Slnko v sieti (1963) User Reviews

Movie centers on the life of Oldrich, affectionately nicknamed Fajolo by love interest Bela, and his experiences between home and his summer work at a farm.

[annakshaw · 9/10 · 28 February 2015]

The Sun in a Net is a complex and daring film. Considering its cultural context, it did the impossible and passed communist film censors with a number of controversial plot points in a time when only bland and uninteresting films were being shown in order to favor the state. On top of this historical context, the filmmaking is both experimental and quite beautiful. Utilizing many unconventional shots and paying attention to the composition of each scene, aesthetically this film is a knockout, especially for 1964, but is enjoyable even in 2015. The intense symbolism about blindness and sight, and truth and lies is captivating and artfully done. One cannot and will not want to watch The Sun in a Net only once, you have to revisit it in order to adapt your own meanings about the film. A must-see in Slovak film.

A young man's summer - a character study

[tpolakov-2 · 9/10 · 1 January 2009]

Considered one of the first movies of the Czechoslovakian new wave of the 60's, the movie depicts a youngster's summer with romance, work and all the stuff around. It shows the curiosity of the young, the discovery of the world around us, the search for love and other things worth searching for. It even throws in a bit of a social study by comparing the village and the town society. Although some of the aspects of it have not aged well (at least for me), the main reason to see this movie is the very strange but wonderful atmosphere of exploration. When watching it, I sometimes felt like being the main character's photo-camera with an insatiable desire to capture moments/images - to let them impact the observer and create emotions through beauty and purity. So, at the end, it is the purity of the young (uninfluenced) eye (both the main character's and I presume the filmmakers') that creates almost a magical experience of going back in time. Worth watching !