THE FIREMEN’S BALL

Directed by Miloš Forman

(1967) Bad day for the fire brigade: during the dance honoring their chief’s retirement the raffle prizes, a penitent thief is caught by too-quick light up after a no-questions-asked blackout, causing a debate whether his attempted return was judicious; the beauty pageant suffers from a paucity of willing girls; and a halt for an actual alarm is prolonged when that darned fire just won’t go out. The chief’s final close-up is one for the ages. 35mm. Approx. 73 min.
4:35, 7:50

“A delicious parody-fable of Slavic bureaucracy.”
– TIME

“Forman doesn’t push his political points, being content to let them make themselves, unfolding gracefully from the human drama. The movie is just plain funny. And as a parable it is timeless.”
– Roger Ebert

“Forman’s comedy is special. The timing and involutions of the humor are such that there is escalating laughter, while an awareness of the sadness of things — real fire, monumental pettiness — deepens as well.”
– Renata Adler, The New York Times

DAISIES

Directed by Věra Chytilová
Starring Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová

(1966) 35mm. Approx. 76 min.
6:10, 9:25

“Radically mischievous... Full of colorful experiments, dazzling collage effects and surrealist antics.”
– Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times

“A madcap, Dadaist explosion of a movie that represents the Czech New Wave at its most formally radical and kookily captivating.”
– Michael Koresky

“One of the great outpourings of cinematic invention.”
–  Richard Brody, The New Yorker