I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND

Czech Republic, 2006, 120 minutes, Colour.
Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Martin Huba, Marianne Labuda.
Directed by Jiri Menzel.

A pre-World War II film as well as glimpses of the war itself comes from the Czech Republic, from veteran director Jiri Menzel who began making ironic, tongue-in-cheek comic portraits of his people in the freer moods of the mid-1960s. He returns to this vein to some effect in I Served the King of England, presenting the picaresque adventures of a short young man, Dite, whose ambition is to become a millionaire and who is not above some trickery to achieve this. The episodes (even one filmed as a silent comedy) are amusing, sometimes charming, sometimes bawdy in a very genteel way as Dite rises through the ranks of the staff of the most elegant hotels.

Then Hitler comes into the picture and the film turns more serious as well as critical. Dite defends a young German woman (Julia Jentsch) who is attacked by some Czech youths and he is smitten. She is the very model of a Hitler-infatuated, racist, supremacist ideologue and Dite sides with her.

We know how it ends right from the beginning as we see an older Dite coming out of gaol after fifteen years. After the war the communist regime caught up with him.

There is quite a lot to think about as we watch the seemingly idyllic luxury 30s, the transformation of the German occupation and the hold of Nazism. And the older Dite has the opportunity to become wiser.

1.The work of Jiri Menzel over the decades? His 60s films with their light ironic touch? Serious themes during the communist era? The atmosphere of the Czech Spring of the 1960s? Establishing a Czech tradition of film-making? His continuing into the 21st century?

2.The cinema style: the jaunty score, bright colours, the framing of scenes and characters, the angles, mirrors and tableaux, the lavish food and costumes, the décor? The introduction of sequences with the silent film style? How enjoyable, charming, beguiling?

3.The title, the words of the maitre d' at the hotel? The summing up of attitudes and style in the hotels? Elegance and manners? Yet the ironies?

4.The parallel structures of the film: Dite, older, freed from prison, beginning a new life in the mid-60s? The flashbacks to the young Dite, the 1930s, the war years? Intercutting the two stories? Each illumining the other? Memories and zest, rueful memories, the charting of Dite’s change?

5.Old Dite: coming out, his clothes getting jammed in the gate, his comments about luck and bad luck, his being resettled in the woods, the dilapidated house, his cleaning it and improving it, working on the road, the neighbours and their researches, the trees, the wood and the violin? The girl from the reformatory? The man and his playing the violin? Their becoming friends, the meal? His desires, reflection? Self-acceptance?

6.The young Dite, his family background, his memories of childhood, his ambitions, to be a millionaire? His seeing Mr Walden, chasing him with the hot dogs, the acting about the change (and the silent film style)? His interest in coins, throwing them and looking at people, even rich people, scurrying to get them? His observations on human nature? His working in the bar, seeing life through the beer glass? The characters in the bar? The prostitute? The reaction of the men? His serving, his abilities, his ability to get change? Build up his money? The men in the town and their talk? His care for the girl, going to the brothel, his sexual encounters? Falling in love? Her pouring the glass? His being vindicated? Meeting Mr Walden again, the floor covered in money, his advice?

7.The Hotel Tochea and its style? The Jewish owner, the wheelchair, whistling to the staff, getting them in line, the poses? The cars and the millionaires? The lavish food? The headwaiter and his snobbery, Dite tripping him and the waiter’s tantrum and leaving? The range of girls who worked in the hotel, going to the rooms with the men? The general and the three women, his shooting, paying all his bills – and the big tip for Dite? Dite learning, performing? An ideal world for him? His friendship with the tall maid? The money?

8.His transfer to the Hotel Paris, living in Prague? The owner? His friendship with the maitre death', the maitre death' and his style, serving the King of England? The learning, the smooth talk, his being advised to see all and hear all, to see nothing and hear nothing? The incident with the Emperor of Ethiopia, the lavish banquet, the emperor at the table, his short size, the bestowing of the medal – and Dite getting it?

9.The change in the 1930s, the introduction of Hitler, the newsreel, Mr Walden? and his advice about stamps? The politics of the Czech Republic? Its history? Capitulating to the Nazis? The maitre death' and his attitudes towards the Nazi occupiers, pretending he didn’t understand German? The rebellion of the Czechs, the occupation by the Nazis, the change in style, the arrests, the clientele? Dite and his seeing Mr Walden? being transferred to the camps in the train, following him with the food?

10.The Germans in Prague, seeing Liza in the street, beset by the thugs? Seeing them as Czech rabble, defending her? Meeting her, the attraction, the dates, going to the hotel? Their not being allowed to have a table, the pouring of the spaghetti over the heads? His talks with Liza, her propaganda attitudes, brainwashed by Nazism? Her vision for the Nazi empire, the occupation of Prague, loyalty to Hitler? Testing Dite to see whether he was true Aryan? The semen test? The marriage, the whore, the ceremony, the photo of Hitler? The sexual encounter – and her moving Dite’s head so that she could see Hitler? Her restlessness, going to the war, her farewell?

11.Dite and the war, his getting a job at the hotel, the same hotel, for Aryan fertility, the women and their liking him, but treating him as a servant, the men? The new Aryan race? The change of fortunes in the war, the wounded and the limbless coming to the hotel, at the pool? The letters from Liza? Her return, bringing the stamps she stole from the Jews? The evacuation, the enemy arriving, the decision about the stamps?

12.The stamps, Dite selling them, buying the hotel? His own wall of money? The luxury, waiting for the millionaires? 1948, the takeover of communism, the Politburo and the interrogation, his arrest, fifteen years for fifteen million gained? His being aloof in the prison? Yet wanting to join the millionaires, their ignoring him?

13.The light touch, the variety of styles, the farcical and the burlesque, the serious? Czech history in the middle of the 20th century?