By Geraldine Blecker
I Served the King of England, (Czech 2006)
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Masterfully adapted for the screen from the novel by Bohumil Hrabal, who died in 1997, Oscar-winning writer/director Jiri Menzel has condensed this epic tale to its essentials: opportunism, money, fine food, and lots of sex. And often all deliciously mixed together. “I Served the King of England" is larger than life, spectacularly made and a black comedy of the first order.
Impish hero Jan Dite, known as “Piccolo”, the most charming of opportunists, has just two goals in life: to be a millionaire and to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. We first meet him as an older man, (played by Oldrich Kaiser) in the 1950s, as he is being released from a long sentence in a Prague jail. Sent to work in a desolate border village, he sets about renovating an old pub and recalls the twists and turns of his life.
Flashing back to the 1930s in a black and white montage, we see a young, blond, blue-eyed Jan (played with remarkable Chaplinesque dexterity by Ivan Barnev), selling sausages at the railway station. Short-changing his customers with innocent flair, he has already stumbled onto a great psychological truth: No matter how rich or how poor, no one can resist getting down on his hands and knees and scrambling to pick up money. And thus, he regularly flings a pocketful of loose change onto the ground just to observe this phenomenon. The motif appears throughout the film as a sort of running gag and is never tiresome.
Drawn by lovely ladies and the dolce vita, Piccolo is determined to succeed. From sausage vendor, to waiting tables and pulling pints i a pub, to silver service in a series of top class eateries, he gradually ascends the catering ladder. Sharpening his skills as he goes, he gets a job as under waiter in Prague’s finest hotel restaurant, under the austere eye of the haughty maitre d’ (played by Martin Huba). A master of the metier and seemingly able to speak every language under the sun, he condescendingly explains his talents with the phrase, “I Served the King of England.” Hence the film’s title.
After the German occupation just before the outbreak of WW ll, Jan meets the lovely Lisa (Julia Jentsch of “Sophie Scholl”) an ardent Aryan and it is love at first sight. Despite the treatment of his fellow countrymen and what he sees everywhere around him, he is quick to gauge which way the wind is blowing and soon becomes a Nazi collaborator. Abandoning his string of attractive sexual partners, he marries Lisa, who only agrees to wed after he can prove the purity of his bloodline. There is a wonderful scene on their wedding night, when she moves his head aside while they are making love, so as not to obstruct her view of Hitler’s portrait hanging on the opposite wall.
Towards the end of the war, Lisa is killed during a bombing raid after a tour of duty at the Russian Front. Although desolate, Jan shrewdly sells the box of valuable stamps she had been collecting from abandoned Jewish homes and purchases one of the luxury hotels where he once worked as a humble waiter. And finally joins the ranks of millionaires to fulfill his lifelong dream; only to be jailed with the rest of them when the Communists take over. At one year per million, he is sentenced to a 15 year stretch.
There is no doubt that Czechoslovakia went through the hoops during the last six decades, and the film has been widely criticized for its almost cavalier approach to such devastating events as the Nazi occupation, Jewish deportation and its years of oppression under the Soviet boot. But I, for one, did not find this to be the case.
Regarded as a pioneer of the Czech Nouvelle Vague in the 1960s, Jiri Menzel won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966 for his first motion picture “Closely Watched Trains”, likewise based on a novel by Hrabal. In fact, this is his sixth adaptation of that writer’s work. Meanwhile in his seventies, Menzel is, indeed, still provocative and “I Served the King of England” is more a portrait of the Czech psyche and survival by adaptation than a demonstrative or tear-jerking defamation of any political regime. His famous mixture of slapstick, political statement and amorous adventures is far more evocative than the typical European author-director’s heavy-handed emphasis on tragedy.
Technically, it is spectacular and can compete with any costume drama Hollywood has to offer. Lush locations, photography, costume and production design, an extravagant score, excellent direction and editing and superb performances all round. Amazing, considering that it was made for a modest CZK 84,450,000. (Yes, that’s a joke - I have no idea how much that is in real money, either.)
Supporting actors and cameos are likewise illustrious, especially Marian Labuda, who plays Walden the Jewish salesman, who encourages Jan’s ambition in his youth and whose tragic fate is so movingly portrayed towards the end. And Oscar-winning Hungarian director Istvan Szabo silently appears as a wealthy businessman.
Completed in 2006, “I Served the King of England” spent most of 2007 on the international festival circuit, including Berlin, Toronto, Cannes, Edinburgh, Sydney, as well as being the Czech Republic’s Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Sony Pictures Classics picked it up for US distribution, while Farbfilm verleih GmbH will be distributing it in Germany.
I Served the King of England (Czech Republic/Slovakia 2006); German title: Ich habe den englischen Koenig bedient; Genre: historical-comedy-romance; US distributor: Sony Pictures Classics; German distributor: Farbfilm verleih, Running time: 120 mins.; US release date: August 22, 2008 (limited); German release: August 21, 2008; Writer/Director: Jiri Menzel; Novel: Bohumil Hrabal; Main cast: Ivan Barney, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jensch, Martin Huba, Marian Labuda; Cinematographer: Jaromir Sofr; Composer: Ales Berzina; Production Designer: Milan Bycek; Editor: Jiri Brozek
Plot summary: From sausage vendor to millionaire: A lavish saga that follows the rise and fall of a diminutive go-getter set against the turbulent background of modern Czech history.
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Published: 15/11/2009