A Report on the Party and the Guests is an oddly nonsensical film about two groups of people who encounter one another in a forest and go on to a bizarre formal banquet in a clearing. The first, smaller group knows nothing about the gathering or the man it's supposed to honor yet they're quickly sucked into the bizarre goings on. The larger group acts rather thuggish if not downright fascist. Perhaps the oddest thing about this sometimes incomprehensible film is the reaction it inspired on its release as it was supposedly "banned forever." Thematically it's fairly clear that the film is about mindless conformity and the threat of authoritarianism, though it's odd that such a simple message was found so offensive. Perhaps I just don't know enough about Czechoslovakian history, though I do know that the Czech New Wave is famous for subtly veiled allegorical criticism of the dominant Soviet regime in other movies such as The Firemen's Ball, which A Report on the Party and the Guests shares certain similarities with. My best guess is that the group that is dragged into the party represents Czechoslovakia and the party itself is the Soviet Union, which exerts a lot of pressure on the small group that suffers from the association.
Stylistically this film is quite odd. In spite of its natural settings- there are no indoor scenes-the landscape receives very little attention. Instead, the film is shot in a style reminiscent of interview centric documentaries as the characters are usually filmed alone in close ups, especially when speaking. This is particularly odd when they are engaged in conversation. Everything is spatially disconnected, which makes the film disorienting at times. A Report on the Party and the Guests is an odd film which drags at times in spite of its rather short length but its oddness makes it a positive experience overall. No doubt this film would be very powerful indeed within the right context.
Stylistically this film is quite odd. In spite of its natural settings- there are no indoor scenes-the landscape receives very little attention. Instead, the film is shot in a style reminiscent of interview centric documentaries as the characters are usually filmed alone in close ups, especially when speaking. This is particularly odd when they are engaged in conversation. Everything is spatially disconnected, which makes the film disorienting at times. A Report on the Party and the Guests is an odd film which drags at times in spite of its rather short length but its oddness makes it a positive experience overall. No doubt this film would be very powerful indeed within the right context.