Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (2006)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Jirí Menzel

Writers:

Bohumil Hrabal (novel)
Jirí Menzel (writer)

Release Date:

11 January 2007 (Czech Republic)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | War

Plot:

A look at the glamorous life at an old-world Prague hotel.

Plot Keywords:

Waiter | Boyfriend Girlfriend Relationship | 1930s | Window Dresser | Nazi

Awards:

8 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ivan Barnev	...	Jan Díte, younger
Oldrich Kaiser	...	Jan Díte, older
Julia Jentsch	...	Líza
Martin Huba	...	Skrivánek
Marián Labuda	...	Walden
Milan Lasica	...	Professor
Josef Abrhám	...	Hotelier Brandejs
Jirí Lábus	...	Hotel Boss
Jaromír Dulava	...	Waiter Karel
Pavel Nový	...	General
István Szabó	...	Stock Marketeer
Tonya Graves	...	Abyssinian Emperor
Rudolf Hrusínský	...	Tichota
Petr Ctvrtnícek	...	Stockbroker
Jirí Sesták	...	Waiter
Zdenek Zák	...	Militiaman
Emília Vásáryová	...	Mrs. Rajska
Zuzana Fialová	...	Marcela
Oldrich Vlach
Ladislav Zupanic
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Václav Chalupa	...	Hrdlicka
Petra Hrebícková	...	Jaruska
Rudolf Jelínek
Eva Kalcovská	...	Wanda
Sárka Petruzelová	...	Julinka

Directed by
Jirí Menzel

Writing credits
Bohumil Hrabal		(novel)
Jirí Menzel		(writer)

Produced by
Rudolf Biermann	....	producer
Petr Dvorak	....	co-producer: TV Nova
Andrea Metcalfe	....	executive producer: AQS
Robert Schaffer	....	executive producer: AQS
Helena Uldrichová	....	co-producer: Barrandov Studio

Original Music by
Ales Brezina

Cinematography by
Jaromír Sofr

Film Editing by
Jirí Brozek

Production Design by
Milan Býcek

Costume Design by
Milan Corba

Makeup Department
Jirina Pahlerova	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Pavel Cechak	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jiri Ml. Kacirek	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Milan Babik	....	assistant property master
Karel Vanásek	....	property master

Sound Department
Petr Cechák	....	post-production sound assistant
Lukas Chyska	....	conforming sound editor
Radim Hladík Jr.	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jose A. Manovel	....	sound re-recording mixer
Roman Rigo	....	playback operator
Andrea Veselková	....	foley artist
Vojtech Vetrovec	....	boom operator

Visual Effects by
Jiri Cvancara	....	digital intermediate
Ales Dlabac	....	3D artist
Jiri Forejt	....	digital compositor
Miro Gal	....	Flame artist
Lukas Herrmann	....	digital matte paint artist
Jan Heusler	....	digital compositor
Tomas Kalhous	....	digital compositor
Maros Kesjar	....	digital effects artist
Jirí Linhart	....	digital effects artist
Robert Loudil	....	visual effects artist
Petr Masek	....	digital compositor
Boris Masník	....	visual effects supervisor: UPP
Tomas Munzar	....	digital compositor: UPP
Vaclav Ondrousek	....	digital compositor
Robert Pik	....	digital compositor
Petr Vcelicka	....	digital compositor
Kim Wiseman	....	digital compositor

Camera and Electrical Department
Andrej Arnautov Jr.	....	lighting technician
Klaus Fuxjäger	....	camera operator
Borivoj Klecka	....	gaffer

Other crew
Adam Fuchs	....	location manager
Mila Radova	....	unit publicist
Kristián Suda	....	script editor

Production Companies

• AQS
• Barrandov Studios
• Bioscop
• Magic Box Slovakia
• TV Nova
• UPP

Distributors

• First Distributors (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• AmaFilms (2007) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Bioscop (2006) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Blanco & Travieso (2007) (Venezuela) (theatrical)
• Bowjapan (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Cine Colombia (2007) (Colombia) (theatrical)
• Distribution Company (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Farbfilm-Verleih (2008) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Gutek Film (2007) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Moonlight Films (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2008) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Argentina Video Home (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Brunbro Entertainment Group (2007) (Belgium) (all media)
• EuroVideo (2009) (Germany) (DVD)
• Indies Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Misteria Zvuka (2008) (Russia) (DVD)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix

Also Known As:

I Served the King of England (International: English title)
Obsluhoval som anglického krála (Slovakia)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and nudity.

Runtime:

Czech Republic:120 min

Country:

Czech Republic | Slovakia

Language:

Czech | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Slovakia:12 | Czech Republic:12 | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:18 | USA:R | Hong Kong:IIB | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-13

Filming Locations:

Harrachov, Czech Republic

Company:

AQS

Trivia:

The scenes for the Hotel Pariz restaurant were filmed in the main restaurant in Prague's Obecni Dum (Civic House), just around the corner from the actual Hotel Pariz. Both restaurants were designed in the Art Nouveau style by artist Alphons Mucha, but the Obecni Dum restaurant is larger.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the montage of Jan making love to Lise, stock footage is shown of SS men marching through the streets of Prague. The same footage is later reused by flipping the film from left to right, which is evident by the Nazi armbands moving from their left arms to their right arms and swastikas reversing direction.

Soundtrack:

Ted' jeste ne

The pitfalls of being unpolitical

Like the butler played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 film "The Remains of the Day", the waiter at the centre of "I Served the King of England" (Jiri Menzel, Czech Republic, 2006) is not interested in politics. Major historical events surround him, yet these completely escape his attention. His ambition is simply to become a millionaire, like the fat cats he serves at table. In 1930s Prague, Hitler, in Berlin, is making a radio announcement about his aim to "liberate" the Sudetenland. Bored, Jan Dite, the waiter, simply turns the dial to a dance music station.

He manages to float through the Nazi invasion, first of the Sudetenland, then of Czechoslovakia. By a combination of hook and crook, he achieves his ambition of owning his own hotel through the sale of valuable stamps, stolen from a vanished Jewish family. This does not give him a moment's pause but later, when he sees a trainload of Jews in cattle-cars moving off to Auschwitz, he has a rush of compassion and chases after the train in an attempt to hand the deportees a sandwich. After the war, as a self-confessed millionaire, he is sent to prison when his hotel is nationalised. He emerges fifteen years later, older, but not much wiser. He is Schweik, but without the latter's sly intelligence.

This sketchy summary cannot do justice to a film which has been described as a near-flawless masterpiece, in which "Prague has never looked better". It is permeated with the ironic wit which marked Menzel's earlier films, such as the Academy Award winning Closely Watched Trains (1966). Dite befriends the German girl Liza, described by one reviewer as "the sweetest little Nazi in the history of the cinema". They are in bed, making love in the missionary position. Liza keeps pushing his head aside so that she can gaze at the big picture of Adolf Hitler on the opposite wall. Such was love in the Third Reich. The scene in which Dite is undergoing a racial fitness test which involves giving a sperm sample is intercut with young Czech men being unloaded from a lorry at an execution ground. Of this, Dite is blissfully unaware.

The Remains of the Day was based on a serious and perceptive novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The genesis of I Served the King of England, by contrast, was a comic novel by Bohumil Hrabal, a book I cannot wait to get my hands on. Any offers?