Directed by:
Radek BajgarComposer:
Jan P. MuchowCast:
Jiří Bartoška, Eliška Balzerová, Tatiana Dyková, Jiří Havelka, Jakub Kohák, Pavla Beretová, Iva Janžurová, Anna Čtvrtníčková, Lucia Siposová, Arnošt Goldflam (more)Plots(1)
The last drop for Jan's resolution is the voluntary death of his father-in-law, whose strength and patience ran dry. Grandma (Iva Janžurová) made decisions about Grandpa's life, old age as well as the funeral. Jan is sure that he and his wife Olga (Eliška Balzerová) are on the same route. He recalls his past life when he used to have his own will and dreams and he wants to live again with dignity and freedom. He longs to control his own life again. And his solution is escape from the present life. In this movie we watch, in parallel, the fates of Jan's married daughters Olinka and Alenka (Táňa Wilhelmová and Pavla Beretová) and his sons-in-law Erik and Pepík (Jiří Havelka and Jakub Kohák). (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (7)
It is nice to see how Jiří Bartoška recovered from his illness. I even think that it made him truly enjoy this role. Of course, it would not be the same without the (more than one) cigarette. I have to thank him as I have not laughed this whole-heartedly for a pretty long time. And what’s more, this movie really got me thinking about the domestication of men. Finding the right level is really a form of art. What Taťána Vilhelmová and Eliška Balzerová did in this film will haunt my dreams for a long time. But it is visible that they utterly enjoyed it, and they were not alone in this. Even the rebellious Jiří Havelka or Jakub Kohák were excellent. I would not expect to see Jakub in the best, and at the same time the roughest, scene of the whole film. I’m bowing down before him. While Theory of Tiger does not deserve the perfect five star rating, at least it is worth the proper four star comedy rating, and I plan on watching it a few more times in my life.
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I don't think we have a more charismatic actor in our country than Jiří Bartoška. He's just so good in front of the camera. And with The Tiger Theory he scores full marks with me. Everything natural, no spasms, and good humor, this time making fun of us women. So give Czech film a chance and go to the cinema again. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I was, for sure... 4.5 stars.
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Theory of Tiger was great fun. A good film about tolerance and the lack of it. Putting aside the financial situation of the main character, it’s a film about ordinary people’s lives. I know a lot of couples who are exactly like that. The cast was well-chosen, and I enjoyed the film throughout.
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I was bracing myself for the worst, but if for no other reason than the high ratings I thought it would at least be technically competent. I was expecting, for example, that the editing would follow the camera angles, that the camera could do more than cut between medium close-ups and long shots with the occasional nonsensical tracking or crane shot. I thought they were able to space out objects in the frame nowadays so that it didn't look like someone had just quickly piled up new, clean, freshly purchased props into a sterile room. That someone will realize if I have a scene in which a character happens to walk from one room to another, it looks silly if her police file is sitting right there in the middle of the table on a tidy clipboard so that it's right at hand. I can't imagine how Baigar could announce that this would be the fortieth scene in which the characters would be sitting at the table eating, because he's unable to think of any other situation in which they might interact, without somebody saying something. But that laziness, resignation, and tiredness of the form is quite consistent with the overall premise, in which Bartoška plays a poor man so cowardly that, for forty years of marriage, he is unable to tell his wife he doesn't want to be with her and instead starts taking secret trips to the countryside to drink wine, smoke, and look off into the distance. When the dreamy question of why the fuck doesn't he divorce her then comes up, he expertly blows it off by saying that she wouldn't survive. And voila – they end up divorcing anyway, and his wife survives it quite well. Still, the film makes Bartoška out to be an anti-system rebel and avatar of freedom who is a role model for his crippled relatives. Of course, to make sure we understand this sufficiently, it is presented that the old bearded vet is still the object of interest for the young sexy single women he shakily rejects before heading off on his way once again into the sunset. The wimpy characters of his relatives then undergo a transformation in his presence, accentuated by the physical assault of Novotny's psychopathic wife, which the film sees as an understandable escalation as a result of her terror, which she had asked for and which her poor husband could do nothing about up until then. Still, The Tiger Theory does not defend itself by presenting sympathetic female characters who contrast with the harpy caricatures of Balzerová, Janžurová, and Vilhelmová, and thus keeping the film from being misogynistic. Indeed, it wraps its entire plot in a paraphrase of neutering cats, which the protagonist, as a veterinarian, is forced to perform at the beginning with resentment and refuses at the end out of conviction. Moreover, its depiction of women and men only grotesquely reinforces the oldest and dumbest stereotypes, in which all of us men wage war against the women who want to tame and domesticate us from their kitchens full of red wine and sandwich-making. The high ratings and attendance of this cinematic miscarriage only speaks to the overall sniveling and cowardice of society that it allows us to identify with this piece so much that we overlook how disgusting it looks and fails to work plot-wise. Not to mention that there's not a trace of humor in the film, and yet the whole thing tries to look like a Czech Fight Club, with Jan Muchow and Michal Tučný instead of the Dust Brothers strumming along with a tough guy revolution.
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The Tiger Theory Is the best cinematic answer to the question of why I am and always will be a bachelor :-). It is complex, witty, cute and melancholic, with a great script and cast. And the best scene is (paradoxically) the one by the car, where Jakub Kohák’s character explains to his sister what path he’s chosen to achieve happiness.
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