Prague Journal

Sunday, June 26, 2005.

This evening we had dinner at home for a change, this being one of the few evenings without out-of-town guests. Harriet and Marty had lent us the DVD of Jiři Menzel’s “Snowdrop Festivities.” The movie was made in 1983 and Menzel’s last film based on the writings of Bohumil Hrabal. The story is set in the small town of Kersko, which is on the road between Prague and the health resort of Poděbrady in central Bohemia. It was there in fact that Hrabal used to spend a good deal of time, keeping a large family of cats and drawing inspiration from the life of the closely-knit neighborhood. As always, the main “heroes” are seemingly ordinary people. This time they live in little villages or in cottages among the forest. But all of them have some extraordinary interests that make them special. One has a passion for seeking out and purchasing all kinds of seemingly worthless bric-a-brac for the sole purpose of salvaging the items from being thrown away, one has such an enormous appetite that he eats everything he sees, one loves his goats so much that he takes them for a trip by car, and so on. Menzel is known for his use of slapstick chase and fight scenes. This time, the chase is that of hunters after a wild pig that is running on the road and hides in a school building where the hunters finally kill him in front of the children and terrified teacher. Fighting between two groups of men from neighboring villages runs through the whole film. The story’s kaleidoscope of small-time, humorous conflicts pave a collision course towards a climax in the form of a hunters’ banquet. The poignant end is the untimely death of the most innocent character, senseless because he dies after being hit by a bus while riding his bike to bring his friends some more soup.
Speaking of senseless deaths, a 45-year-old Scottish golfer died after being struck by lightning on the Konopiste Golf course about 18 miles from Prague. The man was playing alone on the back nine when the thunder storm struck around 5:30 this afternoon. His family had already moved to Scotland and he was set to follow in a week. Konopiste is where Bruce plays golf, but he did not know him personally.

posted by JWinn @ 9:26 PM