User Reviews

Another near wordless, somewhat brooding black and white film written and directed by Vlacil with a quirky, experimental style, featuring some really wild imagery by cinematographer Jan Curik, in this children's story that is a cross between THE RED BALLOON and, say, THE DOVE WHISPERER. SPOILERS FOLLOW! The film opens on a hill with hundreds of pigeons released simultaneously in flight, but a white dove remains in its cage; a young girl fondles it affectionately. The films moves simultaneously to another story where a man in a loft apartment, with plenty of unusual artworks, discovers a white dove and delivers him to a young boy in a wheelchair. The bird is alive, but it appears dead, it's not moving, and it needs to be nursed back to health. A flashback shows this same young boy climbing a fence. Other boys are throwing stones at him. The boy reaches for a parachute which is stuck at the very top, and while the boy falls off screen, the parachute gently flies free and lands gracefully on the ground. With the camera facing a glass window, the window is smeared with heavy brush strokes to create a background canvas. What appears to be a sun is drawn, with wild grass and budding flowers. The sun turns into a white dove which is then rolled into a beautiful print, which the man in the loft leaves with the boy. The mood changes to the music of American jazz, as there is a seaside resort. A young bohemian man has his eyes on a young girl who sits alone reading her book, oblivious to his flirtatious advances. This has the feel of Vadim's AND GOD CREATED WOMAN with Bridgitte Bardot. Amazingly, a door opens to the sea and the young girl walks out the door and continues walking on the water. Back to the other story the dove comes to life and the young boy is actually seen walking. The man makes a sculpture of this boy, but the boy refuses to let the man see the dove, so in anger, the man cuts off the face of the sculpture. Back to the driving American jazz, this time the young man hops into a jeep that appears to be driving into the water out to a stretch of sand dune where the girl is reading. He hands her a print of the white dove sent by the artist. She leaps for joy, thrilled at this gift, which cuts to the boy in the loft letting the white dove fly free. There is a slow pan of all the rooftops that can be seen until it returns to the loft where these unusual artworks take on spectacular shapes, ending with the sculpture of the young boy that is now completed. This film has multiple white doves that appear in different places throughout Europe, interspersed with various expressions of art, each represents a kind of positive hope. Here art heals all wounds and the doves help bridge all distances.