I Served the King of England

Although it's been four decades since Czech director Jirí Menzel won an Oscar for Closely Watched Trains, this bittersweet Candide-like tale, based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal, shows that he's lost none of his skill. Visually brilliant, witty, and profound, I Served the King of England is a highly imaginative, darkly humorous, strongly sensual tragicomedy reflecting on recent Czech history. The naïve protagonist is Jan Dite (translated, John Child), who we first see as an old man being released from prison in the late 1950s. Flashbacks recount his rise—through a combination of accident and blind ambition—from hotdog vendor to owner of a rural palace where he worked, both when it was a brothel and after its transformation into a Nazi genetics factory. The upshot of all that career climbing is that Jan is incarcerated by the new communist regime for being wealthy. Throughout, Jan is driven by a desire to become rich and a libidinous appetite that belies his diminutive size, and it's the contrast between his comic ascension and his obliviousness to the wartime horrors that give the film a sense of grimly humorous fatalism. It takes a rare lightness of touch to pull off this kind of juxtaposition, but under Menzel's deft guidance, I Served the King of England works wonderfully well. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)