DIVIDED WE FALL A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
Jan Hrebejk's DIVIDED WE FALL (MUSÍME SI POMÁHAT), a LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL LITE tale, has trouble deciding on its tone. Long serious moments are punctuated by whimsical, light-hearted music, suggesting that we should be laughing, although at what isn't apparent. The settings are authentic, but the acting comes across fairly flat.
As the credits roll, the movie opens in 1937 in a field in which men are urinating together. Then a minute later, it skips to 1939 with men loading boxes at a warehouse. This brief scene is aborted in order to skip to another inconsequential episode in 1941. As the story jumps again to 1943 and the credits are still showing, you being to calculate that the story will end sometime in the twenty-third century. Actually, it turns out that the movie is set during the ending of World War II. The purpose in this bizarre beginning is never quite clear. One supposes that it must have been an attempt at a lightning fast introduction of the characters.
Josef and Marie Cizek (Bolek Polívka and Anna Sisková) are a Czech couple who end up hiding a Jew, David Wiener (Csongor Kassai), in their secret room. Childless, they talk unconvincingly about how pleased they are that they can't bring a child into the crazy world in which they live. Horst Prohaska (Jaroslav Dusek), a gregarious and obnoxious Nazi collaborator, likes to pop in unannounced on his old friend Josef so that he can ogle his wife. This causes Josef and Marie to squabble about the importance of David's staying hidden in his room.
Horst tries to teach Josef the art of blank facial expressions in order to keep of out of trouble with the Nazi authorities. The problem with the movie is that too many of the characters seem to have mastered this statuesque lack of expression. The result is a movie that has little impact, save a few nice moments here and there.
DIVIDED WE FALL runs 2:00. The film is in Czech and German with English subtitles. It is rated PG-13 for some violence and sexual content and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 15, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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