Loves of a Blonde (1965)

Loves of a Blonde (Czech: Lásky jedné plavovlásky) is a 1965 Czechoslovakian feature film directed by Miloš Forman. It is also known under the alternate title of A Blonde in Love.

The fiction film tells the story of a young woman who has a routine job in a shoe factory in provincial Czechoslovakia. When the army holds maneuvers near her home town, the factory supervisor organizes a mixer for the largely female workforce and the all-male soldiers. This dance proves a mixed success, with many of the soldiers, who are middle-aged reservists, and many of the factory workers, who are inexperienced young women with idealized views of romance, being confused by and disappointed with their potential dancing partners. The film's protagonist, though, does meet an attractive young man who plays in the dance band and has a one-night fling with him. When she travels to the capital city where he lives in order to resume their romance, she meets his parents and comes to the realization that there is no future in this relationship.

Forman based his story on a real-world incident from his past and the filmmakers focused much of their attention on trying to create a real-life look and feel by filming on location in a small Czech town with a shoe factory of its own, utilizing a largely non-professional cast, relying on a considerable amount of dialogue improvisation, and employing documentary-style cinematographic techniques.

Upon its release, Loves of a Blonde was a popular success in its home country and was shown at some major film festivals, where it was well-received, garnering a number of nominations and awards. Critical response was largely positive, although some reviewers were less enthusiastic than others. The film is now considered one of the most significant examples of a film movement called the Czech New Wave, which took advantage of a temporary relaxation of totalitarian control over creative artists to use cinema as a means to explore new narrative strategies while making pointed critiques of social and political conditions behind the iron curtain.

Synopsis

Andula is a working-class young woman living in a fading Czech factory town, where, due to an oversight in central state planning, women outnumber men 16-1. The film opens with an intimate scene between Andula and her fellow shoe-factory-worker friend as they lie in bed in their dormitory discussing the ring given to Andula by her boyfriend Tonda and gossiping about her mildly flirtatious encounter with a forest ranger, which is shown in flashback.

Actors