New Czech film draws attention: I Served the King of England
By Bruce Bellingham

Too often films that are screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival vanish without a trace when the festival ends. Actually, with over 110 films in contention, it’s almost always the case.

But one extraordinary film managed to find its way to general release. It’s Czech director Jiri Menzel’s sexy, piquant comedy, I Served the King of England. It opens at the Embarcadero Cinema Aug. 29.

A brief story line: Jan Dite (Ivan Barnev) is a young, provincial waiter who wants to become a millionaire. Armed with a talent to please, and the ability to keep his mouth shut, he leaves his place in the pub for a high-class brothel and, finally, for an elegant Art Nouveau restaurant in Prague. But by the late 1930s, things are changing: Hitler invades Czechoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Liza (Julia Jentsch), a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry, and soon after Liza is sent to serve on the Polish front, while Jan remains behind to serve as a nurse in a Nazi SS research hospital. When Liza returns, she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had “left behind.” After her death, Jan sells the stamps and finally becomes a millionaire. But the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions. He has much time to reflect on where things went wrong. This is funny, right?

One of the most successful Czech directors, Jiri Menzel came under the spell of Chaplin, Rene Clair, Jean Renoir and others while still in grade school. It was only after he failed to get into drama school that he was awarded a place at FAMU (Prague Film Academy) where he was a student from 1958 to 1962. He became an important part of the Czech New Wave. His first solo full-length feature, Closely Watched Trains (1966), won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has since directed dozens of films and plays, and has also starred in several of his colleagues’ works. In 1986, Menzel was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for My Sweet Little Village. He received the Akira Kurosawa Award for directing from the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1990. This is a chance to see a new film by an old master.

I Served the King of England: Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinema, One Embarcadero Center (Battery & Clay Sts.); opens Aug. 29; advance tickets at www.
tickets.landmarktheatres.com; for information call 415-352-0835