"Black Peter" marks as acclaimed director Milos Forman ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus") first film after spending some time as a
documentarian and what a remarkable, jolly, honest and funny film that he gave us. It's not a mirror to life, it is life, and it's one of those rare
times that a motion picture manages to translate the teenage years with a freshness and almost uniqueness to everything that you forget you're watching
a movie, it really feels life unfolding. It's positive but not cynical, it's about the torments of youth with some achievements and plenty of disappointments
and misunderstandings, and with those series of events we have something that doesn't reek of the excitment and recklessness of youth as commonly depicted
on Hollywood movies.
We follow the adventures of Peter (the great Ladislav Jakim), a 17-year-old teen with three constant things to achieve: get a job and keep it;
to have some fun out partying while he's not there; and get a girl. He gets all that, rest assured, but it's never exactly what he thought it would be
or he's not seeing things properly or acting properly. He's a disaster at his job working as a security checkout at a supermarket, and I loved every
moment of innocence displayed by the little guy - he simply can't perform when needed while following clients or potential shoplifters (anxious sequences
yet hilariously funny); and as for the girl (Pavla Martinkova) and later on the party they attend it becomes a series of how to behave properly, what to
talk about and the typical teenage awkwardness a majority goes through. Basically he wants sex but he doesn't have a certain approach for that. It gets more troublesome with the constant interruptions of two young
bricklayers (Vladimír Pucholt and Zdenek Kulhanek), of whom the couple had a brief altercation. That duo is priceless as well and the whole dance party
sequence is hysterical.
Through the course of four days, it all revolves about those great conquests where he can say he's a grown up, but also to appease the war at home
with his demanding father and countless hard life lessons, or at least look good for his boss. We've seen this before, that's life and Peter walks
through those issues with an everlasting sense of what to do. I greatly identified with this character since he's got that vibe of never knowing what he
wants but knowing exactly what he doesn't want, and sometimes those things push each other. Example: he wants to be with the girl, wants to know her better
but probably doesn't want her as a girlfriend and all the demands that come with such, or at the very least he wants to make use of his hormones.
This is one of the finest representatives of the Czech New Wave cinema (from the period Forman also has "Loves of a Blonde", "The Firemen's Ball"), with
new filmmaking techniques, themes treated and a wide-eyed criticism on social/political issues, specially against the Communist regime they were under at
the time. This one sounds less critical on such theme, but it's there deepened in its core. What we have mostly on the foreground is the wildly amusing
story of a teen growing up, the experiences he acquires on the period, with the new people who comes his way (usually abrupt and bumpy encounters) and
just trying things, see if it works or not. This is the perfect anti-thesis of many coming of age movies where everything is bright, happy and magical
and the sense of responsibility is almost non existent. "Black Peter" is about disappointment, frustrations and things not being as cracked up to be yet
it's fun because of all that since that period is exactly like that, for the brief time that exists in the transition from childhood to adulthood; and plus
it's one of the last opportunities where one can fail a little and not make things as the end of the world. There's a sense of charm and innocence so real and
appealing here that's almost impossible not to like this film. 10/10
P. S.: but why on Earth did the bricklayer dropped his shorts before the fight? I'm still clueless on that.
