The Burning Bush (2013)

The Burning Bush - a miniseries in three parts - is the English title of a Czech historical drama (based on a true story) about the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia, focusing on the case of Jan Palach, a student of history, who set himself on fire in Prague in January 1969 in order to protest the Soviet invasion of his country five months earlier. Here is some basic information about this drama which premiered in 2013:

** Original Czech title: HOŘICÍ KEŘ

** Director: Agniezka Holland

** Writer: Stepan Hulik

** Producer: HBO Europe

** Soundtrack: option # 1 Czech; option # 2 Hungarian; option # 3 Polish

** Subtitles: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Hungarian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian

** Run time: 84 + 72 + 78 minutes = 234 minutes

** Bonus feature: two items = 31 minutes

** Total time: 265 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Tatiana Pauhofova as Dagmar Buresova (born 1929) – a lawyer

** Jan Budar as Radim Bures – a doctor – Dagmar’s husband

** Ivan Trojan as Major Jires – a police officer (a fictional character)

** Voitech Kotek as Ondrej Travnicek – a student activist (a composite character)

** Jaroslava Pokorna as Libuse Palachova – Jan Palach’s mother

** Petr Stach as Jiri Palach – Jan Palach’s brother

** Martin Huba as Wilem Novy (1904-1987) – a high-ranking member of the Communist Party

** Adrian Jastraban as Vladimir Charouz – Dagmar’s boss

** Jenovefa Bokova as Vladka Charouzova – Vladimir’s daughter

** Patrick Dergel as Pavel Janda – Dagmar’s assistant

** Emma Smetana as Hana Cizkova – an art student - Jan Palach’s friend or girlfriend

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown in this drama, but the basic story is true.

When Wilem Novy, a high-ranking member of the Communist Party, slanders Jan Palach, his mother wants to sue him in court. She approaches the female lawyer Dagmar Buresova, asking her to take the case.

At first, Dagmar declines: trying to sue a member of the ruling class for defaming a young dissident seems to be a hopeless case. But after a while she changes her mind and decides to take the case.

In this drama we follow her preparations for the case as well as the case in the courtroom. Dagmar fights for justice, even though the odds are against her; and even though it may bring herself and her family in danger. In this way, the drama shows us the importance of Jan Palach and his case; his contribution to the struggle for human rights.

Here is some information about the director:

Agniezka Holland was born in Poland in 1948. After graduating from high school she moved to Czechoslovakia to study film and television in Prague. She was in Prague in 1968 where she witnessed the reforms in the beginning of the year (known as the Prague Spring) and the subsequent Soviet invasion in August.

In 1981, shortly before the imposition of martial law in Poland, she moved to France. For many years she was not allowed to return to the country where she was born.

As you can see, she has the perfect background to direct a historical drama about events in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet occupation. What do reviewers say about it? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

** 80 per cent = IMDb

** 83 per cent = Metacritic

** 95 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes

The ratings are quite good, quite high. I understand the positive reviews and I agree with them. The script is well-written and the actors play their roles well. The story is captivating, dramatic and often highly emotional. In addition, it is based on a true story.

I have only one complaint about this drama: there is a lot of smoking. Many characters smoke cigarettes; not only the bad guys, but also the good guys; and not only when they are outside in the open air, but also when they are inside an office or a private home. It is horrible. I do not like it, but perhaps it is realistic, given that this story is set in 1969 and in the Eastern Bloc where smoking was more common than in the West. Therefore I have decided to regard this issue as a minor flaw.

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS # 1. Jan Palach, who was born in 1948, is seen briefly in the beginning of the first episode. He sets himself on fire on 16 January 1969. He dies in a hospital three days later. After this we do not see him again. Because the drama is not about him; it is about what happened after his spectacular and controversial self-sacrifice.

PS # 2. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. The communist regimes of Eastern Europe fell one by one. In Czechoslovakia they had the Velvet revolution. In December 1989, Dagmar Buresova became minister of justice in the first post-communist government of her country. She held this post for six months. Wilem Novy did not live long enough to see this happen: he died in 1987.

PS # 3. The following (very positive) review of the drama is available online: Francine Prose, “Czech Winter,” New York Review of Books, 11 June 2014.

PS # 4. Milada is a historical and biographical drama about the Czech politician Milada Horakora, who was hanged by the Communist government in 1950 – after a show trial in which she and several others were falsely accused of conspiracy and treason. Unfortunately, all characters in this movie speak English, which is completely unrealistic. This drama premiered in 2017.

*****

 

Jan Palach (1948-1969)

*****

A Prominent Patient (2016)

A Prominent Patient is a historical and biographical drama (based on a true story) about the famous Czechoslovakian diplomat and politician Jan Masaryk. Here is some basic information about this drama which premiered in 2016:

** Director: Julius Sevcik

** Writers: Julius Sevcik, Petr Kolecko & Alex Königsmark

** Soundtrack: Czech, English, French

** Subtitles: Czech, Slovak – no English subtitles!

** Released on DVD in 2017

** Run time: 113 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Karel Roden as Jan Masaryk (1886-1948) – a Czechoslovakian diplomat and politician

** Hanns Zischler as Dr Hugo Stein – a German doctor who lives and works in the US – a fictional character

** Oldrich Kaiser as Edward Benes (1884-1948) – President of Czechoslovakia 1935-1938 and 1945-1948

** Arly Jover as Marcia Davenport (1903-1996) – a US writer – author of a biography about Mozart

** Jiri Vyoralek as Konrad Henlein (1898-1945) – leader of the Germans in Sudetenland

** Dermot Crowley as Lord Halifax (1881-1959) – UK Foreign Minister 1938-1940

** Paul Nicholas as Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) – UK Prime Minister 1937-1940

Jan Masaryk is the son of Tomas G. Masaryk, Czechoslovakia’s first president, 1918-1935. Jan followed in his father’s footsteps: he was Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to the UK 1925-1938 and Czechoslovakia’s Foreign Minister 1940-1948 (during the war, the Czechoslovakian government was in exile in London).

Both father and son were popular and respected in Czechoslovakia. Even today, when the country has been split into two countries, Jan Masaryk is still an important historical figure in the Czech Republic.

Since this movie is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.

While this movie is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown in this movie, but the basic story is true.

As stated above, this movie is about Jan Masaryk, but it does not cover his whole life from the beginning to the end. It focuses on a brief but significant part of his life: the time from 1937 to 1939; i.e. the two years before the outbreak of World War Two.

During the first year, 1937-1938, he was Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to the UK. In 1938 he resigned his post in order to protest the fact that the Czechoslovakian government had handed over the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

In this movie, we follow Jan Masaryk and his increasingly desperate attempts to preserve his country intact and to avoid a war with Germany. He appeals to the leaders of the UK and France, but this does not help. He feels that these two great powers are selling his country - step by step - to Nazi Germany in order to preserve peace in Europe. As we all know, peace was not preserved, even though Czechoslovakia was sacrificed.

The drama is set in three different locations: in the UK (London), in Czechoslovakia (Prague), and in the US (although no scene is actually filmed in London, and no scene is actually filmed in the US).

What do reviewers say about this historical and biographical drama? On IMDb it has a rating of 69 per cent, which corresponds to 3.5 stars on Amazon. If you ask me, this rating is too high. Why?

The topic is highly interesting and the movie is based on a true story, but it is not great; it is not even good; it is average. It has some significant flaws. Let me explain:

# 1. The movie-makers have placed Jan Masaryk in a sanatorium in the US where he is treated by a German psychiatrist who has moved to the US in order to escape the government of Nazi Germany. Hence the English title of the drama: A Prominent Patient.

This part of the story is pure fiction; a product of the director’s and the writer’s vivid imagination. There is no evidence that Jan Masaryk was in a sanatorium in the US. Dr Hugo Stein, the German doctor who is treating him, is a fictional character.

While Jan Masaryk is in the US, in 1939, he meets a US reporter, Marcia Davenport, who mostly writes about music, but she is also interested in global politics, and they become very close very fast. The US reporter is a real historical person, but it seems they did not meet each other until 1941. The movie-makers have changed the chronology of events here.

# 2. The movie covers the time from 1937 to 1939, but the story does not follow a chronological line from 1937 to the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939. It seems the director decided that this would be too easy and too boring. Therefore he decided to take another approach: the story flips back and forth between the starting point in 1937 and the ending point in 1939!

Each time the story jumps to a new time and place, an on-screen message tells us where we are, but it does not help much. The structure of the movie is chaotic, confusing, and very difficult to follow, unless you are an expert in this period of European history, so you know exactly when each meeting and each new development took place.

# 3. Arly Jover, who plays the US reporter Marcia Davenport, is a Spanish actress (born 1971). Why pick a Spanish actress to play the role of a US reporter? Was it impossible to find a US actress who had the right age and the right look?

Dermot Crowley who plays the UK Foreign Minister Lord Halifax is an Irish actor (born 1947). Why pick an Irish actor to play the role of an English politician? Was it impossible to find an English actor who had the right age and the right look?

# 4. In one scene (set in London) we see Jan Masaryk standing outside a hotel that is called the Mycroft Hotel. As far as I know, there is no hotel in London with this name. What is the reason for choosing this name? Perhaps it is a hidden reference to Sherlock Holmes and his brother Mycroft? If it is, I fail to see the relevance. Jan Masaryk has no connection to Sherlock Holmes.

On the positive side I must say that there is one aspect which the movie-makers got right: the language that is spoken in the movie. When we are in Prague, the dialogue is in Czech. When Jan Masaryk is in the UK or in the US, the dialogue is in English. The languages spoken are realistic, but this cannot save the movie, because there are some serious flaws.

I wanted to like this movie, because the topic is very interesting and because it is based on a true story, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored; which cannot be overlooked. I have to remove two stars because of these flaws. Therefore I think this drama deserves a rating of three stars.

PS # 1. The death of Jan Masaryk in 1948 is a controversial event which is not covered in this movie, because it is outside the time frame chosen (1937-1939). He fell from a window and died. But why did he fall? Did he jump? Was it a suicide? Or was he pushed? Was it a murder? This event has been the subject of a long-running debate which is still going on today, many decades after it happened. For more information, see the following items which are available online:

** Rob Cameron, “Police close the case on 1948 death of Jan Masaryk – murder, not suicide,” Radio Praha, 6 January 2004

** Ian Willoughby, “Jan Masaryk’s mysterious death: a last nail in the coffin,” Radio Praha, 10 March 2018

PS # 2. The following review of the movie is available online: Jay Weissberg, “Berlin Film Review: A Prominent Patient,” Variety, 17 February 2017.

PS # 3. The Australian television station SBS has a website “SBS on Demand” where a short version of this movie available until the end of 2018. This version, which runs for 95 minutes, has English subtitles when the conversation is not in English. Please note: in order to access this website, you must be in Australia.

PS # 4. The Devil’s Mistress is the English title of a Czech historical and biographical drama (based on a true story) about the life and career of the famous Czechoslovakian actress Lida Baarova, who had a two-year affair with Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. This movie premiered in 2016.

*****

 

Jan Masaryk (1886-1948)

*****