LASKI MEZI KAPKAMI DESTE (LOVE AMONG THE RAINDROPS)
Czechoslovakia, 1979, 126 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Karel Kachyna.
Love Among the Raindrops is an interesting example of film-making in the 1970s from Czechoslovakia. The director, Karel Kachyna began making films in 1950 and continued to do so continuously until 2003. However, he made films throughout all these years in his own country. He experienced the ups and downs of the communist era, the spring hopes of 1968, the subsequent repression as well as the fall of the Soviet empire.
This film is a drama about Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, recreating the period – and interpreting it from the perspective of the late 1970s. To that extent it is an interesting perspective on Czech history, Czech life, the era of communism.
1. Entertaining romantic story? Title and its atmosphere: youth, the romantic? The ironies?
2. The background of the Czech film industry? Universal entertainment? Particularly Czech style? Visual impact? The vision? Memory? An assessment of the past? The '30s? Universal message? Impact for the Czech audience of the '70s?
3. Colour photography, the city life of the '30s? Homes? Shops? Cabarets? The mansions? The world of the prostitutes?
4. The framework of the film and its structure: Charlie and the introduction, the ballad and the search, the commentary? The six movements? Exodus? Top hat? The flashbacks? The style oil colour for memory, style of images? The point of view and the distance?
5. Czech issues of the '30s? The transition from country to city, the cobbler, the family, Vera leaving., the area and the inhabitants. Lilly, the children in the streets, the Depression, death? Boys: youthfulness, their mother, the funeral invitations, the mockery, castration. sex? Lilly, Vera?
7. The father: cantankerous. the wife and the memories, Vera., settling, the toilet, death, coping, money? Dirty pictures etc?
8. The older children, adolescence, work, study. money? Joe and the railways, royalty? The first pay? The whore? Charlie, home, gentle, selling the clothes. the girl, the outings, the house? Eden and the bet, love? Distance as regards sexuality. the meeting and not meeting, poetry. the cabaret, the coach?
9. The father and Betty?
10. The threesome: sexuality, the fighting, pregnancy?
11. The father? The toilet? Vera?
12. The build-up to saying goodbye - atmosphere?
13. The flavour of the romantic story? The earthy humour. realism, insight, the gentle insights? Comparisons with western treatments of the same types of characters and issues?
