Directed by Miloš Forman • 1967 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Jan Vostrcil, Josef Šebánek, František Reinstein
A milestone of the Czech New Wave, Miloš Forman’s first color film THE FIREMEN’S BALL is both a dazzling comedy and a provocative political satire. A hilarious saga of good intentions confounded, the story chronicles a firemen’s ball where nothing goes right, from a beauty pageant whose reluctant participants embarrass the organizers to a lottery from which nearly all the prizes are pilfered. Presumed to be a commentary on the floundering Czech leadership, the film was “banned forever” in Czechoslovakia following the Russian invasion and prompted Forman’s move to America.
Up Next in Cannes ’68: Cinema in Revolt
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Capricious Summer
Directed by Jiří Menzel • 1968 • Czechoslovakia
Two years after his worldwide hit CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, Jiří Menzel directed this amusing idyll about three middle-aged men whose mellow summer is interrupted by the arrival of a circus performer and his beautiful assistant. A meditation on agi...
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Toby Dammit
Directed by Federico Fellini • 1968 • Italy
Starring Terence StampLoosely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” Federico Fellini’s contribution to the omnibus film SPIRITS OF THE DEAD is one of the filmmaker’s most extravagantly stylized cinematic dreamscapes—a p...
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Kuroneko
Directed by Kaneto Shindo • 1968 • Japan
Starring Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kei SatoIn this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispat...
