For your viewing pleasure today ladies & gents, we have an immaculately hip 1972 teen witch comedy from Czechoslovakia, directed by Václav Vorlíček.
Known in its native land as “Dívka na Koštěti”, “Saxana” follows the adventures a rebellious young witch (Petra Černocká) who seemingly gets kicked out of witch-school for general mischief-making and turns herself into an owl, flying to the ‘real world’, where she attends a normal person school and gets mixed up with a gang of moody mod boys. Hilarity, needless to say, ensues.
I say “seemingly” because I’m afraid there are no English subtitles for us here, and thus I have only the vaguest notion of what’s going on most of the time. But what can I say – I was never bored. Just looking at Saxana's hair was enough to keep me happy. She is the greatest.
The music is pretty killer too – spooky avant lounge funk of some kind for the most part, with a theme song I just can't get out of my head. A soundtrack reissue on Finders Keepers is forthcoming, predictably enough.
Part # 1 is here:
A reminder of some previous Youtube Film Clubs you might have missed:
Fantomas & Les Vampires
Harry Smith
Meshes of the Afternoon
Space Is The Place
7 comments:
Sounds like an interesting film. That really is some hair she has. :)
http://www.missemy07.blogspot.com
Whoa!! That is some awesome hair!!
Sweet! Thanks...I will "Czech" this out! HAHAHA! I'll be here all week, although, frankly, it's because I have nowhere else to go.
I hear ya!
That's a swell blog you've got there by the way - consider yrself linked.
re: the hair - yes, it's really something -I mean, clearly the whole movie is full of wonderfully strange stuff that is very much worthy of note, but I'm glad it's not just me who kept coming back to "holy shit - that hair..."
LOL This just looks so bizarre!
Petra Černocká - Saxana
link:
http://cernockapetra.webovastranka.cz/image/index/
Hi from Czech republic. :-) "Dívka na koštěti" aka "Saxana" actually is one of the most loved Czech fantasy comedies. As other films by screenwriter Miloš Macourek and director Václav Vorlíček, among local viewers Saxana is widely known and quoted in daily life. :-)
This year was also released a sequel (yes, after almost 40 years) named "Saxána a Lexikon kouzel". But this new film has very poor reviews for many reasons.
1) It has long and troubled production - between filming and releasing the film five years have passed.
2) The sequel was also directed by Václav Vorlíček, but screenwriter of the original film, Miloš Macourek, died in 2002 and the script of the new one unfortunately isn´t good.
3) The new film is Harry Potter-like full of digital effects and losts "handmade" magic of the original.
4) Some actors of the original cast (like school janitor/vampire Vladimír Menšík or his character´s love interest Stella Zázvorková) are passed away, so lot of characters of the first film was missing in the second one. Another one - four-handed director of the fairy-tale school - was recast for the same reason.
5) Petra Černocká and Jan Hrušínský reprised their roles, but new lead characters in the film are now their 9yo daughter, "little Saxána", and her crazy old aunt Irma, played by very popular Czech comedy actress Jiřina Bohdalová (maybe you know her from "Až přijde kocour").
I must highly recommend you another funny czech fantasy comedies of the same team - Pane, vy jste vdova! (what means "You Are A Widow, Sir!"), Jak utopit doktora Mráčka ("How to Drown Dr. Mráček, the lawyer") or Kdo chce zabít Jessii? ("Who Wants To Kill Jessie?"). Václav Vorlíček was also director of several typicaly czech fairy-tales. Most popular of them (in Czech republic, Germany and many other countries) is his lovely adaptation of "Cinderella", named "Tři oříšky pro Popelku".
(Sorry for my weak English.)
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