Film Review: Buttoners (Knoflíkáři, 1997)

For most of 20th Century Czechia was considered to be one of the powerhouses of European cinema. Czech cinema managed to thrive even under decades of Communist rule, providing audience in much of Europe and the rest of the world with popular comedies and family films, famous Barrandov studios serving other countries’ film industries and Prag film school teaching numerous generations of European film makers. All that, however, changed with the fall of Communism, which, almost overnight and for various reasons, made Czech cinema virtually unknown to newer generations of viewers. One of the very rare post-Cold War Czech films to actually be shown in Croatian cinema was Buttoners, 1997 black comedy written and directed by Petr Zelenka.

The film is made of six seemingly not connected stories. The first one, made in black-and-white, takes place in Japan on August 6th 1945 and shows how the crew of Enola Gay, American B-29 bomber, is frustrated over bad weather over Japanese city of Kokura and has to drop atomic bomb on its alternative target in Hiroshima. Next five stories, shot in colour, take place in Prague on the 50th anniversary of those events with the last one featuring one of bomber pilots being brought back by spiritist séance and taking part in radio show.

Petr Zelenka, author of Buttoners, is Czech playwright and director whose works and very specific brand of humour have got him the nickname of “Czech Monty Python”. Those who actually watch the film would, on the other hand, are going to see less of a cult comedy and more of the typically arthouse work clearly intended for catching festival awards instead of entertaining audience. It would be unfair to say that Buttoners isn’t funny, but, like with so many anthology films, quality of humour varies with each segment. Some of those segments are too long, while some are all but incomprehensible to the audience. Viewers with the taste for art cinema will be, on the other hand, rewarded for their patience, because the last segment wraps up the film quite nicely.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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