The Czech film, I Served the King of England was the most delightful cinematic surprise that I opened so far this year. Initially it’s comedic and whimsical, but it later becomes increasingly tragic and ironic. 

It opens on Friday, September 5^th at the Music Box Theatre; Landmark’s Renaissance in Highland Park and Cinemark CineArts in Evanston. 

The film was directed by Jiri Menzel. Although Menzel is not nearly as well known in the USA as his compatriot, Milos Forman, he is one of the prime architects of the ‘60s Czech New Wave, and he has been making fine films for over forty years. Some of his career highlights include the Oscar winning Closely Watched Trains (1966), the underrated My Sweet Little Village (1985), and the unforgettable Larks on a String (1990).  

Menzel’s newest film, I Served the King of England, which was based on a novel by his recently deceased friend, Bohumil Hrabai, is an amusing and heartbreaking look at a man who benefits from, but is eventually knocked down by the winds of fate. He reminded me of the protagonist in America, America because his ups and downs often correspond to extreme historical/political changes.  

The film starts out with Jan Dite getting released from a communist jail in Prague for the absurd crime of being rich. We later flash back to his life story, and find out what brought him to that point. Reminiscing on the failures in his life he says: "It was always my luck to run into bad luck." 

Dite (played with gusto by Ivan Bernev) is a demure little man who starts out as a likeable everyman/anti-hero. Oldrich Kaiser (as the older Dite) takes more than a few cues from Chaplin, and he even does a playful Chaplinesque spin, after he serves people at a restaurant (the film even has a great b/w silent section). At one point the proud maitre d' tells the story of how he served the king of England, hence the title. 

Dite is modestly successful, but he has the strong desire his whole life to become a millionaire, but he often wastes his cash on drinks and prostitutes. He makes all the women he sleeps with (including a call girl who he sees as a kind of surrogate girlfriend) feel special because he covers them up in flower petals after they have made love (this pays tribute to American Beauty). 

But Dite makes a big mistake when he falls for a Geman girl named Liza who is living in Prague.  The other Czechs initially mistreat her, and Dite gains her affection when he defends her. Eventually they marry, but it turns out that the great love of her life is National Socialism (ironically the actress who plays her previously played a martyred Jew in Sophie Scholl.) She sees the party as her religion. When she’s trying to conceive a baby with Dite she even imagines that he is Hitler.  All this leads to tragedy. Dite gets his comeuppance, but he is ultimately more sinned against than sinning. 

I Served the King of England balances slapstick comedy with historical tragedy better than any film since Life is Beautiful. It’s an ambitious, life affirming work about a man who has to lose everything in order to find himself.