Happy End (1967)
September 14, 2024 7:55 AM - Subscribe
[TRAILER] A man's life story is shown backwards, even as he narrates it as though it is forwards. He recounts his birth from a guillotine, being raised in a prison, etc. Events occur backwards, people are born from death, conversations proceed in reverse order, variously resulting in sheer situational comedy or dadaist nonsense. A dark comedy about crime and consequences from the Czech New Wave.
Starring Vladimír Menšík, Jaroslava Obermaierová, Josef Abrhám.
Directed by Oldřich Lipský. Written by Oldřich Lipský, Milos Macourek. Produced by Milos Stejskal. Cinematography by Vladimír Novotný. Edited by Miroslav Hájek.
An average rating of 4.1 starts out of 5 on Letterboxd. (i.e., sky high).
Not available streaming through conventional means in the US, but currently available on the Internet Archive in full, with English subtitles.
Starring Vladimír Menšík, Jaroslava Obermaierová, Josef Abrhám.
Directed by Oldřich Lipský. Written by Oldřich Lipský, Milos Macourek. Produced by Milos Stejskal. Cinematography by Vladimír Novotný. Edited by Miroslav Hájek.
An average rating of 4.1 starts out of 5 on Letterboxd. (i.e., sky high).
Not available streaming through conventional means in the US, but currently available on the Internet Archive in full, with English subtitles.
I saw it a few months ago...
My review:
🍿
My first 2 by Czech comedy master Oldřich Lipský:
🍿 How come I never heard of the innovative Happy end (1967) and its successful director before? This is a wild, Dadaist black comedy which is told in real reverse-chronology. The protagonist, a butcher named Bedřich, starts by describing the circumstances of his birth, while his head rolls on the ground after being chopped by a guillotine. He then explains how he came to be accused of the murder of his wife and her lover. And from there, his life proceeds backward until his beginning/death. Long before 'Momento’ and '5 X 2’ and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, it’s the first film that used this unorthodox approach (I think). It’s weird and brilliant and funny and highly enjoyable.
🍿 Lemonade Joe was another wild & inventive parody, one of the top films in Czechoslovakia in the '60s. Ten years before 'Blazing Saddles’ (but without the beans), it’s an early European-style Spaghetti Western fun-ride, and it includes a musical, satire and ridiculous adventures. Richard Lester inspired, with tinted stock, silent film pratfalls, and un-serious production. The story is of a 'Clean-living’ singing gunslinger who cleans up an Arizona town run by drunks, fights with his archenemy ‘Hogofogo’ and wins the love of a Brigitte Bardot lookalike love-interest. All the cliches from American Western spoofs are mixed into silly craziness about the son of the owner of the Colaloca lemonade brand. It even uses an early catchphrase like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger: When the bad guy dies by having a corkscrew stuck in his back, our hero, 'Lemonade Joe’, comments: “You screwed up!”
🍿
posted by growabrain at 11:16 AM on September 14 [3 favorites]
My review:
🍿
My first 2 by Czech comedy master Oldřich Lipský:
🍿 How come I never heard of the innovative Happy end (1967) and its successful director before? This is a wild, Dadaist black comedy which is told in real reverse-chronology. The protagonist, a butcher named Bedřich, starts by describing the circumstances of his birth, while his head rolls on the ground after being chopped by a guillotine. He then explains how he came to be accused of the murder of his wife and her lover. And from there, his life proceeds backward until his beginning/death. Long before 'Momento’ and '5 X 2’ and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, it’s the first film that used this unorthodox approach (I think). It’s weird and brilliant and funny and highly enjoyable.
🍿 Lemonade Joe was another wild & inventive parody, one of the top films in Czechoslovakia in the '60s. Ten years before 'Blazing Saddles’ (but without the beans), it’s an early European-style Spaghetti Western fun-ride, and it includes a musical, satire and ridiculous adventures. Richard Lester inspired, with tinted stock, silent film pratfalls, and un-serious production. The story is of a 'Clean-living’ singing gunslinger who cleans up an Arizona town run by drunks, fights with his archenemy ‘Hogofogo’ and wins the love of a Brigitte Bardot lookalike love-interest. All the cliches from American Western spoofs are mixed into silly craziness about the son of the owner of the Colaloca lemonade brand. It even uses an early catchphrase like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger: When the bad guy dies by having a corkscrew stuck in his back, our hero, 'Lemonade Joe’, comments: “You screwed up!”
🍿
posted by growabrain at 11:16 AM on September 14 [3 favorites]
So, did Martin Amis basically steal this entire premise for "Time's Arrow" or what?
posted by briank at 7:30 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 7:30 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
I could not stop laughing as Julia and her lover took one pastry after another out of their mouths, bite by bite and piled them on a plate. Such a good effect, and it just went on and on.
Also, Julia's parents riding in the cart pushed by two dogs and chased by the truck full of geese!
Thank you for bringing this into my life :)
posted by td2x10e3 at 6:36 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
Also, Julia's parents riding in the cart pushed by two dogs and chased by the truck full of geese!
Thank you for bringing this into my life :)
posted by td2x10e3 at 6:36 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
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The structure is literally backwards. Born from the guillotine, raised in a prison, assembles his wife from pieces, confronted by his wife's lover who flies in through a window. His baby shrinks until she disappears.
And the dialogue isn't just backwards, it's set up to have that deliver a series of jokes.
Priest, giving him his last rites: You will meet God soon, my boy.
Protagonist: That's disgusting.
Protagonist reluctantly tries a last cigarette.
You might wonder, what with the dismembered lady and all, if there is gore. There's not... not exactly. His wife's body is pretty clearly a mannequin. However, he does also have a job as a butcher, which in this backwards world means re-assembling cows, and it's pretty clear we're watching actual basic slaughterhouse cutting in reverse. It's no worse than anything in the meat packing scenes in Rocky, but fair warning if that is a trigger.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:00 AM on September 14 [3 favorites]