NEWS/
AN INTERVIEW WITH
JIRI MENZEL
By Maria Belilovskaya
This is the fifth novel of Bohumil Hrabal that you’ve adapted for the big screen. What attracts you to his books?
He is a very good writer. He wrote about our life but his view is not intellectual, it is simple. He likes the people, he observes them with humor and irony, and I like this very much. I fell in love with his writing since I first read his short stories. Later I had a chance to make a short film based on one of them. And then I made a feature film, based on his novel Closely Watched Trains, and then others. He was older than me, but we had a very good [friendship]. He was like my older brother.
I Served the King of England was written in the 1970s. What makes it relevant for today’s audience?
It is a novel about the Czech soul, about Czech character. The hero is a rough example of the Czech. He is small, ambitious, very flexible, with not very good morals and not very great courage. His first duty is to survive.
What does the Czech audience think about this portrait?
I think that people accept it well. The box office was very good in the Czech Republic. The people like Hrabal’s works and they accept themselves. This character is not ideal, yes. But the film can inspire viewers to think about it.
You had more than a decade-long break in making movies. What was your comeback like?
It was not a big problem. I was not nervous; I knew that I wanted to do it. One of the big differences was working with people. Before, we lived in a socialist country. Do you know the definition of socialism? “People pretend to work and government pretends to pay them.” People did not work too hard. Now, there are the same people but thanks to working for foreign film productions—because many foreign films are made in Prague—they’ve learned how to work for the capitalist regime. And now they work hard and perfect. That was a big change for me.
Your movie had some special effects. This is something you’ve never done before.
Yes. This was new for me, digital effects. I feel a bit sad that I don’t know better what I can do with this technology. I can use very few of its advantages. For my next movie, I wish to use more.
What is your approach to humor in film?
Without humor it is boring. I don’t like films that are too serious. I don’t understand why we have to talk about serious things with a serious face. Using humor, you can talk about everything. Shakespeare was a humorist. He knew that drama needs humor. Of course, it is not good to make humor only for [the sake of] humor. It’s empty; it’s a waste of time. You need to find this fragile balance when you want to talk about serious things this way. It is very important.
Every year we see Czech films at the Festival and they are always a little crazy, a little absurd, as well as very good.
We took many serious things—like war, communist power, etc.—and made them into a source for jokes. We had no other weapon against the regime.
What about now?
Oh, that’s the problem. But the new government is funny also.
Is that good?
That’s sad.
What’s your next project?
I don’t know. I am looking for my new project. I do not like to make something just in order to keep making movies. It has to make sense.
