|
|
 |
I Served The King Of England
R3 - Hong Kong - First Distributors Review written by and copyright: Josh Cleary & Noor Razzak (24th March 2009). |
|
The Film
 First let it be known that I am a keen student of the World Wars, more particularly the Second. The stories of militaristic prowess, luck and sheer ballsiness of the boys fighting don't interest me nearly as much as the people who weren't soldiers. The people who were invaded, whether by enemy forces or allies en route to a front. It is their stories of heroism that fascinates me. A key example of this would be the Dutch royal family. After being invaded by the Germans and being given the decree that all Jews had to wear the yellow star, the royal family not only wore the star themselves but encouraged the entire populace to do the same. As they were beloved and respected by their subjects the entire population of Holland wore yellow stars. These are the truly inspiring stories. So with that established let me assure you that this is not a story of heroism. It is not a story of cowardice or malicious evil however. It is a story about a man who was very, very naive. Jan Díte (Oldrich Kaiser) is a Czechoslovakian native who discovers he has a talent for making money. The way he goes about it is not always entirely honest but its never entirely dishonest either. His one goal in life is to be a millionaire. How he sets about this is the tale covered by this movie. As he progresses through the ranks of hospitality staff he learns that everybody is willing to scrabble on their knees for small change. He also acquires a skill set aimed at pleasing the women that he comes into contact with. And he comes into contact with a fair number of them. Eventually he meets the woman of his dreams, but there is a snag. She is an Aryan German from the Sudetenland and cannot marry a Czech native. Jan discovers he has German ancestry and so they can be happy together. As their marriage blossoms the Second World War marches on around them. Jan's wife, Líza (Julia Jentsch) is in the German army and eventually she leaves for the front. Meanwhile Jan is working in a selective breeding hospital as a manservant. This breeding hospital is based in the hotel he used to work at and ends up owning. As the tide of war inexorably turns against Germany it eventually becomes a hospital for the walking wounded. Then Líza arrives back from the front with a fortune in stamps that were “found” in the homes of deported Jews. Jan asks few questions and Líza tells him few lies. After the war is over Jan eventually ends up in a Communist prison for being a wealthy capitalist. After he is released he reflects on his life and the choices that he made. On the whole this film was shot in a very upbeat manner. The camera work is wide and bright. It watches like it should be a comedy. The music suits the shooting very well. There are some disconcerting moments when you get caught up in an up beat piece of music and realize that whats happening in the story is not upbeat at all. It is a shame that the subtitles on the version I had to review were a little substandard but it was not difficult to understand what they meant. The film also has some very well integrated CG effects. They fit well into the story to advance the narrative and are otherwise unobtrusive. This movie was one I really wanted to see when it had a theatrical release and on the strength of its trailer I thought it would be a fairly light-hearted comedy set in a fairly dark time. Not so at all. This a dark tale told in a light hearted manner. This is a man's life that was full of poor choices and worse consequences. A callous disregard for the rest of the world outside his head followed Jan throughout his life. But for all this he is not a bad man. He is a fool and a romantic but not an inherently evil man. In his twilight he recognizes himself for what he was and what he is. There is a message here for those of us who will see it. “Let no man be counted happy until he is dead.” This was a philosophy from the Ancient Greeks. In essence it means that no life is lived until its finished and we can be, do or change anything. Our lives are judged on what we learned from them. On the whole this is not a date movie. This is something to watch with someone who you can discuss it with. You may despise his actions and their implications. You may identify with some of his indifference, as we are guilty of it at times. Or you may just see it as another foreign film. But it is worth seeing.
Video
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the overall image is occasionally soft and lacking in detail especially in the more dimly lit scenes, this tends to give the film an overall flat look. This was the first impression the transfer have me, which is not a good start considering the fact this is a recent film release. However, the image was free from dirt, specks and compression related issues (being about the only thing on this DVD helps as the only other extra on this disc doesn't really take up too much space - more of that in the extras section below).
Audio
Two audio tracks are featured in Czech/German DTS 5.1 as well as Czech/German Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS soundtrack, overall the audio was well mixed throughout the surround channels. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, the film's ambient sounds are subtle and add to the overall immersive quality of the sound mix. The music and directional effects also add layers to the sound. Despite this, I still found that the sound mix was lacking in punch and depth suffered a bit at times. Optional subtitles are included in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional and English.
Extras
The only extra on this disc is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds.
Packaging
This disc is packaged in an amaray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
|
|||||
|