Marketa Lazarova (Criterion Collection) (1967)

This movie from 1967, set in the 12th century, is very hypnotic due to it's vivid images (mixing wide screen landscapes, extreme close ups and moving camera), different modes of narrative (text tableaus, voice, flashbacks, memories) and eerie middle age-like music (it's actually electronic music with voices created specifically for the movie).

In this movie there are no clear cut good vs evil and no typical villains and heroes (maybe for the exception of Marketa Lazarova herself who has some saint-like innocence). The people are more the products of the harsh social and religious environment of the dark ages. The plot is better experienced than talked about in advance. Haunting, complex and spell-binding, this is a very good movie, much better than the historic epics produced by hollywood every year.

The transfer is excellent (I watched it on a projector) with beautiful black/white (it's hard to think of this movie being made in colour).

This is the kind of movie that can be watched again. There is no commentary which would have been nice, but the booklet is informative. Second Run has made a fantastic job making this 40 year old movie look like new.

I saw this when it played at American Cinematheque in Hollywood. Brilliant movie, at times brutally violent, the black and white imagery is amazing. The 13th century seems like a tough time for human folk. I can see why it's compared to Tarkovsky "Andrei Rublev", but the story is tighter and more localized.Wish it was available on NTSC format. "The Valley of the Bees" is also very good.

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**********SECOND RUN DVD REVIEW**********

Well, I have to disagree with the reviewers quality. The picture quality is not aweful, but certainly not what it should be. The blacks are muddled and the whites are grey. There is no streaking or debris to speak of, however. The problem probably lies with the scan resolutuin or scan process in general. The elements used seem to be fine, just an underfunded transfer would be my guess...

I give five stars because Second Run should be applauded for even releasing this DVD. The film itself is a ten star caliber effort!

If you like Rublev, or just have a love of Eastern European cinema from the 1960's, then this is for you. Beautiful 2.35:1 Black & White, nothing better in the world.

Read Best Reviews of Marketa Lazarova (Criterion Collection) (1967) Here

If you can imagine a cross between Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev and Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West (all made within a year of each other), you might have a notion of what Vlacil's Marketa Lazerova is like. Throw in a dash of Bergman's Virgin Spring, and you're almost there. Named by Czech critics as the best Czech film of all time, Marketa Lazerova is a poetic social critique/examination of human kind, in particular when operating outside the confines of "civilization."

The film is set in the Middle Ages,* when family clans competed to rule the harsh territory seizing everything within their reach that they were able enough to claim and defend (not unlike the "old West" for a time), a time when religious and social order (established by the church, alongside the king and his army) was not fully accepted, and clans were used to operating in accordance with more primitive codes and authorities largely based around shamanic/mythic insights, the most basic offeudal ethics, and the strength/toughness of family numbers, from the clan leader on down.

What sets it apart is the cinematic poetry, and anyone who has trouble with the narratives of Tarkovsky, or a modern master like Malick will probably have trouble with this film. While, a straight forward story line does exist at the core, this film speaks on many levels, and making sense of it not only requires careful consideration of everything we hear and are able to see, some of which seems contradictory until we realize that not everything is actually happening, or at least not literally as it is depicted.

Mythic poetry is what it is, and it is the kind of film that opens up once you begin to question into it. I would begin with why it is called Marketa Lazarova (the name of a character whose part is not all that big)?

The film is almost 3 hours, and ample time for absorbtion and reflection are necessary, so anyone eager to check the next film off their list will probably need to come back to it when they are ready and able to give it more time and space.

*That it is set in the middle ages doesn't mean that there are no modern day parallels, particularly in times of war.

Want Marketa Lazarova (Criterion Collection) (1967) Discount?

realizes that none of the 2008 -2012 (if any) reviews has anything to do with this disc except re:plot of the film. Neither does this one. Am looking forward to after people buy it and review the actual disc Amazon is asking us to buy and providing old reviews unrelated to anything but plot to make a buy decision myself>

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