Part one cuts between rehearsals/performance by rival brass bands and the competing attraction of a cross-country motorbike race. Part Two anticipates the audition scenes in Taking Off as a throng of female singers try out for a part in a show. Though originally made as separate featurettes the two episodes form a plausible entity being so similar stylistically and thematically. The approach is documentary with some fictional elements gently interpolated - in the first the defection of two youthful trombonists in the second the lightly sketched backgrounds of two... of the singers. Extremely assured for an apprentice work this displays the same mix of shrewdness and tenderness that marked all Forman's early films. But as with many East European movies of this era one suspects that a political allegory is concealed at the heart of it all. [show more]
Konkurs was Milos Forman's (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Loves of a Blond) first film and the first film of the Czech New Wave. It is a documentary with fictional elements inserted. And these carefully integrated elements (fact and fiction) complement each other wonderfully, one providing raw energy, passion and hopes, the other a more dramatic and involving drive. You end up follow it all intently.
The film comprises of two halves: The first shows competing brass bands, the second a furious and rock'n'roll slathered audition for a female role in the show. Many of those auditioning put great, and what must be genuine performances. They all shame the X-Factor at any rate.
As a major director's first film, the film that launched the Czech New Wave, and what can only be described as a joy to watch, Konkurs is worth well more than 80minutes of you time, and that is all it demands (for one viewing). And I can only imagine that repeat viewings would be equally refreshing and enjoyable.
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Debut film by renowned director Milos Forman, presented as a documentary-style investigation into a series of talent competitions, as ordinary people compete with performances of their favourite songs.
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