Monday, September 14, 2009

Czech Film Seties

Thursday, September 17,
Lindley Hall 102
7 PM
Gustav Machatý: Ecstasy
(1933)


Called “The Most Whispered About Picture In The World”, it tells
the stark naked truth of a woman's desire for love. “Daring! Revealing! Shocking!” were other epithets used about it. This is an intense, beautiful (and extremely taboo at the time) study of a young woman's sexuality, without overly squishy emotionality, and without words (mostly). Gustav Machaty's Ecstasy explains some simultaneously simple and convoluted facts of life. Hedy Lamarr (then Hedy Kiesler) stars as Eva, a young bride who marries an older man only to discover on her wedding night that he's uninterested in sex. With extreme D.H. Lawrence ennui (the novelist must have loved this picture if he ever saw it), Eva cannot stand this dull union.
In German with English subtitles. 89 mins.

Introduced by Professor Bronislava Volková