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Marketa Lazarová

Marketa Lazarová

1967
Romance, Drama
2h 42m
Mikolás (Frantisek Velecký) and his brother Adam (Ivan Palúch) rob travellers for their tyrranical father Kozlík (Josef Kemr). During one of their "jobs" they end up with a young German hostage whose father escapes to return news of the kidnapping and robbery to the King... (imdb)
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Marketa Lazarová

1967
Romance, Drama
2h 42m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 74.69% from 415 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(415)
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Rated 24 Feb 2011
30
15th
The sixties were a Golden Age for Czech cinema, and Marketa Lazarová is both a big production and an art movie; sounds promising, but the best I can say for it is that it's successfully evocative of a dark, grim medieval world. Otherwise, try as I might to invest and involve myself as a viewer, I found this a veritable snoozefest. A barren movie which sprawls over two hours and forty minutes only because of how sluggishly paced it is, and for no other reason.
Rated 09 Mar 2008
56
12th
This has been dubbed the greatest Czech film of all time, but I just wasn't feeling it. The biggest problem was that I spent much of the movie trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It's often an impenetrable mess. And when it wasn't confusing it was rather dull. The photography is excellent and the period recreation is competent. But it rarely grabbed hold of me, and there were only a few scattered scenes where my attention was engaged.
Rated 22 Sep 2015
35
5th
I refuse to give into the cinephile status quo; I hate this film, for many of the same reasons I hate 'Andrei Rublev:' An incomprehensible mess of a narrative following the folklore of a distinct time & place of which I have little knowledge, worsened by Vlácil's purposeful obfuscation of the story through elliptical editing, with far too many characters to follow and a pace that I can only describe as being torpid. Asides from the imagery, I absolutely detest this film that runs far too long.
Rated 11 May 2009
40
10th
I've read over the years how this is the 'best Czech movie ever made' and was excited to see it after getting a region-free player. However, I have to say I was disappointed. Perhaps the story is a familiar one to Czechs, but I couldn't figure out what was going on here or who was who. The cinematography and music were very nice, but after an hour I got so frustrated I turned it off, which is a rarity for me. Maybe I'll give this another chance in the future.
Rated 23 May 2012
80
81st
This IS the best middle age film. The costumes, scenography, camera work and score all cotributed to a truely realistic feeling of the Dark Ages.
Rated 02 Aug 2008
100
99th
Amazing cinematography! I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on, but a second viewing should fix that. If you sent Tarkovsky and Eisenstein back in time to 1200 AD, and told them to film a documentary, they would come back with something like this movie. There are some "Virgin Spring"-like religious themes about Pagans and Christians, as well as some Kurosawa-looking battles. If I didn't drop enough names yet, God Himself is the narrator! What more could you want?
Rated 18 Feb 2010
95
99th
Try to imagine medieval men and women as they were, and not as people of the XXIth centurey dressed in medieval clothes. Try to understand how they though, how they loved, how they believe in God (or gods), how they had fear and honor and greed. Add the image genius of a Kurosawa or a Leone, the mysticism of a Bergman, a lanscinant music, the beauty of Czech plains... This is Marketa Lazarova, one of the best movie ever made.
Rated 21 Jan 2012
75
53rd
Visually stunning movie in scenes outdoors, the battlehill-scenes in particular very impressive. Didn't quite get what was going on in the first part, but part 2 made a great impression. I would have to watch this again to truly grasp it, I think.
Rated 08 Oct 2015
68
67th
I"m not sure i've ever been more impressed with a film on a purely cinematic/aesthetic level while being completely disinterested in it's contents. The film's reputation as a visual masterpiece is well earned, it feels incredibly innovative and really unlike anything else from it's time (apart from maybe a few Japanese New Wave films or especially Diamonds of the Night), but likewise as others have said it's pretty hard to follow (and the expositional intertitles are almost laughably unhelpful.)
Rated 09 Aug 2014
95
93rd
Viewed August 8, 2014. A cryptic yet decidedly visceral experience, all raw black-and-white images perfectly capturing a mood and considering the film's insane narrative structure, mood is pretty much what it relies on. But even though you may not have a clue what's going on, it's pretty obvious that this is a masterpiece.
Rated 15 Dec 2013
88
93rd
I haven't seen many historical epics as rich and experimental as this one. It's not the easiest film in the world to follow or understand; the plot, with all its warring clans and whatnot, is hard enough to follow without all the symbolism and digressions. There's really a lot going on here. But this is honestly an incredible visual experience, with some amazing photography and medieval atmosphere, and it's a difficult but enriching film to just let wash over you.
Rated 23 Aug 2011
91
90th
As bombastic as an Easter Mass, with just as much brimstone moralism and elemental eroticism, Lazarova has its flaws (see above reasons), but it festers in your head regardless. The cinematography, art design and editing scream immediacy, making the production epic enough for only God to narrate. Personally, the 'requiem of the dead and madness' chapter ranks among the finest of film art. The rest can try your patience, but probably because your brain is sprinting.
Rated 01 May 2019
60
71st
A beautiful film with some great camera moves and sound design and moments that will stay with me, but so disorientating that I just couldn't connect with it. However, I did enjoy the disorientated feeling every now and again — similar to falling asleep for ten minutes during a movie and not knowing what's happening when you wake up.
Rated 24 Jul 2010
100
97th
Rewatching this, it is a true definition of an epic medieval tale one which feels like it is centuries old. Titanic in terms of presentation compared to nearly every other film I have seen in my life, this is just a flat out masterpiece.
Rated 10 Mar 2014
67
74th
Amazing photography, costumes, soundtrack and overall atmosphere, but like most reviewers here, I found the plot quite difficult to follow in my single viewing and after an hour or so it was hard to stay focused on the film. I feel like a second viewing would be much more rewarding, so the present score is tentative until then, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to summon up the time & gumption to rewatch it.
Rated 24 Mar 2015
59
28th
Saw a criterion version of this on hulu--the treatment is magnificent. Beyond that, the film really didn't leave a big impression on me, but I had difficulty keeping track of the story and characters. ps76
Rated 27 Mar 2011
90
96th
Stunning cinematography and sound design combine to produce a fantastically well-realised atmosphere. Watching Marketa Lazarova is like stepping into a time machine and being whisked back to a simpler and more savage time before civilisation was very civilised. A somewhat confusing narrative did little to lessen my overall enjoyment of this sumptuous feast for the senses.
Rated 06 Jun 2014
84
91st
Visually stunning, symbolically rich, though you can't exactly complain about it being too straight-forward in its plot...
Rated 23 Jul 2015
100
97th
One of the most engrossing depictions of war on film. The beautiful, yet bleak, cinematography works in tandem with muted sound design to create a dreamlike state.
Rated 16 Dec 2017
3
4th
incredibly cool imagery, but that was the only good thing about this steaming pile of frustratingly boring garbage. if you're going to blow 3 hours on a black and white russian movie with poorly translated subs about vulgarly stupid medieval peasants slopping around in the mud, watch Hard To Be A God instead.
Rated 12 Jun 2017
95
97th
Unique, daring, brutal, beautiful, cryptic, spiritual, and sublime.
Rated 25 Aug 2015
70
71st
While this experimental film requires your attention and a little contextual research prior to watching, you shouldn't give it a horrible score because you didn't understand it. What you need to know in a nutshell is that it treats the conflict between the christians and the pagans in which for example lazarova and the animals are important symbols in the subtext. Another source of confusion apart from the form is the film wanting to say a lot, causing it to be muddled.
Rated 16 Feb 2016
75
64th
Não me fisgou
Rated 17 Dec 2022
65
29th
Interesting atmosphere and very well filmed, but very difficult to follow what is happening and it lost my interest at times throughout due to the running time. Normally a good atmosphere will win for me over a cryptic plot, but in this case I think the atmosphere isn't quite strong enough to overcome the confusion. There is a lot to like here, but it wasn't really for me.
Rated 13 Oct 2009
75
71st
At times wholly engrossing, at others tranceinducing and almost painfully slow. It works in a sort of jerky ebb-and-flow kind of way, since it's all so beautyful and beautyfully unrelenting. It's the sort of film that would definitely benefit from several rewatches, but inspite of it's obvious qualities, that's just not going to happen. At least not without alcohol.
Rated 16 Aug 2016
94
97th
Possibly the most beautifully shot film I have ever seen
Rated 20 Jan 2017
85
97th
Vlacil's sweeping 13th century epic combines a non-linear plot of labyrinthe complexity with advanced formal techniques to create an utterly hypnotic experience that's entirely singular. His disorienting use of form transports the viewer back deep into the long lost past, and his elliptical narrative beguiles and dazzles but is absolutely necessary to achieve its unique timewarp effect. It is an immersive film that like Andrei Rublev and Hard To Be A God exists in a world of its own making.
Rated 04 Dec 2016
97
99th
Pera Müzesi.
Rated 04 May 2019
7
61st
Artsy-fartsy religious themed holy muddle, with astounding, feely camerawork.
Rated 11 May 2019
55
16th
What? Who?
Rated 31 Oct 2020
87
82nd
Em honra do centenário de Zdenek Kryzánek. A verdade é que não consigo gostar tanto dos filmes do Vláčil quanto outras pessoas parecem gostar, claro, esse aqui é um filmaço que tem a medida certa da Idade Média em representação, mas não consigo vê-lo como obra-prima, como melhor filme checo de todos os tempos como algumas pessoas gostam de vê-lo. É ótimo, mas não exageremos. BlurayRip no MakingOff.
Rated 21 Mar 2022
45
0th
I guess it's one of these movies that you need to put back in "its context" to be able to enjoy.
Rated 18 Apr 2022
79
56th
Incredible visuals, occasionally transportive sound design. Painfully difficult to follow (overly elliptical storytelling) and I did not find it rewarding enough in the end.
Rated 15 Mar 2023
80
58th
The visuals are exquisite, sharply rendered, with thoughtful use of depth of field and mise en scene. Choral pieces throughout were outstanding as a counterpoint to what we see. I also appreciated the overall flow of the action, seeing as it narrates the coming of Christianity into a pagan region--the Christians suffer while the pagans (at least some of them) are humanized. All that said, the film is so ponderously slow, so I have for it more of an appreciation than a genuine enthusiasm.
Rated 15 Oct 2023
55
44th
probably the most "boring and beautiful" film i have ever seen. one of those films i usually love at the second viewing

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