Synopsis
A few days in the life of a Czechoslovak teenager when he starts work.
1964 ‘Černý Petr’ Directed by Miloš Forman
A few days in the life of a Czechoslovak teenager when he starts work.
Peter and Pavla, 블랙 피터, L'asso di picche, L'As de pique, Der schwarze Peter, Черен Петър, Det svarta fåret, Черный Петр, 黑彼得, Pedro el negro, Fekete Péter, Czarny Piotruś
Miloš Forman's feature directorial debut, Black Peter is a coming of age film to watch through half-covered eyes, so effective is its darkly good-humored depiction of the awkwardness of being 16. The titular character, a nearly silent only child who lives uncomfortably with his attentive parents, at first seems sullen and distant. Gradually, however, it becomes apparent that the reason he's so often wordless is because he's desperately trying to process the overwhelming world by which he's surrounded. Few movies and character have more effectively portrayed the "How does everyone know this but me?" aspect of adolescences than Forman's work does here.
How does everyone else know how to dance, when Peter is forced to hide out of sight and…
Part of Lise and Jonnie’s March Around the World 2017
Black Peter – Film 18 – Czechoslovakia
As this years 30 Countries draws to a close, I wanted to sneak in something that I was confident I was going to love to end on a high note, for what once again has been a collection of many surprisingly wonderful films. While my sweetie has unearthed gems from unlikely countries like Afghanistan, Chad, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan, the more reliable countries like Australia, the Soviet Union, and South Korea were disappointments. ( I have to admit that I was shocked that a sure fire win by picking an Aki Kaurismaki was also a failure .. whoda thunkit! ).
Well, I placed my…
An exercise in character banality, but still an immersive watch, Black Peter is one of the Czech New Wave films that really felt like it was thumbing its nose at traditional filmmaking and most influenced by its cousins in the French New Wave.
It's a film about being loss in youth from a country lost in transition. A hang out movie if you like hanging out with highly anxious people. Peter doesn't really have an arc. He basically ends where he begins with an implication that the true start and end of his waywardness happened a while ago and will continue long after the movie ends
Come aboard Forman's extremely funny comedy and learn to correctly pronunciate "hello" in Czech:
AHOJ
AHOOOOJJJ
AHHOOOOOOOOJJJJJJ
*mumbles Ahoj*
AHHHOOOOOOOOOOJJJJJJJ!!!!
ahoj
With his first official fully fictional feature length movie, Milos Forman just made what is unquestionably one of the funniest films of the entire Czech New Wave.
Forman consolidated his comedic trademark vision with Cerny Petr, where the humor started to emanate in the most subtle of ways, but always very explicitly, mostly consisting in marital disagreements, domestic settings, verbal puns and a parentally misguided youth reminiscent of Truffaut's Nouvelle Vague origins in 1959. This time, the performances look more experienced and less hesitant, the screenwriting seems more carefully planned, the pacing is more adequate and the gags are…
An oddly fascinating film by Milos Forman that explores insecurity and uncertainty as a teenager. One of his early Czech films. It takes an observational approach to storytelling at times and even has a sequence that screams "silent movie" with the whole idea behind the central character, Peter, working as a type of security guard at a grocery store. His job is to be as inconspicuous as possible and to stop anyone who tries to steal. Interestingly, he can't really do the job properly. In one instance, he thinks he saw someone steal, but is unsure, so he spends most of the day following him on the streets, trying to get to the bottom of it while also being too…
Honestly one of the very best teen comedies I’ve ever seen. In a very specific yet universal way it captures the struggles you face at your first job, the nervousness of a first date with someone you really like, having nosy, overbearing (but well meaning) parents, the easiness with which you can make friends at that age, how it feels to be drunk for the first time, and what it’s like to be totally unsure of the future and you’re place in it. I loved it. The segment that takes place at the dance was really something special.
Beautifully formless couple of days in the life of an equally aimless Czech teen. I wasn't a teen in 60s Prague, but as a former aimless teen from halfway around the world and close to half a century later this rings very true to me - the attitudes, the rhythms of life, the pressures and anxieties. The film is clearly a member of the global new wave of the early 60s, but much warmer and more humanistic than the majority of its French and Japanese counterparts. The camerawork and acting both feel very off the cuff and perfectly crystalized at the same time, everything giving the impression of being just accidentally perfect. The rest of Miloš Forman's career would go to show that none of this was an accident.
When Bart of Cinema60 compared Black Peter favorably to the lovely Scottish coming of age movie Gregory's Girl (1981), I knew I had to see it. Gregory's Girl is one of those movies about high schoolers that really accurately captures the inherent awkwardness of the age, of beginning to explore romantic and sexual feelings while having absolutely no idea what you're doing, and your only guidance being television and movies that are entirely unrealistic and whatever titillating content you can get your hands on (for Gregory it's voyeurism, for Peter it's a painting of a naked woman, for me it was One Direction fan fiction). The realism of the ending of Gregory's Girl, which I won't spoil here because it's…
Miloš Forman's 60s movies really wreck me with their painfully specific yet deeply relatable human moments.
Black Peter is essentially that awkward phase of youth where you are sort of directionless; drifting day by day in a job you don’t enjoy, hanging out with your friends of a night, summer weekends filled with dances and dates and swimming at the lake. I’ve been there (still kind of am there). I think most of us have, or if not yet, will almost certainly experience that at some point in life. It was an interesting film, it was kind of one of those instances where not a lot happens, but it’s packed with a lot to think about, if you know what I mean. It definitely feels political in some ways, but most of what I got was…
Black Peter is Miloš Forman’s very first narrative feature. It is a sly, subversive, and darkly comedic coming of age tale of a sixteen-year-old that does not know what he wants to do with his life. The movie follows Peter during his summer break as he works as a spy for a local grocer to catch shoplifters; tries to date a schoolmate who is not fully committed to him; attempts to dodge some annoying classmates who are always pestering him; and, most hilariously, deal with his overbearing parents. On the surface, this is an entertaining tale of the woes of being a teenager. If you look beneath the surface, however, Black Peter can be seen as a transgressive parable of…
A film that will truly put men to shame.
I haven't seen a better coming of age movie than this. What Milos Forman handles very deftly is the late-teenage crisis that any teen would face. It raises serious questions like 'What being a MAN is? Is it just being a human with a sexual identity of a man attached to it? Or is it being a caricature of superficial and godlike attributes, to assert supremacy over others who we consider less masculine? Or is it being a self-proclaimed and unwarranted knight of women?'
This film mainly talks about the role-play men and women got into for no apparent reason.
There's too much of subtext in this poetic non-narrative masterpiece. And i need to rewatch it to get new perspective each time.