Directed by:
Radim ŠpačekScreenplay:
Ondřej ŠtindlCinematography:
Jaromír KačerComposer:
Tomáš VtípilCast:
Ondřej Malý, Kristína Tormová, Martin Finger, Luboš Veselý, Lukáš Latinák, Barbora Milotová, Oldřich Kaiser, Ivana Uhlířová, Iva Pazderková, Jana Janěková (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Czechoslovakia, 1982. The totalitarian regime seems to be endless and impossible to end. Antonín, a member of the secret police, is restless in the inside, maybe even a psychopathic violent man full of unarticulated rage and despair. Bored with everything around him, he directs his demons to a seemingly clear but rather an unseizable point – to a young woman called Klára. It is not love or any other kind of pure passion – just a burning desire for an illusion of escape from the grey cage and boredom. Antonín´s absurd effort to get Klára for himself not only turns him against traditional enemies of the regime but also against his own people and the system itself. But if Antonín breaks the rules of the organization in the service of which he is, it is not a civil or political gesture – it is a clearly personal and frantic revolt. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
A strong Czech drama. I was actually surprised that I hadn't heard much about the film before. Yes, it's from the time before the revolution, and it might be a bit off-putting that there are so many films like it, but it beautifully shows the paranoia of the era and what a person could get away with when in the "right" place. Excellent acting performances and a great psychological human drama.
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One would expect a 2.5-hour film to have enough space to satisfy the viewer with a solid and meaningful finale with the stories of all (or at least most) of the characters wrapped up. Alas. In this regard, Walking Too Fast failed in its entirety. That’s a great pity, especially considering the performances that Špaček's film has (the great Ondřej Malý, the woefully, egregiously underused Oldřich Kaiser and others).
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A psychological game played out over a period of two and half hours, with peons muddling through in a political system that had no winners and was a cancer on the human soul. Walking Too Fast is built on an excellent script with detailed portrayal of the characters and their twisted encounters, the maximum focus of the actors, and precise direction that might be slow but hits the bull’s eye. Don’t mind the initial slow pace, the lack of famous actors and visual minimalism evoking a TV production – everything, including coldly portrayed housing estates and the monotonous music, which adds tension to dramatic psychological moments, has its place. But it is definitely not a pleasant, audience-friendly film. It’s a very sad film that the current teen generation, untouched by Czechoslovakia’s past, will find hard to believe.
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Through Štindl's magnificent script, precise and detailed production design (it brought back memories of the ticket punching machines in trams, etc.) and an inventive soundtrack, Špaček tells an interesting, weighty and well-crafted psychological portrait of a brooding bastard who plays at being a demigod from his position as member of the secret police. I consider the final meeting in the dissident's flat to be the best executed and acted scene in a Czech film last year. Ondřej Malý can already prepare a shelf for the Czech Lion.
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Amazing. An industrial and creaking expedition to the Umakart swamp, where sheer resignation and hopelessness are cooked up. Everyone runs away on their own. Tomáš finds a mistress, Antonín decides to steal her from him. A mental cripple with a complex uses his position in the state apparatus and demonstrate that the greatest filth does not stem from the essence of ideology, but rather from the essence of man. Špaček's film has a) an excellent script, b) balanced directing, c) a magnificent sound component, d) Ondřej Malý, Martin Finger and other actors who act three levels above the average. If it was a bit shorter and more straightforward, I wouldn't be afraid of using really comforted superlatives. In any case, I will go so far as to say that Antonín is, in my view, a modern Kopfrkingl. And beating Walking Too Fast will be a lot of hard work this year.
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