I Served The King of England

This is one of my all-time favorite movies, but whenever I mention it, no one knows about it, so I think it's worth making a post for it here. I definitely recommend everyone seeing it. It's perfectly playful, funny, witty and erotic.

Director: Jiri Menzel

Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia

Year: 2006

Cast: Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Milan Lasica, Zuzana Fialová

Producer: Rudolf Biermann

Screenplay: Jiri Menzel, based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal

''Jan Díte has one ambition: to be a millionaire. And he has only one notion of how to achieve this: to be the best maitre d’ at the flashiest hotel. Or at least at the best brothel. Or, for that matter, in Nazi human breeding camps…
Following a long prison sentence, Jan Díte looks back over an eventful life, which has seen him elevate himself from humble waiter to Nazi bridegroom to millionaire criminal. One of the most ambitious and expensive Czech films of all time, this historical epic is the long-awaited result of a protracted struggle for the screen rights to Bohumil Hrabal’s famed novel.

Jirí Menzel’s adaptation is his fourth to be drawn from Hrabal’s work (including the superb Closely Observed Trains). Combining sheer visual excess with sardonic commentary upon European mores in the first half of the 20th century, I Served the King of England proves worth the wait. It’s a beautifully performed and designed film, shaded with irony and festooned with moments of delightful physical comedy.''

/James Rice, Edinburgh Film Festival Programme/