Two classically trained musicians and childhood friends - one a successful cellist in Prague, the other a violinist who makes his money playing provincial funerals - reconvene on the eve of a small-town symphony concert.
Direction
Passer's debut: 73 minutes of barely contained melancholy.
Cinematography
Intimate, observational black-and-white that breathes.
Director
Ivan Passer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the Czech New Wave alongside Forman and Menzel, though Passer emigrated after 1968 Soviet invasion—this became his only Czech feature.
The 'intimate lighting' of the title refers to small domestic bulbs versus the empty spectacle of the concert hall Bambas never enters.
XC
