Oscar-Winning Czech Director Jiri Menzel Dies at Age 82

Director Jiri Menzel poses during a photocall to promote the film 'I Served The King Of England' at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany February 16, 2007. (Reuters)
Director Jiri Menzel poses during a photocall to promote the film 'I Served The King Of England' at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany February 16, 2007. (Reuters)
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Oscar-Winning Czech Director Jiri Menzel Dies at Age 82

Director Jiri Menzel poses during a photocall to promote the film 'I Served The King Of England' at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany February 16, 2007. (Reuters)
Director Jiri Menzel poses during a photocall to promote the film 'I Served The King Of England' at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany February 16, 2007. (Reuters)

Influential Czech director Jiri Menzel, whose 1966 movie “Closely Watched Trains” won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, has died at age 82, his wife, Olga Menzelova, said on her Facebook page.

Menzel was part of the Czech New Wave of filmmakers of the 1960s that included “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus” director Milos Forman and avant-garde director Vera Chytilova.

He struggled with serious health problems and rarely appeared in public after brain surgery in 2017.

“Dearest Jirka, I thank you for each and single day I could spend with you. Each was extraordinary. I am also grateful to you for the last three years, as hard as they were,” his wife wrote in her post.

She said Menzel died at home on Saturday.

Menzel gained fame for “Closely Watched Trains,” the coming-of-age story of a young train dispatcher in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War Two.

It was based on a novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, whose works were a source of other Menzel films, including “I Served the King of England” in 2006.

“I had more luck than reason,” he said in 2016, recalling his Oscar-winning movie. “More than all the prizes and medals I received for this movie, I valued the lifelong friendship with Hrabal.”

Like other directors of his generation, Menzel faced problems with Communist authorities.

His 1969 film, “Larks on a String,” depicting a group of politically persecuted people forced to work in a scrapyard, was not shown in his home country until 1990.

It went on to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1990.

Menzel excelled in bittersweet depictions of life, with doses of humor and nostalgia. Many of his works are revered among Czech audiences.

Menzel’s 1985 film, “My Sweet Little Village,” was nominated for an Oscar and a number of his other movies have become classics for Czech film watchers and directors.

Menzel also acted in dozens of movies and plays. A bachelor late into life, he and Menzelova, a film producer, married in 2004.

“I thank him for everything he did for us. Goodbye, sir!” film director Jan Hrebejk, who was nominated for an Oscar for his 2000 film, “Divided We Fall,” wrote on Twitter.



Movie Review: In 'Heads of State,' a Buddy Comedy with Statesmen

 This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
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Movie Review: In 'Heads of State,' a Buddy Comedy with Statesmen

 This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)

Say what you will about the Idris Elba-John Cena vehicle “Heads of State,” but it’s surely the first buddy comedy about the fraying bonds of NATO.

The potential collapse of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization plays a surprisingly pivotal role in this fitfully diverting, for-background-noise-only, straight-to-streaming movie. Elba plays the embattled British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, while Cena co-stars as the recently elected US President Will Derringer, a former action star.

“Heads of State,” directed by Ilya Naishuller (“Nobody”), is mostly about their relationship, a tense and adversarial one challenged further when an assassination plot leaves them stranded together in Belarus. But that “Heads of State,” which debuts Wednesday on Prime Video, is such a mild romp makes it all the more surprising to hear a line uttered like: “If NATO falls, there’s no backstop against despots and dictators.”

It’s a funny time to release a comedy set around international political disconnection and imperiled Western democracy. But if you were beginning to worry that “Heads of State” is too timely, don’t. Any nods to current events here serve more as reminders of how much “Heads of State” — like most of Hollywood’s output — is unengaged with anything resembling our political reality.

You could argue that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could also argue that the greater sin of “Heads of State” is underusing Stephen Root. (He plays an expert working for the bad guys.) But the vaguest hints of real-world intrigue only cast a pale light on the movie’s mostly lackluster comic chops and uninspired action sequences.

The best thing going for “Heads of State” is that the chemistry between Elba and Cena is solid. The “Suicide Squad” co-stars trade barbs with a genial ease. Most of the time, those revolve around their characters’ divergent histories — Clarke was a commando before becoming a politician — in debates like which one of them is “gym strong” as opposed to “strong strong.”

That’s one of the few decent gags in the script by Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Harrison Query. But one problem in “Heads of State” goes beyond the high-concept set-up. The best buddy comedies — “Midnight Run,” “48 Hrs.,” “The Nice Guys” — are predicated on opposites thrown together. Elba and Cena have their obvious differences. (Cena’s Derringer is exaggeratedly optimistic here, too.) But ultimately they’re both beefy dudes in suits.

As the MI6 agent Noel Bisset, Priyanka Chopra Jones gives the movie a kick. But her scenes are left to the beginning and end of the movie. In between, we’re left to wonder where she went, how two political leaders would have such non-existent security and whether a few half-decent jokes are enough to forgive the movie's geopolitical delusions.