Such a quiet little movie and so unconventional that it won't be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it, and it stuck with me. The parallel stories of a housewife (Vera Uzelacová) and gymnast (real-life gold medalist Eva Bosáková) in Czechoslovakia are separate, but there is commonality in what director Vera Chytilová is showing us. I suppose it's in some of the obvious things, like the mother going through her morning routine just as the gymnast warms up and practices, and also in the wonderful touch of feminism the film has. I got the sense that both housewife and gymnast were being put through their paces by men, with the housewife being taken for granted and mostly ignored by her husband when he gets home from work, and the gymnast patiently enduring her coach pushing her. They are both beautiful, thoughtful, hard-working women. The gymnast achieves after a tremendous amount of discipline and hard work, and the housewife takes control of her own body in having an affair, and then later holds her family together. All of it is done in such a light, graceful way, and with some really nice framing and camera angles from the first-time director. To do this non-conformist film in such an artistic way, and dealing with chauvinism and the heavy weight of the communist State - it impresses me all the more. What is the movie about? Probably more than it would appear; a woman expressing herself, and the truths of women.
Review of Something Different
