This 1964 debut feature from Czechoslovakian filmmaker Jan Němec is a nearly wordless odyssey of two teenage Jewish Czech boys (Ladislav Jánsky and Antonín Kumbera) who escape from a train transporting them to a concentration camp in Germany and are hunted through the forest by the old men of a local village. Based on the 1958 novel Darkness Casts No Shadow by Arnošt Lustig, who drew from his own Holocaust experiences for the story, Diamonds of the Night captures the terror and alienation of the teens’ ordeal. Starving and parched, they open their mouths to the sky to catch falling raindrops, and while begging for food from a farmer’s wife, one of the boys imagines assaulting the woman. Němec’s handheld camerawork puts the viewer in the midst of their hellish odyssey, running with the boys during their breathless escape while viewers only hear the gunshots of pursuers. It’s one of the most primal films of the Czech New Wave, an era that also saw early works by Milos Forman, Ivan Passer, Jiří Menzel, Ján Kadár, and Věra Chytilová that pushed against Soviet censorship with daring political commentary and social satire. Němec is less well known but this Criterion release should bring attention to this accomplished and harrowing film. Presented with a new 4K restoration, extras include an archival interview with Němec, a new interview with film programmer Irena Kovarova, a new video essay by scholar James Quandt, two bonus films by Němec, and a booklet with an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Diamonds of the Night
Criterion, 67 min., in Czech w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95 Volume 34, Issue 4
Diamonds of the Night
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