The Best Age

One of those pleasingly elliptical Czech comedies which flourished briefly during the '60s, never quite confronting their subjects head on, and in not doing so managing to speak volumes about the foibles of humanity. Querulous old men queue up for the privilege of adding a few pence to their pensions by acting as models at an art school; callow young students ponder the mysteries of death behind the tired old skulls they are set to sculpt; and a strange, yearning discontent permeates the air, with each age group firmly convinced that the other has the best of things. It's very slight, but although Papousek hasn't quite the same infallible command of timing as a film like Milos Forman's A Blonde in Love, he does extract very much the same flavour of dry, deadpan humour from his sidelong view of the human comedy.