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Sunday, October 11, 2020

DÉMANTY NOCI / DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (1964)

Unlike fellow Czech New Wavers Ivan Passer & Milos Forman, writer/director Jan Nemec left no Stateside footprint, but this short debut feature is as good a place as any to start watching.  A haunting, near dialogue-free WWII Holocaust story, closely following a couple of late teen boys after they escape from a Death Camp train.  Their attempted flight to freedom going over the river and thru the woods, but missing a Grandmother’s house to go to.  Lost from first to last frame.  Shot in rough, contrasty b&w, often with handheld camera (lenser Jaroslav Kucera) and a non-pro cast, Nemec never lets up the pace as the pair stick together and stay on the run, stealing food at an isolated farm, hunted like wild animals by a local home guard of armed seniors.  At times, editing & non-linear storytelling technique turns fussy & obfuscating, Nemec following French Nouveau Vague principles as doggedly as any Soviet official toeing the Party Line.  (The very type who’d keep Nemec’s next feature unreleased for decades.)  But this remains a significant achievement that sticks with you.

DOUBLE-BILL: Agnieszka Holland, Polish not Czech, much influenced by this film, also broke thru with a WWII Jewish teen on the run story (sans New Wave trimmings) in EUROPA EUROPA/’90.

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