Young Bohácek's Sufferings

Un film joyeux avec une pointe de tristesse, consolidé par un scénario peu banal et qui offre des situations très drôles entrecoupées de scènes étendues et ennuyeuses. La fin m’a surpris et je l’ai d’abord condamnée, mais après réflexion, je la trouve finalement très réussie. Quatre étoiles. (11/11/2009)

I’d probably be willing to bet my right hand that as far as those Czech poetic and human comedies go, I have seen them all. And then all of the sudden, the young Pavel Landovský waltzes into my living room, who plays Tonda who drives his old Volha car between Úvaly and Děčín and convinces me that it is not so at all. I had a hell of a great time, same as when watching the Homolka trilogy. If only Jorga Kotrbová didn’t portray such terribly naïve young chick, whose behavior would annoy even a dead man. (06/12/2015)

So I found out that even 40 years ago, carols sounded exactly the same as they do today – like the same set of people singing them all the time... :-D Well, I guess that's all I'll take away from this movie. Yeah, I had fun here and there. I felt sorry for Boháček, who I couldn't tell if he was thick or not. I found out that women are naive turkeys. So actually, I didn't come across anything I didn't already know, see, hear – apart from the carols ;-)) If you wanted to kill time, you could definitely use this film as a weapon. (01/10/2009)

It was a big surprise for me, which just shows how little I know about Czech films. Pavel Landovský is absolutely great and natural here, as is Regina Rázlová. She is perfect. Stella Zázvorková nailed her role exactly as needed, and you have before you an interesting conversational romance, which is both comedic and tragic, yet the emotions seem suppressed, intentionally of course, by Landovský's character. (04/02/2015)