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I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND Send This Review to a Friend
Veteran Czech writer and director Jirí Menzel (“Closely Watched Trains”), basing his new work on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal, has created a very special film. “I Served the King of England” is a sardonic comedy that takes an unprincipled man in search or riches through horrendous events of the last century. Jan Díte, shown both as a youth and as a survivor, is a nasty piece of work, but what gives the film its creative twist is that Menzel keeps a satirical perspective on Díte’s adventures and misadventures in scenes that are often extremely funny despite the seriousness of what is being wittily surveyed.
We first meet the older Díte, played by Oldrich Kaiser, as he is being released from prison. We later learn why he was incarcerated. The tone is immediately whimsical, thus putting us in the proper mood. Flashbacks take us to his apple-cheeked youth, at this age played by Ivan Barnev. Working as a waiter, he aspires to save money and he gets an early grasp on how even wealthy individuals will scramble for coins on the ground. He experiments by tossing coins away and watching the results. Díte gets a job at fancy Prague restaurant.
Díte, who is short in stature but big in desire, has an eye for the ladies, who have an eye for him. His conquests eventually lead to a liaison with Lísa (Julia Jentsch), a young Sudeten German thoroughly indoctrinated with Nazi ideas of a master race. Before marriage to her he must prove that his semen is of a quality worth of producing master race children. When she makes love to him she in inspired by a portrait of Hitler. The pattern of World War II and his actions place Díte in the role of a collaborator. His main goal is to become a millionaire, and when Lísa, who has served at the front as a nurse, returns and is killed in an air raid, he rescues her valuable collection of stamps that were taken from Jews and uses them to finance his road to making his million.
The Nazi occupation gives way eventually to the Communist takeover, and millionaires are now out of fashion. Since he has 15 million, he is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
After his release he is sent to live in a border town and makes his home in a decrepit old house. Now the older Díte has time to reflect on what he has done in his life, but he is only mildly self-critical, which makes the point that there are many who did terrible things and managed to survive and make peace with what consciences they have.
The film becomes more serious when the war sets in, but humor is never far from the surface. One of the amusing sections recounts when Díte and Lísa work in at an institute where blonde Ayran girls parade around naked and are primed for sex with soldiers for the purpose of producing Aryan babies. It looks like a Hollywood musical without the dancing.
“I served the King of England,” an accomplishment of rare wit, is among the best films I have seen so far in 2008. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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