{"id":4556,"date":"2014-06-23T23:36:03","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T22:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4556"},"modified":"2014-06-23T23:36:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T22:36:03","slug":"birds-orphans-and-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/06\/23\/birds-orphans-and-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds, Orphans and Fools"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Birds<\/a>
Birds, Orphans and Fools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD

\nRelease date:<\/B> 23 June 2014

\nDistributor:<\/B> Second Run

\nDirector:<\/B> Juraj Jakubisko

\nWriter:<\/B> Juraj Jakubisko, Karol Sidon

\nCast:<\/B> Philippe Avron, Jir\u00ed Sýkora, Magda Vá\u0161áryová

\nOriginal title:<\/B> Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni<\/i>

\nCzechoslovakia 1969

\n78 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It’s easy to see why director Juraj Jakubisko was known as the Slovak Fellini. Birds, Orphans and Fools<\/i> (1969) instantly sweeps the audience along with a liberated camera that plunges joyfully into the film\u2019s carnivalesque world. It has been called a surrealist film, and like other films that fall under this loose designation, Birds, Orphans and Fools<\/i> focuses less on storyline, more on original images and unpredictable digressions. Unlike some so-called surrealist films which alienate the audience with a lack of structure, Jakubisko\u2019s work has a developed sense of timing, keeping the audience engaged by regular changes of scene. Furthermore, these diverse scenes are given meaning and unity by the continued presence of a central trio: Yorick, his girlfriend Marta, and his best friend Andrej, a photographer. They live in a tumbledown barn, presided over by a maudlin old man, with a variety of little birds flying in and out at will. The title comes from the old Slovak saying that God looks after birds, orphans and fools, but the film seems to contradict the proverb with a tragic ending, announced by the director\u2019s voice-over during the opening sequence. <\/p>\n

The source of the tragedy is jealousy, already present early on when Yorick, Marta and Andrej live together in near-utopian bliss. They enjoy a playful existence, always clowning about, living up to their reputation as fools. But every so often, the men show signs of resentment towards Marta: Andrej sees her as an unwelcome newcomer who disrupts his friendship with Yorick, while Yorick suspects her of unfaithfulness. The men\u2019s unkindness and injustice in these moments is emphasized by their regression into anti-Semitic insults. Later, when the characters adopt a more bourgeois lifestyle, feelings of ownership and exclusion become more pronounced, leading to the film’s shocking finale.<\/p>\n

Completed in 1968 just after the Soviet invasion and banned the year after, Birds, Orphans and Fools<\/i> is a key example of the lesser-known Slovak side of the Czechoslovak New Wave. With its stylistic experimentation and non-conformist characters, the film recalls Věra Chytilová\u2019s Daisies<\/i><\/a> (1966), but is less manic and more pastoral. It also invites comparison with French New Wave masterpieces: its m\u00e9nage &#224 trois<\/i> recalls Truffaut\u2019s Jules and Jim<\/i> (1962), but its stylistic virtuosity and affinity for youth culture makes it closer in spirit to Godard\u2019s Breathless<\/i> (1960). Jakubisko has a talent all his own when it comes to integrating the contemporary hippie zeitgeist into the traditional Slovak countryside. He emphasizes an organic relationship between modern and traditional lifestyles, rather than taking the more obvious approach of ironic contrast. <\/p>\n

In an excellent and wide-ranging essay in the DVD liner notes, Peter Hames traces the film\u2019s lineage back to Slovak surrealism, with its characteristic attachment to folk culture. Equally, though, I would suggest that this film has roots in Poetism, a uniquely Czechoslovak version of dada, which emphasized a good-humoured, self-deprecating, playful attitude to life and a powerful attachment to nature. <\/p>\n

Alison Frank<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This liberated slice of 1960s Slovak surrealism is both joyful and tragic and stylistically dazzling.
\nReview by Alison Frank<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[169,282,940,941,134,943,942,939,160,944],"class_list":["post-4556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","tag-60s-cinema","tag-counter-culture","tag-czechoslovak-new-wave","tag-dada-cinema","tag-eastern-european-cinema","tag-godard","tag-hippie-cinema","tag-slovak-cinema","tag-surrealist-cinema","tag-truffaut"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-1bu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1414,"url":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2010\/11\/08\/morgiana\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":0},"title":"Morgiana","author":"VirginieSelavy","date":"November 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The aspect of the film that first hits is the disturbing, crazy-house visuals, a combination of fisheye lurch and decadent, Klimt-inspired design, with psychedelic colour experiments and shots taken from the point of view of a Siamese cat. 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