Even the third film by director Václav Kadrnka, The Report on the Rescue of the Dead, is not one of the audience’s grateful works and it is definitely not entertaining. The minimalist story of a man in a coma that his wife and son are trying to wake up at a hospital bed discusses emotionally strong topic, but serves it incomprehensibly coldly. Actors Zuzana Mauréry and Vojta Dyk, who, like robots, chant empty phrases in which many viewers fall asleep with boredom, do not help either.
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Art films are definitely not for everyone, and many viewers condemn them at the beginning for a slower pace and longer exposure. However, they are often wrong, because behind that artistic treatment there may be successful acting performances, an interesting, albeit minimalist story or deep thoughts. However, this does not apply to the Report on the Rescue of the Dead, which, while working on a dense topic, tragically fails to process it.
The basic theme of the film is a father from the family, who lies in a coma after brain surgery. However, his wife and his adult son do not intend to accept that their beloved father will never wake up, so they embark on an uncertain struggle. They talk to their father, trying to shake their hand, nod their head or open their eyes, but the answer is the motionless expression of actor Petr Salavec. In addition, the whole film takes place in one location of the Olomouc hospital, where the scenery usually forms a hospital room and corridors.
Insanely long exposure
In terms of images, director Václav Kadrnek managed to shoot a believable and, above all, cramped hospital environment, using a special color filter and an unusual 4: 3 image format. Although undesirable on the screen and, in fact, on today’s screens, the director defends him in the environment in which he shot and which is dominated by the high ceilings of the hospital and the staircase, along which the main characters often move in long shots. The work with light is also successful, which Kadrnka, as he himself admitted, sought.
But so far all the positives end. Kadrnka seems to say that there is no such thing as a long exposure, so he shot super long exposures. Viewers are watching Vojta Dykaas he walks slowly up the stairs and turns the corner while the camera occupies an empty staircase for a few more seconds. In short, not much time happens on the screen and similar scenes just unnecessarily make an already boring film. Especially when Dyk wanders around the hospital with a stiff expression for maybe the first ten (!!!) minutes.
Stupid dialogues
Speaking of actors, it’s hard to add any flattery to their performances. The vast majority of the time they have only one rigid, emotionless expression, until the viewer asks himself if the actors are really that bad or if they have nothing to play. Kadrnka himself offered the explanation. He said he wanted the two main characters to communicate primarily with their eyes. Many then tap their foreheads to choose Dyk, for example, who can barely play normally. Few actors are so good that the viewer “bastions” him with mere facial expressions or looks, but the former frontman Nightwork certainly can’t do it. However, if the director’s intention was for the patient’s son to have a constantly lobotomized expression, then he achieved his goal.
But the worst is the whole concept of a difficult topic, especially considering that the director i Moors they had a father in a coma. While one got out of it, the other didn’t. It is difficult to understand how impersonal and emotionally empty dialogues the film contained. Most of the time, these were repetitive orders for the father to wake up, sounding comical rather than desperate, let alone taking them seriously. At times, the administration was so annoying that one thought that being the man in the hospital bed would rather wrap it up straight than go back to a family that didn’t even believe the love and worries. The only strong dialogue will come at the end, which is a damn little for 90 minutes of appalling boredom. The qualities of the film were then best described by one of the spectators at the press screening, who snored quite loudly somewhere in the middle of the film, and no one even minded.
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