Já, Olga Hepnarová (2016) Reviews

• Powerful experience that stays with you, but something is missing...

  PeterPan1582016-11-01

  I watched the movie without knowing anything about the real case of Olga Hepnarova and so I didn't know what to expect. I must say the movie succeeded in creating the atmosphere of depression, social detachment and schizophrenia and portrayed Olga Hapnerova as a very complex and complicated being, and especially the second half of the movie is very chilly and revealing in terms of the personality and especially that part is very well played by Michalina Olszanska. It is definitely worth watching although, you can't get rid of the feeling that certain things in terms of filmmaking didn't fit quite well into the whole picture. The movie is black and white, and almost completely without music. That is a very good idea, because it mimics the inner world of Olga and translate it to the audience. Black and white movies can really do the job as with Sindler list or The Turin horse, provided that other elements fit into the mosaic. There were long and still takes which sometimes focused solely on Olga's face, which I found bit odd because sometimes maybe it would be much better to shift to camera focus on people around following her gaze and how she look at the world rather than trying to decipher that from her face. For example in We Need To Talk About Kevin (which has almost identical story- just different context) Lynne Ramsay done excellent job in doing just that by fragmenting narrative and focusing camera on miniscule details of what is significant for the character psyche. Another thing is that the movie felt a bit disintegrated at times. For people that don't know anything about the real case, it's hard to decipher what happened or where are we in the story exactly. It felt kind arrogant to the viewers as it expected that we all know everything about the story already and that the movie works only as a visual media to translate the story fact to fact in the shortest possible time. Having said all that, this is a powerful movie with great performance at times by the lead actress and with some deep psychological nuances of the character, who you can't help but sympathize with and/or understand on some level. I would definitely add to the WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN category where the main character -although antihero and "evil" of the story, has a very complex reasons and personality. Which is great, because in today's society we need more stories and movies that could explain seemingly random or evil acts in such a complex and socially interconnected way. In fact if you know anything about psychology of "evil", you know that it's almost always a reflection of how those murderers were treated either by society or their parents, caregivers or peers. Here I agree with a previous review that, movie as such would benefit much more from more scenes of the family interactions or history (for example in Flashback maybe). Overall, this is very powerful psychological drama that certainly delivers the chill and a lot to think about. So definitely worth watching.

• A great insight into a sick mind.

  petokadlecik2016-09-18

  To fully appreciate this film one probably should have a minimum knowledge about psychiatry and of schizophrenia in general. The main character in this film, Olga Hepnarova, is IMO one of the best depictions of a schizophrenic person I've ever seen in a movie. In this regard, the movie makers did an extraordinary good job. The atmosphere of the film is dark, yet the individual scenes are often banal and the dialogues short and often flat and trivial. This however is not of disadvantage to the movie as one would expect. It actually helps to unfold to the viewer the deep, but chaotic and hate-focused thoughts that go inside the mind of Hepnarova. The scenes where she contemplates the traumatizing experiences of her life are deep and sad, showing that she is a very complex and deeply thinking person, but at the same time they succeed to NOT depict her as a martyr, which she clearly fails to be. She despises society and is fond to do it a favor (by killing herself) only in her best life-time when she's deeply in love (with her lesbian lover). Hepnarova is evil, but in the movie it looks more like real-world-evil with its full complexity and context, not the common flat movie-evil known from pop-culture. This also adds to the uniqueness of the movie and probably makes many viewers to sympathize with her. Not to mention the great acting by Michalina Olszanska. I would appreciate more family scenes in the film. I think it would be beneficial for a better understanding of Hepnarova's mind. In particular the roots of her hatred towards her family. But in conclusion I have to take my hat off to the movie makers, they exactly knew what they wanted to deliver and they delivered it. A sad depiction of a sick mind driven to the edge (partially by the society and partially by herself) until the bitter end.

• A chilly experience, but still a missed opportunity

  centrum992016-04-22

  Rating this movie is not an easy task for me. It has its strengths, but also aspects that I could not digest. First, the black-and-white picture is fine and takes you back to the 1970s. But a movie without opening credits and absolutely no music was somewhat shocking. Actually, most of the movie consists of short, mutually unconnected scenes, where people don't talk, and are just sitting or standing. Although this "art style" captures the gloomy inner world of Olga, I can not ignore that it is disrespectful to the audience who may have problems to understand, what is actually happening on the screen. The original version reportedly lasted 2 1/2 hours and the editor's digital scissors reduced it on the border of comprehensibility. And I say this as a man who had studied the entire history of Hepnarova and I was able to successfully predict what will follow in the next few minutes. Undoubtedly, the movie will lose spectators due to these insensitive cuts. And that's a pity, because the second half - starting from the massacre through the trial up to the execution - is already filmed in the chilly spirit that I expected. It is here, where Michalina Olszańska shows her superb performance, and with her, this whole spectacle stands and falls. The probe into Olga's depressing psyche is the true peak of the movie. The filmmakers also try to be authentic and virtually all presented scenes are based on real testimonies, Olga's letters and court documents. It is only in the lesbian scenes, where they apparently exaggerate. For example, Hepnarova was in love with her female colleague, but they have never had any intimate relationship. Even the openly lesbian contact at the disco party is odd in Czechoslovakia of the 1970s - to say the least. (Although it is again inspired by the fact, because Olga liked provoking and was sometimes wearing a jacket on a naked body.) As a whole, this film biography of Olga Hepnarova is impressive and leaves feelings that will fly you off the handle for many hours. In fact, it is not unusual that during the final credits, spectators remain downright frozen to their seats. However, I am still sorry that the final result could have been even better. If I were in place of the directors, I would take the movie as Olga's retrospective narrative during interrogation. Her own words would cover the "dead spots" in the story and explain her inner feelings. Too late...

• An excellent film! Another confirmation of the well known quality of Czech cinema.

  batemefo2016-03-16

  Tackling a very difficult subject in a rigid social environment like communist Czechoslovakia in the 70's, this film has done it great! The female lead -the very young Polish actress Michalina Olszanska is doing the impossible while portraying an extremely complex character that no-one would otherwise understand or empathize. The cinematic recreation of the atmosphere of Prague in the early 70's is so true, that this this black & white film looks like it was really shot in the Seventies. Only the stable digital image suggests else. I do recommend this movie to all sensitive viewers who wish to look deeper in to the human and social issues.

• Grim

  MOscarbradley2017-02-08

  Olga Hepnarova was the last woman to be executed in the Czech Republic and for mass murder, no less so don't expect a barrel of laughs. Shot in chilly black and white, (more a wintry gray, in fact), Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinreb's film is a depressing study of a psychotic personality. In the title role Michalina Olszanska doesn't so much act as exists and barely at that. Although she never off the screen it's as if she's been vaporized, living in a shadow where the real person should be. I suppose in some respects the film falls into much the same category as "The Honeymoon Killers" or "Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer" but they were lively, jolly affairs compared to this. With its strong lesbian element perhaps a more fitting comparison would be with "Monster" in which Charlize Theron played Aileen Wuornos. Worth seeing but grim.