The Firemen's Ball
It s the annual firemen s ball in a small Czech town, and the organisers decide to liven up the usually dull event with a raffle and a beauty contest. But with the former plagued by thievery and the latter by bribery, the event rapidly descends into farce and that s before a fire breaks out...
The last film that Milo Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest, Amadeus) made in his native country and language, The Firemen s Ball is a sparkling comedy that s also one of the best showcases of the director s uncanny ability to extract flawless performances out of an entirely non-professional cast largely made up of actual firemen.
It was nominated for an Oscar, but the Czech Communist authorities were so convinced that it was a satirical allegory about official incompetence that the film was officially banned forever , or at least until the 1989 Velvet Revolution. It s now regarded as one of the greatest of all Czech films.
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Supplements
- Appreciation by Czech film expert David Sorfa
- Archival interviews with director Milo Forman, cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek and co-writer Ivan Passer
- New Wave Faces: Michael Brooke salutes the non-professional actors who made an indelible impression on 1960s Czech cinema