Review of Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (1966) by Joseph S — 03 Jun 2018

Alot of the political commentary in the arts to come out of the eastern block during the cold war, especially in film, wear absurdist and surrealists garbs (Jvan Svankmajor, Milos Freeman, Vera Chytilova, etc) in order to escape censorship, though fe.

..(read more)w, if any did. One that did however, is the delightful "Who Want's To Kill Jessie?", that dances somewhere between Fellini and golden age Charlie Chaplin, Michel Gondry doing Marx Bros.

, etc. Though made in 66 this film harkens back to the times of the silent comic stars and gags, like another Czech film "Daisies", this is surreal slapstiick at it's finest. Unlike other Czech and Euro films of the era, there is a persistant lightheartedness and absurdity throughout the film, and a genuine "feel good" ending, where the cartoonishsly simple fact that "dreams can't be killed" becomes politically, personally, and comically profound.

The humor is admittedly dated, but it's a fun forgetten little film, for people who like comics(the characters from the comic book only speak in word ballons), slapstick, Czech films, and comic(as in funny) surrealism.

Whimsicle good times, in this forgetten Czech comedy.