Great news - the popular movie Cutting It Short / Postriziny has now been remastered. This time, the DVD includes English subtitles.
Recently, there has been a problem that remastered versions of Czech movies have been released on DVD or Blu-ray only in Czech and, moreover, in a format that many countries do not support. We hope that Multiland company will continue to think about the reach of Czech movies abroad and that English subtitles will be part and parcel of every restored movie.
Postriziny is a lyrical comedy, directed by Jiri Menzel in 1980 and based on Bohumil Hrabal's famous short story of the same name. It benefits mainly from the writer's rich poetic imagery, which in this case springs from memories of a peaceful life in a town where his father was a brewery manager. A series of humorous episodes connected by main protagonists - a charming Maryska (M. Vasaryova), her loving husband Francin (J. Schmitzer) and his brother Pepin (J. Hanzlik), is interwoven with the ongoing conflict between hard-working Francin and the city council. Francin's career is threatened mainly by his noisy brother Pepin, and also by the irresistible fluid of his wife Maryska. The movie was released in cinemas in early 1981 and aroused extraordinary interest at the time. Although the theme of the movie was considered to be typically national, Postriziny had an unexpectedly good response abroad as well - as one of the few Czech titles from the early 1980s, the movie was purchased in a number of European and overseas distribution networks. The past years have added to this ageless movie another, nostalgic charm of pleasant memories of times and things that are irretrievably gone.
Absolutely top-notch Menzel's movie and one of Hrabal's best adaptations. The actors are absolutely perfect, especially Jaromir Hanzlik, Rudolf Hrusinsky and Oldich Vizner. Menzel once again mastered such a poetic mood, so the movie is not boring and it is funny, even though nothing is really happening and there is no back story. Just one of those movies that I always like to watch.
