeněk Kryzánek as Captain Pivo, the leader of royal army who is sent against Kozlík. He is tasked to rescue Kristián. He later marries Mikoláš with Markéta.
• Zdeněk Řehoř as Sovička, Pivo's second in command. He is attracted to Markéta. He is killed by Kozlík's sons.^[4]
• Naďa Hejná as Kateřina, Kozlík's wife
• Vladimír Menšík as Bernard, a Wandering monk who serves as a viewer of the events in the film. He didn't appear in the novel.^[4]
• Jaroslav Moučka as Jan, Kozlík's first born son
• Karel Vašíček as Jiří, Kozlík's son
• Pavel Landovský as Smil, Kozlík's son
• Ladislav Považay as Burjan, Kozlík's son
• Martin Mrázek as Václav, Kozlík's son
• Václav Sloup as Šimon, Jan's son
• Jan Pohan as Kornet
• Alena Pavlíková as Drahuše, Kozlík's daughter
• Zdeněk Lipovčan as Jakub, Lazar's son

Production

Before production started, František Vláčil and František Pavlíček had to transfer the novel into screenwright. Text of the book was linguistically difficult and the transfer took a few years. Whole works on Markéta Lazarová took 7 years.^[7]

Production itself took three years. The shooting started in 1964 and concluded in 1966. It took 548 days. The film was shot at multiple places in the current Czech Republic such as Lánská obora, Mrtvý luh or Klokočín Castle. Shooting took place during extreme conditions of tough winter.^[8] The intended budget was 7 Million crowns but the film cost almost 13 million crowns in the end. The expensiveness of the film was one of the reasons for making The Valley of the Bees in which Vláčil used costumes and decorations intended for Markéta Lazarová. The film was finished in 1967.^[9][10]

Royal Pictures

The film was originally intended to be longer. Vláčil wanted to make scenes named "Royal Pictures." These were supposed to be set at the royal court. These would feature Czech king Wenceslaus I of Bohemia and conflict between him and his son Ottokar II of Bohemia. These scenes haven't been filmed because the budget was already too high and the film would be longer than 3 hours.^[11]

Soundtrack

Music for Markéta Lazarová was composed by Zdeněk Liška. It is based on Medieval composition. There are motives of Gregorian chant. Music emphasizes conflict of Christian and Pagan world.^[12]

In 2015, Petr Ostrouch was permitted by Liška's descendants to make a concert of music from Markéta Lazarová.^[13] It was held on 9 October 2015 at Karlín. It was part of musical festival Struny podzimu (Strings of Autumn).^[14][15]

Digitization

Prague Studio UPP digitized Markéta Lazarová in 2011. Restorers removed all damage to the film but did not change anything of the film. They worked with the official version of the film but also with the negative. Restoration cost 2 million Czech crowns. It was financed by Czech Ministry of Culture and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The digitalized version of the film premiered on 2 July 2011 at Karlovy Vary film festival.^[16]

Release

The film premiered on 24 November 1967. The film was watched by 1.3 million people in theaters.^[17]

In 1974, Markéta Lazarová premiered in the United States. It was shortened to 100 minutes for American market. Reviews for this version were mixed^[18][19]

Digitized version of Markéta Lazarová premiered at 2011 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film was then distributed in cinemas since 13 October 2011.^[20]

Video release

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in 2012.^[21]

Reception

Critical reception

The film has received universal acclaim from critics. It has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews.^[22] During Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 1994 Markéta Lazarová was voted the best Czech film ever made.^[23] The film was also voted the greatest Czech film of all time in a national critics' poll.^[24] Mark=ta Lazarová also won some awards. It was awarded at Mar del Plata International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival.^[25]

Accolades

See also

• List of films considered the best
• List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
• The Valley of the Bees

References

External links

• Marketa Lazarová on IMDb
• Marketa Lazarová at Rotten Tomatoes
• Marketa Lazarová at České filmové nebe (in Czech)
• Marketa Lazarová at AllMovie
• Criterion Collection essay by Alex Zucker
• Criterion Collection essay by Tom Gunning