*** Welcome to piglix ***

Marketa Lazarova

Marketa Lazarová
Marketa Lazarova film poster 1967 Czech film.jpg
Directed by František Vláčil
Produced by Josef Ouzký
Screenplay by František Pavlíček, František Vláčil
Based on Marketa Lazarová
by Vladislav Vančura
Starring Magda Vášáryová
Josef Kemr
František Velecký
Naďa Hejná
Jaroslav Moučka
Music by Zdeněk Liška
Cinematography Beda Batka
Edited by Miroslav Hájek
Production
company
Distributed by Ústřední půjčovna filmů
Release date
  • 6 October 1967 (1967-10-06)
Running time
162 minutes
Country Czechoslovakia
Language Czech
German
Budget 13 Million Kčs
Box office 5.2 Million Kčs

Marketa Lazarová (1967) is a Czechoslovak historical film directed by František Vláčil. It is an adaptation of the novel Marketa Lazarová (1931) by Vladislav Vančura. The film takes place in an indeterminate time during the Middle Ages, and tells the story of a daughter of a feudal lord who is kidnapped by neighbouring robber knights and becomes a mistress of one of them.

Marketa Lazarová was voted the all-time best Czech movie in a prestigious 1998 poll of Czech film critics and publicists.

Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the film.

Two brothers, Mikoláš and one-armed Adam, along with a small group of men, ambush a small caravan traveling on a country road in the middle of winter. The attackers massacre most of the travelers, one escapes, Mikoláš chases and captures one and his men capture another. The man who escaped, a Saxon aristocrat, turns out to be the new Bishop of Hennau and a close ally of the local king. The two captives are the Bishop's son and his assistant. When Mikoláš returns to the site of the ambush, he finds a group of scavengers, led by Lazar, a neighbor of Mikoláš's, stripping the dead. Mikoláš' first impulse is to kill Lazar, but spares him after Lazar prays to Christ to forgive Mikoláš. Mikoláš returns to his village where his father, Kozlík, is the clan patriarch. Kozlík becomes furious at Mikoláš for allowing a man to escape, for bringing home two captives and for allowing Lazar to live. When Mikoláš explains that he took the captives for ransom, his father asks him if he intends to travel to Saxony to claim the ransom or if Mikoláš intends to invite the Saxons to bring their army to their small clan village.

In the next scene, Kozlík, chased by wolves, is running through deep snow back to the village. It turns out the king had summoned him to the capital. When Kozlík arrived, the king's captain had attempted to take Kozlík into custody, but Kozlík attacked the captain and fled. The narrator explains the captain was previously a merchant who brewed his own beer. Therefore, people call him Captain Pivo (Beer). The king then orders the Captain to take a regiment to rescue the Bishop's son and to punish Kozlík and his family. Anticipating the attack, the family abandons its village and moves deeper into the forest. As they pack, Mikoláš visits Lazar to request an alliance with him against the king. He suggests the two clans could ambush and massacre the regiment. Marketa now enters the story. She is Lazar's virginal, naïve daughter, destined by her father to become a nun. Marketa is horrified to see her father and his men attack and brutally beat Mikoláš after refusing to ally with him against the king. After beating Mikoláš, Lazar allows him to leave. When Mikoláš arrives home, his father sends a small group of men back to Lazar's to take vengeance against him for beating Mikoláš. When they arrive at Lazar's village, they realize the Captain and his regiment have already arrived. Therefore, they begin to return to Kozlík, but not before killing the Captain's right-hand-man who attempted to single-handedly attack them in a fool-hardy charge.


...
Wikipedia

...