Whimsy often doesn't travel great distances, especially when much of the humor underlying that whimsy is rooted in the cultural and political workings of a small Czech town. The emigre audience that turned out for "Eeny Meeny" at the Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival found amusement in even the smallest details, such as the preparation of vegetables and other foods in a kitchen apartment. But for non-Czech viewers, "Eeny Meeny" is too slight and uneventful to have any meaningful impact.
This film from young documentarian Alice Nellis, who wrote and directed, made the festival rounds last year and might have a few more American stopovers before returning to its homeland for regional television sales.
"Eeny Meeny" feels like a play with only two key locations -- a small, unadorned flat and a drab polling place during a local election. Despite having won the right to vote after 40 years of communist rule, the townspeople seem singularly unenthusiastic about the election. The one exception is Helena (Theodora Remundova), a retired teacher torn between the campaign for her local hero and tending her invalid husband, Jenda (Leos Sucharipa), whom a stroke has left bitter and cranky.
Their daughter Jana (Iva Janzurova) returns from Prague to help out at the polling place, but she is highly distracted by an unraveling relationship with one of her married college professors.
Mostly, we watch people suffering from boredom. The bedridden father idly flips channels on his TV set while the polling place volunteers wait forlornly for a few citizens to drag themselves off the street to vote. Someone smuggles alcohol into the polling place, which loosens inhibitions and results in a Florida-style disaster with the ballots.
Most audiences will soon share in the characters' boredom, though, as nothing much enlivens the comic drama other than the irony of voter apathy not long after "40 years of whining" for freedom.
One interesting aspect of the film is that the lead characters are real-life mother and daughter. Tech credits are modest but astute.
EENY MEENY
A Pozitiv and Czech Television production
Producers: Alice Nemanska, Helena Slavikova, Pavel Sodomka
Screenwriter-director: Alice Nellis
Executive producer: Klara Bukovska
Director of photography: Ramunas Greicius
Production designer: Petr Fort
Music: Tomas Polak
Editor: Josef Valusiak
Color/stereo
Cast:
Helena: Theodora Remundova
Jana: Iva Janzurova
Jenda: Leos Sucharipa
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This film from young documentarian Alice Nellis, who wrote and directed, made the festival rounds last year and might have a few more American stopovers before returning to its homeland for regional television sales.
"Eeny Meeny" feels like a play with only two key locations -- a small, unadorned flat and a drab polling place during a local election. Despite having won the right to vote after 40 years of communist rule, the townspeople seem singularly unenthusiastic about the election. The one exception is Helena (Theodora Remundova), a retired teacher torn between the campaign for her local hero and tending her invalid husband, Jenda (Leos Sucharipa), whom a stroke has left bitter and cranky.
Their daughter Jana (Iva Janzurova) returns from Prague to help out at the polling place, but she is highly distracted by an unraveling relationship with one of her married college professors.
Mostly, we watch people suffering from boredom. The bedridden father idly flips channels on his TV set while the polling place volunteers wait forlornly for a few citizens to drag themselves off the street to vote. Someone smuggles alcohol into the polling place, which loosens inhibitions and results in a Florida-style disaster with the ballots.
Most audiences will soon share in the characters' boredom, though, as nothing much enlivens the comic drama other than the irony of voter apathy not long after "40 years of whining" for freedom.
One interesting aspect of the film is that the lead characters are real-life mother and daughter. Tech credits are modest but astute.
EENY MEENY
A Pozitiv and Czech Television production
Producers: Alice Nemanska, Helena Slavikova, Pavel Sodomka
Screenwriter-director: Alice Nellis
Executive producer: Klara Bukovska
Director of photography: Ramunas Greicius
Production designer: Petr Fort
Music: Tomas Polak
Editor: Josef Valusiak
Color/stereo
Cast:
Helena: Theodora Remundova
Jana: Iva Janzurova
Jenda: Leos Sucharipa
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/18/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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