Regie:
Karel SteklýDrehbuch:
Karel SteklýKamera:
František UldrichMusik:
Jaromír KlempířBesetzung:
Svatopluk Matyáš, Helga Čočková, Oldo Hlaváček, Helena Blehárová, Miroslav Homola, Zdena Hadrbolcová, Eduard Dubský, Jiří Lír, Slávka Budínová (mehr)Inhalte(1)
Like other normalizing crazy-comedies, Hroch is also situated in an unknown country, where supernatural phenomena take place. Here, a hippopotamus in the zoo swallows an official called Hroch (Hippo), who lives in the animal's abdominal cavity and communicates with the outside. The obscure and purposeful flop contains many allusions to the events of 1968 and, despite a cautiously lukewarm reception by critics at the time, it earned director Karel Steklý the National Artist title. It perfectly describes the stifling greyness of the incipient normalization and the creative impotence of an otherwise quite skilled director. It is probably the most bizarre cinematic attempt to demonstrate servility to the new regime - so bad that the Febiofest anti-prize for Worst Film of the Year was named after it. (Finále Plzeň)
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I'm not a fan of categorical attributions or condemnations that label something as the best/worst, because these evaluations are always subjective and often out of context. But in this case I’m pretty sure, this is absolutely the most embarrassing film in the history of Czechoslovak cinema. For those interested in film history, it’s the most striking example of the normalization "cinema of oblivion" of the first half of the 1970s. Even the Communist approvers of the time shook their heads in disbelief at this masterpiece, and even though it blatantly referred to the events of the "Prague Spring of 1968" (which must have suited them), withdrew it from the cinemas and did not allow it to be shown on TV, because even for them it was too stupidly absurd and unwatchable. Even as study material, it’s for hardened masochists.
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Ich habe darüber nachgedacht, Hroch wenigstens einen Stern zu geben, weil ein paar ziemlich gute Witze für so einen Quatsch zu schade sind. Ich habe es mir aber anders überlegt. Es ist ein sehr schlechter Film, der wahrscheinlich in jeder Hinsicht misslungen ist. Es konnte nicht einmal ein Agitationsfilm sein. Ich kann mir nämlich nicht vorstellen, dass ihn die Menschen, die er damals beeinflussen sollte, überhaupt verstanden hätten.
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