The Glass Room

The Affair. Let's start with the Title. It is misleading and confusing. To which affair does it refer? There could be several. Then there is the matter of too many English titled works with the same name. The Glass Room (Sklenený Pokoj) serves the story better as the center room of the house built for Viktor and Liesel serves as a unifier for the story. Yes, there is an affair, more than one to be sure, and one great love story which we the viewers would have loved to see more of, but in between the action becomes confused and shoppy. It is difficult to pick out the particular periods in time represented or how certain people transition. Hanna in particular seems to drift along doing whatever the script calls for without a lot of explanation. Perhaps if we were Czech we would know better, but I doubt it. One wants to like Liesel while she does her best avoid us. Viktor is almost an after thought though a stupidly reckless one at times. At the end of the day we continue to watch out of a desire for something good to happen and when it does we aren't quite sure if it was worth the wait.

The Glass Room (novel) is a fantastic story about a house. the people whose lives are connected to it, their relationships, and the transformations of the country it is in.

The Glass Room (Film) is a mess.

Everything that was great about the book is missing from the film. The characters are mere cardboard cut outs of those that grow and develop so wonderfully in the novel. No time is spent establishing any of them, nor their relationships.

The star of the novel, the house, is never shown in its glory in the film, only a few overly repeated angles that never let the house truly shine. And the many significant historical milestones are flipped from one to the other as if mere inconveniences.

Those who have not read the book must spend the first 30 minutes of the film in complete and utter confusion, barely having a clue who each person on screen is and what they mean to each other.

As such they will be frustrated. Likewise those who enjoyed the book, seeing its essence removed and only a watery reflection of it remaining. Those who watch based on the marketing, especially from the US where it goes by the thoroughly misleading title The Affair, who think they are watching a Lesbian love story will be frustrated for the most part.

A real shame that such an excellent story, cast and location are wasted on this terrible film.

I love period movies and this one doesn't disappoint. If you're distracted you'll lose track of the character's development.

I've read some bad reviews, but I never lost my curiosity as to what would happen next. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Don't believe the haters.

I watched this movie while preparing supper. I enjoy spending time in kitchen so I walked to the room from time to time and found myself attracted. The picture was presented very well. The relations, emotions ... I was able to feel them.

There was lots of erotic scenes of sex between partners of which one was no really happy about it. Some kind of exploitation because of Nazi threat and Jewish nationality. Yet The core emotion was love between two women and their attachment to house and the architect.

Intriguing. I somehow believe the female-female relationship was something director wanted to focus. Discovering.