Stestí (2005) User Reviews

Underrated, Life-Affirming Gem From The Czech Republic

[gogoschka-1 · 8/10 · 11 February 2018]

This is one of those rare movies about life which simply makes you appreciate the human experience. It's funny, warm, sad and touching all at the same time, and something about it just rings true. It's a film about ordinary people who struggle with their lives in the city but find new hope - and new challenges - when they start renovating a run-down farm in the countryside. Beautiful and life-affirming. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Dark and beautiful

[vadlaursen · 8/10 · 14 March 2006]

"Stesti" was my all-time first Czech movie. It won't be the last.

Being a newcomer in the Czech Republic I still do not quite understand the language. For the same reason I wen't to watch the movie with English subtitles - I thought. It turned out that this version of the movie was without any kind of subtitles.Desided to give the movie a chance anyway - and I did not regret it.

Even though I understood none of the spoken words, the story was cristal clear to me. The story of this movie has been told many times before (it especially reminds me of the Danisk feature film "Mifunes sidste sang). Nonetheless the performances by the main characters are very trustworthy and "real". The settings and scenery makes the movie all the more authentic. During the movie you can't help start thinking that some real-life people are really living under these circumstances.

The story is dark and at the same time beautiful. Check out the movie if you are in the mood for a hardcore real-life story.

New Czechs

[akkron · 7/10 · 13 April 2006]

The film "Stesti" ("Some kind of happiness") reminds me of the cinema of the Czech New Wave of sixties, especially of the first films of Milos Forman (The Loves of a Blonde, The Firemen's Ball). The same sincere and touching interest to the preoccupations and destiny of the simple people, especially their sentimental life. The same unhurried cadence. But it is a more disillusioned film also, probably because it describes a country in the state of breakdown before reconstruction and it shows the people in the turmoil and torment of change. It is an unsophisticated film, as films of the developing world often are, but it is realistic and honest one as these films are sometimes. Of course Czechie is not a developing country but it seems that the sophistication and glamor of Western cinema is not so easy to attain even for a director of talent. I must mention also the work of the cameraman. Especially his landscapes. Sometimes they are absolutely exquisite. Sometimes beautiful and nostalgic.

Rich drama with excellent performances

[s33a2d17 · 9/10 · 1 February 2006]

Stestí, shown at the International Filmfestival Rotterdam as 'Something Like Happiness' is by no means a comedy - it's only classification should be 'drama' as that is what it is. And excellent drama at that.

The story is simple in its outline: Monika, Dasha and Tonik are friends - or at least they all were at some point. At the movie's opening we learn that Monika's boyfriend left for the United States and will send for her as soon as he is settled, though no concrete time frame has been talked about. While her mother is supportive, her father apparently doesn't care much for the guy. He does, however, get along well with her longtime friend Tonik, and the two enjoy the occasional bottle (or two) of spirits. Tonik lives with his aunt in a house next to the factory his dad works for. The house is falling apart, but the aunt won't sell out to the factory, and this has strained relations between father and aunt, and thus father and son. Unfortunately, Tonik doesn't have a penny to his name, and they can barely afford electricity. Then there is Dasha, the catalyst of the story. She has two children by a man who has long since left, and is in love with a married man. Dasha is mentally unstable, has been so for some time, and doesn't know very well how to care of her two children. Tonik and Monika regularly help out and are like an aunt and uncle to the children, but Dasha's mental problems make her scornful, even hateful towards her friends. Then Dasha has a breakdown and both Monika and Tonik need to decide how to balance their own needs with those of Dasha and her children.

I can't (or rather won't) tell you more about the story - I do not want to include spoilers. But while the story so far sounds grim, and the surroundings look equally grim and grey, with the smoking nuclear plant dominating the scenery, there is levity and a surprising amount of warmth in this movie as the characters strive towards something like happiness.

The acting is very natural, it feels like Monika and Tonik play themselves rather than their roles, and there is real chemistry between the two. The roles of the respective parents should not be overlooked either, although I am sorry to say I don't have a list of the full cast to give them the credit they deserve.

Most striking is the perseverance of these wonderful people considering the circumstances they live in and the blows life deals them. There is an admirable strength of character to Monika and Tonik and you can't help but feel for them and wish them well.

The movie feels longer than it actually is. Not in that it gets boring, on the contrary, had it been an hour longer I would still have enjoyed watching it, because the characters are so interesting. It feels long because of the range of events covered. By the end of the film, you feel you've come to know the characters, almost as friends. A part of me would like to contact the director and ask if they're alright. It's funny how real fiction can be.

Definitely not a "comedy"...

[jdosek · 9/10 · 26 September 2005]

...as it's indicated in movie info. Better genre description is "bitter-sweet comedy".... This movie is pretty sad look into life of poor people from industrial part of Czech. It's about life which most of us wouldn't like to live, but all of us should realize, that a lot of people live their lives that way. After you see this movie, you will realize how perfect life you live, how hard life some people live and how much should we be thankful for every day we live. What is most neighbourly in this movie, is that characters in are not described as embittered people without buoyancy, but as people who enjoy every day and every little joy as it comes...

Film-making in its best

[filthy_morphine · 10/10 · 10 January 2006]

Definitely one of the best films I have ever seen. Slama has worked on this project for a long time and the result is really outstanding. The characters are very real and the depiction of life in terrible conditions is very faithful. Slama also carefully chose the actors and the choice was excellent. Also his work with actors is very natural and therefore the acting in the movie is unforced and smooth. This movie really got under my skin. Very clever, perfect workmanship and strong theme. I left the cinema and couldn't stop thinking about it. This is exactly the movie that starts up your mind and raises a lot of questions. But despite it's mostly sad movie it doesn't leave the sad feeling in you. After all it is optimistic, in the end it celebrates life and my opinion is that it raises the happy things in life.

I recommend this movie to everyone.

Good luck :)

This is worth seeing. The most talented Czech director.

[rad-sim · 10/10 · 24 May 2007]

There are quite different opinions on Bohdan Slama, a young Czech director. I give my own here. I believe him to be the greatest talent of the current Czech cinematography. He worked on his second movie "Stesti" really hard and for a long time, which eventually led to a surprisingly good result and high expectations of his upcoming work. He is marvelous (and precise!) in directing the actors, he gives them life and credibility. The movie is very dense and every moment is functional so it requires you to watch carefully! Most people say it is a sad or even a drastic movie and take the name Stesti rather as irony of the author. "Stesti" is ambiguous between happiness and luck. The German Glück is exactly the same. (How silly that they try to find different names for it in English and German! Something like happiness is a REALLY bad translation.) Seeing the movie only from its sad side is seeing the surface. Somewhere deeper, in the minds of the two main characters - Tonik and Monika, who eventually fall in love, there is a real happiness, one which most of us hasn't had the opportunity to experience. The happiness stems from the very fact that they live a life which is not simple but very meaningful. The sad and drastic background stands in direct contrast to the inner happiness of the characters. This is most apparent at the very end, where Monika, after leaving her boyfriend in the United States (most obviously standing for empty meaningless material dreams, not at all for a better life) comes back to Tonik's house (the symbol of all his humble material efforts but also and mainly his home), which is under destruction. Monika leaves the place with a light smile (how can people not see that!) and goes looking for Tonik, the source of her happiness, the one who gives her life meaning, no matter where he is, whether he has a house, or fixes broken windows with a piece of scotch-tape. The message of the movie is totally universal and labeling it as a social drama stemming from the unsatisfactory situation of an industrial and poor region of the Czech Republic is a misinterpretation, or at least a demotion.

Typical Example of Contemporary Czech Cinematography

[homespun13 · 3/10 · 29 December 2012]

The reviews here are mostly from Czechs, or Americans. My perspective is somewhat different - I was born and raised in Czechoslovakia but have lived most of my life in the U.S. Therefore, I see the movie more through the eyes of an American, yet understand the language and the circumstances the movie portrays more intimately than an American ordinarily would. Overall, I found the movie confusing and depressing. Confusing in that it's difficult to follow the plot, particularly the relationships between the various characters portrayed. I had a hard time keeping track of who's who, who lives where, who's whose father or mother, girlfriend, romantic boyfriend, platonic boyfriend, just in general I found it difficult to sort these things out. I also agree with another reviewer here that Czech cinema is going through a dark phase. It seems like so many of the movies coming out of the post-communist era are so similar. I would call them black comedies. Other movies with generally the same overall essence as this movie are Horem Padem (Up and Down), Kraska v nesnazich (Beauty in Trouble) and Zeny v pokuseni (Women in temptation). They all portray contemporary Czech society in a very depressing way, choosing dark and depressing images whenever possible. Naturally attractive women are poorly groomed and unattractively dressed; only ugly countryside is shown, ugly living conditions, etc. While there is no doubt that there are Czechs who are unmotivated, careless about their appearance, and who live in poor conditions such as portrayed in this movie, there are also those who are determined to succeed, take care of their appearance, raise happy families and live very well, but they are apparently completely ignored by today's film makers. Somehow, only the dark aspects of life are considered "art" by the contemporary Czech film makers. They seem drawn to this type of realism, as if intrigued by that which is ugly, depressing, twisted in some way. From the perspective of an American, we go to movies to be entertained, not to engage in philosophical discussions about the meaning of life or happiness. This is more the domain of European film making. Fellini's La Strada and other such movies were the pioneers of this new Czech genre focusing solely on the harsh and dark realities of life and none of its beauty or joy. This Czech realism is different from what Americans are used to. I imagine most US audiences would not find this movie appealing or entertaining. But the small group with eclectic taste that seeks to view the dark side of life and to be challenged by movies into engaging in philosophical contemplations this movie delivers big time.

Powerful and Realistic European Drama

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 14 April 2012]

In a industrial city in the Czech Republic, Monika 'Moni' (Tatiana Vilhelmová), Tonik (Pavel Liska) and Dasha (Anna Geislerová) are old friends that live in a working class building.

Moni's boyfriend Jirka has just emigrated to the United States of America expecting to have a better life and promises to bring Moni later. Her mother Jirina, who is a woman frustrated with her marriage with the unemployed Olda Soucek, presses Moni to move on together with Jirka, but her father would rather prefer his daughter to stay in their country.

Tonik is a loser, but a good man, that has an unrequited love for Moni. His estranged father would like him to work in the local factory, but Tonik has chosen to move to the ruined house that belonged to his grandfather and the factory wants to buy where his aunt lives.

Dasha is an unbalanced, neglectful and ungrateful single mother with two sons, Denis and Pat, and has an affair with the married Jára (Marek Daniel). When Dasha has a mental breakdown, she is interned in a psychiatric hospital and Moni decides to stay in the Czech Republic with the children, otherwise they will be sent to the orphanage. She moves to Tonik's house and together with his aunt, they work hard to restore the house. Out of the blue, Dasha returns to take her children.

"Stesti" is a powerful and realistic drama about relationship, friendship, feelings, love, ingratitude, happiness and many other emotions. The top-notch performances give the sensation of a documentary and it is interesting to see the children growing up along eighteen months of filming.

Moni is an enlightened character and Tatiana Vilhelmová is a very beautiful woman. Fortunately "Stestí" is an European film therefore with a realistic conclusion without false redemption. I am sure that Moni will find Tonik since his father lives in the same building of her family and her travel is certainly to meet him. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Algo Como a Felicidade" ("Something Like Happiness")

Tonik and the goats

[fablesofthereconstru-1 · 9/10 · 14 July 2008]

It's Christmas time in a Czech Republic apartment complex, but not all of the residents feel like celebrating, certainly not Dasa(Ana Geislerova), who is impervious to the yuletide spirit of a visiting neighbor. Spurned by her married lover, Dasa shows Monika(Tatiana Vilhelmova) the door, along with the romantically obsessed mistress' two bawling children, and Tonik(Pavel Liska), Monika's childhood friend, bearer of a secret flame for this claimed woman. With the unwanted gift still in Monika's possession, the mirthless Santa Claus brigade rides the elevator in silence, down, like a descent into the devil's lair. Since Monika's lover is in America, a juxtaposition is created, by which two countries beget a hierarchy, which corresponds with the two men prominent in the petite woman's life. When the mother learns that her daughter will be joining the Czech emigrate stateside, she receives the news as if a plane ticket to America is like a passport into heaven.

While Soucek(Bolek Polivka) is abroad, the people he left behind form a temporary family. To a passerby who might have happened to see Monika and Tonik confined to a rowboat, or the platonic friends with Dasa's children huddled together in an amusement park bumper car, they would presume the two arrangements of live bodies as being a happy couple and a loving family. For quite some time, Tonik's life has been in a holding pattern, but with Monika's departure looming over the horizon, this quiet, unassuming man tries to win her approval by renovating his junkyard dwelling he shares with a spinster aunt. So does the goat herder stand a fighting chance against the go-getter? Meanwhile, Monika entertains second thoughts about meeting Soucek in the states, much to her mother's considerable chagrin. When the go-getter returns for a quick visit, Soucke's post-coital diatribe about the inelegance of Czech life, generates disharmony in the reunion bed, as Monika turns over on her side with a look of quiet anguish. In judging his birthplace so harshly, he's judging her. Now that Soucek perceives himself as being something of a continental man, he unknowingly pushes Monika closer to Tonik. Bereft of her boyfriend's experiences, Monika feels like an unsophisticate, and finds solace in the company of the uncomplicated Tonik, a fellow provincial native like herself, to help the torn woman regain her bearings. But it's up to Tonik to set the love of his life free, whose official reason for staying in country, is to look after the welfare of Dasa's children.

Who knows for sure, the secrets of a woman's heart; secrets that "Stesi" wisely never reveals, although the audience has their suspicions. "Stesi" is an objective film that suggests the probability for long-term contentment may very well lie in North America, but it never consigns the economically depressed native country and the people who live there, to hell. Contrary to what Soucek thinks, living in the former Czechoslovakia is not the end of the world.

Love resides there. It just might be the beginning.

Bitter-sweet

[hauman · 8/10 · 22 November 2011]

Story of supermarket employee who is torn between her romantic but hopeless childhood friend and a man who can offer her a future abroad but no inner home. Playing in the most inhospitable environment, a silent beauty shines from the main characters hearts and enchants the viewer. Still there's nothing false or sweetish about the portrayal. The protagonist's neighbor, for example, an irresponsible, manic depressive young mother (fantastically portrayed by Anna Geislerová who, had she been American, would have gotten an Oscar for this part) with two little children and the next one to come surely tests our patience - and there's a kind of half-baked happy ending when it comes to her (she gets what she wants,neither knowing nor acknowledging what others have done to help her). Also the other actors (Tatiana Čecháková-Vilhelmová as Moni and Pavel Liška as Toník) are out of this world.

Splendid acting esp. by the lead actor and actress , good camera work worth watching

[vishnudoc · 8/10 · 3 February 2013]

Post eastern block collapse Czech , lack of opportunities , borderline poverty , dull and drab everyday life. Strained system , multitude of problems that we see anywhere everywhere … lack of family values , insanity , selfishness …. promise of migration to a better world.Through all these a young girl with an escape at hand ( read immigration to the promised land ) keeps alive her human values , value for life , family , obligations .There is nothing extraordinary happening in this movie at any given moment … yet there is a simple flow of life with all its pain and anguish that we feel , I would rate this as a very good drama realistic ,simple , true to life …. a good cinema that would remind you about the true purpose of life itself !!!Splendid acting esp. by the lead actor and actress , good camera work … worth watching !!!

Beautiful soap opera

[javillol · 4/10 · 7 May 2006]

Well acted, yes. Very well, I must say, even though I don't speak Chezck. Nice cinematography. But the script is lame, really lame. A predictable soap opera, in which you know exactly everything that is going to happen. OK, maybe the ending isn't as predictable, but is it any good? It is one of those films that you have the feeling that have seen already, and forget about the day after.

I just got a note from IMDb saying that my comment was not long enough. That's really sad, because I have no idea of what else to say about this movie, which actually says a a lot about it, don't you think? The thing is.. .It has no soul and no originality. Compare this movie with Barrio, or Riff Raff, shot more than ten years ago (or the extraordinary recently shot The Child). It's sad to see that this is a much worse film.

Yes, soap opera, even badly directed and acted

[moravia-magna · 3/10 · 17 October 2007]

Czech cinematography is traveling through dark times... this movie is a tangible evidence. Slama obviously wanted to make a mediocre documentary about fictive people, characteristic of their stupidity. A young and healthy boy who doesn't want to work and prefer to live in a decaying shack with a feckless alcoholic aunt. Because of the idiocy of Tonik, who's just able to announce "Dad, I'll not work in the factory" (I'd really like to know WHY); I understand the condition of his "house", but I'm really not able to digest the horrible mess around. Cramped sentimentality everywhere. Why didn't Monika escort her boy to work abroad? Young Czech couples do it very often. And take someone else's children to live in a devastated barn... that's too much.

Irresponsible mother (badly acted by Geislerová), naive & stupid boy (Tonik), silly and confused girl (Monika)... Yes, somebody has already told it - badly directed and acted soap opera. Actors like Martin Huba, Bolek Polivka, Tatiana Wilhelmova and Simona Stasova did their best, but unfortunately it couldn't save the whole piece.

Depressing

[franrinaldo · 2/10 · 4 September 2017]

Something Like Happiness I agree wholeheartedly with all of the negative reviews. The first and most important point I would add to them is the treatment of the "child actors." It was deplorable and the producers and director should have been arrested for child abuse...and the parents who were making money off these toddlers.

Check out Denzel Washington directing a child in his film Antwone Fisher. He cut away whenever there were times the child was part of a sad, violent, or frightening scene. No artistic integrity was sacrificed by doing this. In Something Like Happiness the toddler children are obviously hearing everything the actors are saying and reacting to them with obvious fear. It is despicable and thank goodness in the USA mostly this is changing. I had to skip much of Something Like Happiness due to boredom, also. Yes, the actors were very good but yes, I could not tell the difference between the young women and who was who...Oh, yeah> and why do men think that women should be portrayed as enjoying being f**ked against a wall...well, of course cuz men like doing it! I got it at the library so did not pay for it or I would have asked for my money back. I actually decided not to see any film in which women or children –actors or characters- are exploited; obviously this film was a mistake. I can't see Wonder Woman endlessly, but let's hope that director keeps making her films with strong women in them and no exploitation of children.