Girlie/Děvčátko (2002)

Thursday / 23rd November 2006 / 20:00

Czech Republic / 2002 / 83 minutes / director: Benjamin Tuček / screenplay: Benjamin Tuček / cinematography: Antonín Chundela / editing: Petr Mrkous / music: Ivo Heger / cast: Dorota Nvotová (Emma) , Jana Hubinská (Emma´s mother), Ondřej Vetchý (taxi driver without a taxi), Dana Batulková (Karel´s mother) /

The Girlie is a debut of director and screenwriter Benjamin Tucek, who is better known as assistant director of Saša Gedeon's film, Return of the Idiot (1999), or the screenwriter of Marek Najbrt's Champions (Mistři, 2004, nominated for the Czech Lion award). But this film is not just his personal debut but also a national one - it is the first Czech film shot with a digital camera HDTV (the same one George Lucas used in Star Wars).

17 year-old Ema is the girlie of the title, the main character of the film. She's looking for happiness (a theme frequently used by another Czech director Bohdan Sláma) in the dullness of a housing estate. The gloomy atmosphere of the place is amplified by digital camera shots, making it look even more rough.The way of shooting neon club signs, night underground - all the common things - give you a feeling you see something brand new. But this is not the reason, why Tuček's debut is being compared to Miloš Forman's earliest films (especially Blonde in Love). There are many other aspects than just the character of a young girl, for example a ball or naive views of the youngsters (Karel). While Forman managed to create lively chatacters on the screen, Tuček, despite seeming authencity of the film, didn't. His characters are described in epizodes, as in Zelenka´s Buttoners, thus we gather some information about them in their dialoques, but much remains hidden until the very end. Paradoxically Girlie ends just at the moment we're getting to know the characters better.

The film possesses, besides some limitations, all the qualities of trendy Czech films. The casting is good, though some actors were cast only for their dramatic type, it was shot at attractive places - through the film we can get in touch with the Czech club scene as well as with drugs. Beside its clip aesthetics, the film greatly emphasises its music score. Girlie is ranked among so called "Generation films". However, its appeal to young audiences is more important than testifing to any generation feeling or parent-child issues. The Girlie tries to say more then just: "Parents should not take drugs."

Petr Vlček