Marketa Lazarová
Riverside Studios Cinema, Wednesday 16th July, 7pm
It is with great sadness that we say farewell to Riverside Studios as it closes its doors in August 2014. To commemorate this great south London bastion of independent cinema and the arts, Second Run DVD and the Czech Centre London present a very special screening of the great Czech filmmaker František Vláčil’s acknowledged masterpiece – Marketa Lazarová, presented for the first time in the UK from a stunning new 4k restoration of the film, created and supplied by the Czech National Film Archive.
Voted the greatest Czech film ever made, this dark and passionate medieval epic chronicles the rivalry between two warring clans, the Kozlíks and the Lazars, and the doomed love affair of Mikolás Kozlík and Marketa Lazarová. Adapted from Vladislav Vančura’s classic novel, this fierce 13th-Century epic is a meticulously designed evocation of the clash between Christianity and paganism, humanity and nature, love and violence. Impressively ambitious and multi-layered, it is the crowning achievement of Vláčil’s career and is one of the great cornerstones of world cinema.
"Marketa Lazarová is without a doubt the best historical film ever made anywhere." – Film Quarterly
"... the most convincing film about the Middle Ages made anywhere." – Sight & Sound – 75 Hidden Gems of Cinema
To book tickets, call the box office on 020 8237 1111 or visit www.riversidestudios.co.uk
You can read Jerry Whyte's review of the Second Run DVD release of Marketa Lazarová here
František Vláčil’s acclaimed films Marketa Lazarová, The Valley of the Bees and Adelheid are all available from Second Run DVD, either as individual releases or as part of the 4-Disc František Vláčil Collection Box Set (along with the acclaimed 2005 documentary portrait of Vláčil, Sentiment). Vláčil’s award-winning debut feature The White Dove (Holubice) is also available.
