Suman Roberson
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
morrison-dylan-fan
With a poll taking place on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best Sci-Fi movies,I remembered reading a review in UK film mag Empire by Kim Newman on a Czech New Wave (CNW) Sci-Fi title.Looking round for the movie,I was surprised to find dozens of CNW Sci-Fi films which have become almost forgotten.Due to having a lot of Czech New Wave flicks that I've been meaning to view for ages,I decided that it was time for a CNW fest.The plot:2000-After an atomic bomb leads to women becoming infertile,the UN arranges a meeting of the world's greatest scientist to solve the issue.Getting everyone's attention, Professor David Moore reveals that he has come up with an idea,which would involve him and his team using a time machine to travel back in time and kill Albert Einstein so that the atomic bomb never gets invented. Failing to come up with any other ideas,the UN sign on Moore's plan. Traveling back in in time,Moore and his team soon realise that they have not added up the full effects that their actions will have on history.View on the film:Jumping between 2000 and the early 1900's,co-writer/(along with Josef Nesvadba & Milos Macourek) director Oldrich Lipský and cinematographer Ivan Slapeta swing into pure late 60's kitsch,where sexy disco girls are joined by blaring reds and a time machine that looks like a lava lamp.Sending Moore and his team to meet Einstein, Lipský gives the historical scenes a wonderfully off-centre, Czech New Wave atmosphere,by making Moore's modern machines (including a selfie stick!) blend into the high society,chandelier life sty that Einstein is surrounded in.Getting into the futuristic swing of things,the screenplay by Nesvadba/ Macourek and Lipský finely balance time travel Sci-Fi action with earthy period Comedy.Whilst the movie is largely delivered in a light handed manner,the writers do cut some excellent allegorical cuts into the title,which starts from off the cuff comments on Czechoslovakia never having any chance of becoming a self-governing state, (the movie was shot just after the Prague Spring of 1968) to the eerie full circle twist ending.Looking alluring in bra and panties,the cute Jana Brejchová gives a playful performance as Moore team member Gwen Williamsová,with Brejchová giving Williamsová a delicate lightness which allows her to outwit Moore and Einstein.Joined by Lipský's brother Lubomír, Jirí Sovák gives an excellent performance as Professor David Moore,thanks to Sovák hilariously cracking Moore's mind up,as Moore sets his sights on killing Albert Einstein.
