Dir: Frantisek Vlácil
DoP: Bedrich Batka
Year: 1967
Things To Consider
- Vlacil makes some remarkable use of the anamorphic aspect ratio while shooting the landscapes. There is an austere beauty to how stark and uninviting these landscapes look when seen through his lens. Characters aren’t able to dominate this land, and are always presented as a (small) part of it. This approach gives us a lot of negative space resulting in some really striking imagery.
- While obviously the world is depicted as a harsh place there are moments of true beauty and wonder at the natural world, look at the light flooding through the trees deep withing the forest, or how a character is framed within the arc of a rainbow. Vlacil’s camera sees things at their very best and very worst
- Explore the close ups above, look at how often characters are looking right at the camera. This lends an air of confrontation to the entire film, Vlacil and the actors are daring us to reckon with the harsh reality of the film.
Further Research
- Frantisek Vlácil, Andrei Tarkovsky & Czech New Wave
- Cinema of the Wolf: The Mystery of Marketa Lazarová By Tom Gunning
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