Kolya

Kolya
by Jan Sver?k

List Price: ~~$14.99~~
Category: DVD
See more DVD details

(Click here)

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD details

Actor: Andrei Chalimon, Libuse Safr?nkov?, Ondrej Vetch?, Stella Z?zvorkov?, Zdenek Sver?k
Director: Jan Sver?k
Brand: Miramax
Writer: Zdenek Sver?k
Producer: Jan Sver?k
Producer: Eric Abraham
Producer: Ernst Goldschmidt
Producer: Jan J?ra
Producer: Jir? Jezek
Writer: Pavel Taussig
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Czech (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-02
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Miramax

DVD Reviews of Kolya

DVD Review: Insufferably boring
Summary: 1 Stars

Here's a well-worn movie formula. A man who is either socially withdrawn or recklessly womanising (our hero is somehow both) suddenly has a small child dumped on his doorstep. The child is in some contrived way "his" and thus can't be gotten rid of easily. Man at first dislikes child; then child effortlessly changes man's life. Cold heart becomes all warmed up by bundle of cuteness. Does the inside of your mouth feel sticky now?

It's worth bearing in mind that the above formula of this inexplicable Oscar-winner is the same one used in the Burt Reynolds turkey "Cop and a Half" and the recently released "The Game Plan", starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Quite an artistic pedigree.

The eponymous child in this film is actually an appalling dullard who almost never speaks and scarcely does anything interesting for the duration of the film. So it is a small mercy that a third of the movie is over before the boy makes his appearance (with an extreme close-up of his runny nose).

By the time I was into the final third of this film I found myself gazing around my living room in boredom. Soon I was fast-forwarding over every three minutes of footage. (Pity the poor cinema-goers who had no such advantage!) At every place I stopped nothing interesting was happening. The ending tries to inflate itself into importance by using the fall of Communism in Prague as a backdrop, a manoeuvre that's as objectionable as all the attempted viewer manipulation that preceded it.

DVD Review: Superb
Summary: 5 Stars

This is definitely a movie for people who like intelligent and under-stated film making. Everyone gives superb performances but the greatest praise must be for the director Jan Sverak, who always under-plays the drama while at the same time capturing the very best performance the five-year-old Andrei Chalimon, who plays the eponymous Kolya. Other reviewers have summarized the plot - suffice it to say that everything is beautifully balanced and finely presented. The political background of the closing years of the CCCP does not over-shadow the emotional relationship between the two protagonists, but permits the final reconciliation between the boy and the mother who abandoned him for a life in West Germany.

There is so much to enjoy in this movie that it merits being watched several times, just as a fine painting merits close and lengthy study. While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the English-Czechk subtitles, the English-Russian subtitles were almost completely accurate - a pleasant surprise!

DVD Review: Time Well Spent
Summary: 4 Stars

I wasn't too sure what to expect from "Kolya" since the synopsis I read was rather misleading. For that I'm grateful because everything that emerged was a pleasant surprize. I should just stop there and let it be a surprize for you, too. However, let me just say that this is a sophisticated and well-done version of a theme that is usually done with more slapstick and "juvenile" humor. It's not that those other movies were bad; it's just that we seem to keep getting a different version of the same thing substituting different stars to attract different audiences. I recall a movie I saw as a child that starred Clifton Webb. I think it was entitled "Sitting Pretty" and it, too, seemed to have a slightly more sophisticated version but "Kolya" is a film that stands alone.

Synopsis aside, "Kolya" is also worthwhile on other levels. I enjoyed the Czech perspective of Soviet occupation. I was interested in the animosity between the two groups. I also found it interesting that the director kept pushing the idea that socialism was good but not when imposed by a foregn invader. There was a lot of excellent music and cinematography and a story that left us with a sense that we had watched something worthwhile.

DVD Review: Hindsight bias
Summary: 3 Stars

This is indeed a charming and a touching story. Other reviewers have covered the plot quite well. I do believe that the characters in the movie are good and acting is quite good as well. Movies like this are uplifting and give person quite a good feeling and offer some hope. In real life people indeed do change, can set aside selfishness and are able to care for one another.

What I did not care for so much in the movie were the scenes that were written for the Hollywood audience. The "prophecy" of sending communists to a reservation in Albania, or holing up in the apartment like the allied pilots shot down during WWII, the list goes on. These were not only Hollywoodized, but also presented some obvious hindsight bias that was all too obvious to me as I, like Sverak, grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia.

With that said, the movie is worth watching and I would recommend it.

DVD Review: Go Louka...
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a Czech foreign language film set in Prague in the late 80's. The lead actor, Frantisek Louka, is in his 50's and is an accomplished symphony cellist. He gets booted off the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (for some unstated reason) - he struggles to make ends meet and pay his debts by playing music at funerals and restoring gold-leaf on weathered tombstones. Louka has never been married. In between his part time day jobs, Louka, a charmer, chases married women and cares for his aging Mother. He is determined to buy a car (a Trabant) but struggles to find the resources to do so - that is, until a friend comes up with a scheme to marry a divorced and beautiful, young Russian woman who is looking to get Czech papers. After significant reservations, Louka agrees to the scam so he can buy his car and pay off his debts. No sooner are they married - the woman bolts leaving him to care for her 5 year son.

The film lightly touches on the Russian occupation of the country and its impact on the populace. There are some terrific scenes of when the boy lights up when he sees the Russian military officers and their equipment - and Louka's Mother's reaction who despises the Russians.

The charm of this movie is the relationship that develops between Louka, a most reluctant father, and an adorable Russian boy. Louka comes to care and love the boy and his life is altered from his former selfish and self-centered ways. Louka is the main attraction and star in this film - playing a gruff, self-centered, talented musician trying to find his way. I also enjoyed the music and the cinematography in this film.

Description of Kolya

Winner of the Academy Award(R) and Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film, this irresistible comedy treat was embraced by critics and audiences everywhere! A confirmed bachelor is in for the surprise of his life when a get-rich-quick scheme backfires ... setting off a wild set of circumstances -- and leaving him with a pint-sized new roommate! Now, with a mischievous five-year-old named Kolya suddenly in his care ... life in this once carefree playboy's tiny apartment changes faster than he could ever imagine! Uplifting and endlessly funny, KOLYA is delightful motion picture entertainment you'll want to take home!

Winner of the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this charming Czech drama uses the backdrop of the Russian military occupation in Prague for its funny, sad, and ultimately delightful story of a 55-year-old man's friendship with a 5-year-old boy. It doesn't exactly start out as friendship: Louka is a cellist who lost his symphony job after writing a sarcastic remark on an official form, and although he's struggling financially he still enjoys the company of several young women who find him irresistibly sexy. The last thing he needs is a surrogate child, but that's what he gets when young Kolya is abandoned by his mother, a Russian woman Louka had agreed to marry so she could avoid being sent back to Russia. The mother runs off to her boyfriend in Germany, leaving Louka with a 5-year-old kid who only speaks Russian! As directed by Jan Sver?k (whose father, Zdenek Sver?k, plays Louka), this predicament offers a lovingly detailed account of how Louka and Kolya discover each other, and how their mutual awkwardness evolves into a heartwarming father-son relationship. While the Russian presence creates an atmosphere of suspicion and restriction, the deepening connection between Louka and Kolya turns this into an unforgettable film, beautifully photographed, sensitively performed, and directed with just the right combination of subtle sentiment and harsh reality. Its Oscar was definitely well deserved. --Jeff Shannon

General DVDs

DVD Video

Bestsellers in General DVDs

Best in Show
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2001-05-15; DVD
Best price: $6.22
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

The Lives of Others
Sony; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: ~~$14.94~~

Pan's Labyrinth
VERDU,MARIBEL; Release date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: ~~$12.98~~

Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series)
Disney; Release date: 2001-08-07; DVD
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops: ~~$14.99~~

Amelie
Disney; Release date: 2002-07-16; DVD
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops: ~~$19.99~~

Life Is Beautiful
Disney; Release date: 1999-11-09; DVD
Best price: $4.58
Price in other shops: ~~$19.99~~

Gomorrah (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2009-11-24; DVD
Best price: $23.48
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Let The Right One In
MAGNOLIA FILMS; Release date: 2009-03-10; DVD
Best price: $7.62
Price in other shops: ~~$26.98~~

The Ultimate Gift
Ultimate; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Slumdog Millionaire
TCFHE; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $5.42
Price in other shops: ~~$29.98~~

Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs

The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares)
Disney; Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops: ~~$19.99~~

Burnt by the Sun
Release date: 2003-07-15; DVD
Best price: $39.99

The Shop On Main Street - Criterion Collection
KAMINSKA,IDA; Release date: 2001-09-18; DVD
Best price: $18.29
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

All My Loved Ones
Genius; Release date: 2004-01-13; DVD
Best price: $7.12
Price in other shops: ~~$12.95~~

Antonia's Line
Release date: 2002-12-10; DVD
Best price: $5.06
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~

Up and Down
FORMAN,PETR; Release date: 2005-07-19; DVD
Best price: $2.30
Price in other shops: ~~$19.94~~

Closely Watched Trains - Criterion Collection
NECKAR,VACLAV; Release date: 2001-09-18; DVD
Best price: $18.31
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~