Very well executed

Just so...so bad

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This evening, my wife and I will attend a performance of "Lásky jedné plavovlásky" at a local theater, so I wanted to watch this film as preparation. My wife grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia. I immigrated here 25 years ago, and we've been married for 21 years.The first 99% of the film disgusted me. I rated it 1/10. After the final 1%, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's the point they were trying to make". I raised the rating to 2/10.THE FIRST 99%My reactions jumped from...Andula is a slut. Why do I want to watch a movie about a slut? "Loves of a Blonde", huh? Well, in Czech culture, a "blonde female" has the same derogatory connotation as elsewhere.toThis film reminds me of Milan Kundera's book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Everyone claims it's a classic, but it lacks actual classical substance.toUtter disgust at one event after another:* A man removes his wedding ring with the intent of committing adultery; * Three middle-aged soldiers try to force three young women to get drunk; * Andula tells Milda that she previously tried to kill herself (with a razor blade that broke? yeah, right); * More than one instance of a man trying to take advantage of a young woman in emotional distress; * Milan's attempted rape of Andula; * Milan rolling up the window shade while unknowingly revealing his "package"Warped, perverted, and 12 other words with the same meaning. In this film, men treat women horribly. They act like lascivious lechers. I haven't seen such behavior in Czechoslovakia. In general, men treat women quite well (that's why feminism has never gained traction here).Oh, by the way, dialog in this film is idiotic and insipid.GOOD ASPECTS OF THE FILMThe film has some good scenes, including the loss of the wedding ring at the dance as well as Milda and his parents arguing in bed together.CONCLUSIONIf you want to view truly excellent films about pleasant, simplistic life in Communist Czechoslovakia, see Jiří Menzel's "My Sweet Little Village" and "The Snowdrop Festival".

With still having strong memories about being caught completely by surprise from Milos Forman's far better than expected 1984 epic Amadeus,I was thrilled to recently discover that a fellow IMDb'er had shared a link to a Youtube page of an early Forman movie from a film movement that I had recently been hearing quite a bit about called the Czech New Wave,which lead to me excitingly getting ready to surf the wave for the first time.The plot:Fearful over their being not enough boys for girls to fall in love for in his village,due to their only being one man to every 16 women in the village,a local businessman decides to do a deal with a military general,which will allow for restless soldiers to pay a visit to the town,in the hope that they end up becoming romantically involved with the residents.Attending a late night party with her dormitory friends,Andula tells her friends to ignore the advances that are getting made to them by a group of old,worn down soldiers.Leaveing her friends behind on the watchful gaze of the army men,Andula secretly pays a visit to a guy called Milda,who along with having played with played in a band earlier in the night,is also someone who Andula is starting to develop a real crush for.Half-heartedly accepting Milda's invitation for her to pay a visit to his room,so that Milda can read her palms,Andula soon begins to find out what direction her palm lines,and her life are heading in.View on the film:For the relationship between Andula (played by a cute,wonderfully uncertain Hana Brejchová) and Milda (played by a very good,manipulative Vladimír Pucholt),the screenplay by director Milos Forman and co- writer's Jaroslav Papousek, Ivan Passer and Václav Sasek use Andula's wish for the relationship to work as a sly way to include some subtle commentary on the communist regime of the time,with Andula working in a shoe shop factory making identical pares of shoes,being connected to the owner of the business trying to get all of the women of the village to settle down with men from the country's old,rusting military.Continuing on the films theme in his directing style,Forman and cinematography Miroslav Ondrícek show in stark black & white everything that Andula is up against in her desire not to conform,from Andula's village looking like a wasteland,and Forman placing the viewer in Andula's corner when a vote is taking at her dormitory for no boys to be allowed in the building.Forman also expertly reveals the full Horror's of what Andula is going against,when after making her first ever visit out of the village to see Milda's parents,Andula is met by the hard stare of Milda's mum,who openly tells Andula that she does not trust any outsiders.

"Loves of a Blonde", for some obscene reason, is listed as a comedy.Perhaps that was Milos Forman's intention when the movie was first released in 1965. I ask anyone who has seen the movie to please enlighten me on what was funny (aside from the scene with Milda's parents, which was more pathetic than humorous).What really makes the film intriguing is its unintentional voyeuristic quality. The Black & White film magnificently highlights the Czech countryside, where we meet Andula - a worker in a local shoe factory. Andula and her friends outnumber the men by some ridiculous margin and the factory owner gets the People's Army to station soldiers there. Unfortunately, the soldiers are old and mostly married. They have a party one night at a local bar and she meets Milda, a musician with the band.The seduction scene between Milda and Andula takes up most of the film but everything about it still resonates today (which is basically a guy will do or say anything to get into a girl's pants). Unfortunately, Andula takes him seriously when he says to come visit him in Prague, which she does.SPOILER ALERT Andula, with suitcase in hand, shows up at his home in Prague. What she doesn't know is that Milda lives with his parents. The father is actually a likable character who feels sorry for Andula. Milda's mother on the other hand gave me nightmares (condescending, controlling, and downright creepy). Milda eventually comes home (after seducing yet another girl) and to his parents pretends not to know Andula and denies ever inviting her. (When with Andula alone he's quite different). His mother eventually grabs him and throws him into the parents' bed to get some sleep. Mind you, this is not a 4-year old having a nightmare - this is a grown man who likes to seduce young virgins. Perhaps the comedy is in their trying to position themselves as they try to sleep (which is hard, considering its three adults and the mother refuses to shut up. All the while, Andula is on the other side of the door, listening)SPOILER ALERT Although Andula and Milda are quite fascinating (as is the conditions and times they live in), I was quite disappointed with its beyond ambiguous ending. Its as if the last pages of a book you were reading were ripped out. You see Andula back with her friends (you have no clue how she got there) and lying about how it was great seeing his parents. Duh??For style and historical content, however, I would recommend it.

At a club that looks more like a high school dance during the 60s in some remote factory town in Czechoslavokia three girls are trying not to make too much eye contact with three of the many soldiers who are in attendance. After much arguing and hesitation the three soldiers approach the girls, not before ordering drinks for them that ended up at the next table of girls. But one of the girls, the main character of the story, has her eye on the young piano player. And with this Milos Forman's socially conscious odd-ball romantic tragic comedy called, Loves of a Blonde, gets rolling.The soldiers, in spite of much persistence, don't get the girls who end up going home, bored and tired, I mean except the main girl who ends up in a room with the piano player. Subtle humor and youthful and lustful recklessness are portrayed so precisely in this scene where the piano player cleverly gets the girl in bed before ranting about Prague and the girls resemblance to a Picasso-esquire guitar.To cut a long story short, the girl ends up falling for the guy and goes to visit him in Prague, but ends up meeting his parents. The mother's and the father's argue for some time about the girls arrival, for this is Eastern Europe and girls just don't come to a boys house to stay the night after a one night stand (or maybe its like this...). So the mother and the father partake in some of the most entertaining dialog I've seen in any film about this girls arrival, about their sons travels and job, and ultimately about the issues prevalent to the times, echoing an European conservative sentiment. The boy ends up coming home late after a gig and who knows what else and is met with much heat from his pants wearing mama, and he claims to have never invited any girl...If I had to say something bad about this film at gun point I might say that it is too small. Its so compact and grounded and so simple. But then again, without any gun to my face, that is exactly what makes this film work. Its like a hidden little gem from the former commie infested corner of Europe.Forman is a true auteur and this film demonstrates it well. Its a study of youth in the need for love and overworked women in search of something unfamiliar and maybe life saving, maybe city life, more likely love, and simply its about the need to find what you don't have. The factory filled with girls, the soldiers, the dance halls, the parents, the girls dormitory, all paint a very real and comically tragic picture, definitely worth seeing. 8 out of 10.