O Slavnosti a Hostech (1966)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Psychological Drama  |   Run Time - 71 min.  |   Countries - Czechia  |   MPAA Rating - NR
  • AllMovie Rating
    8
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Hal Erickson

This experimental Czechoslovakian film seems disturbingly akin to the works of Spain's Luis Bunuel. A group of happy picnickers runs afoul of Jan Klusak, a bullying sadist who has some sort of unbreakable hold over his followers. Klusak subjects the picnickers to a cruel psychological game, wherein he plays interrogator. The ordeal comes to a brief end when a stranger (Ivan Vyskocil) arrives, apologizes for Klusak, and invites everyone to an elegant, formal outdoor banquet. But the bizarre "fun and games" continue, ending with the group embarking on a fully armed hunting party in search of a missing guest. Built on the premise of unquestioning conformity, Report on the Party and the Guests (O Slavnosti a Hostech) was a typically iconoclastic effort from the husband-and-wife director-screenwriter team of Jan Nemec and Ester Krumbachova.

Characteristics

Keywords

allegory, anger, ban, brutality, Czechoslovakia, Fascism, forest, guest, intolerance, New-Wave, party, persecution, picnic, prejudice, search

Attributes

High Artistic Quality