280:, a chocolate ball. Josef, one of the firefighters, sees the prizes are missing, but no one admits to knowing anything about the thefts; he eventually finds out that even his wife is involved. During the ball, a bickering committee of firefighters looks for candidates for the beauty contest, but they have difficulty finding enough of them. A man buys drinks for the committee members to persuade them to include his homely daughter among the candidates. An amorous couple paw each other under the raffle table.
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In the darkness all of the remaining items are also stolen, and when the lights come back on, Josef is caught returning the head cheese his wife stole. The firefighters' committee retreats to discuss how to save the reputation of the department. They return to a now-empty hall, where only their retired chairman remains. The committee presents him the gift box and he gives a heartfelt speech thanking them, but when the box is opened, it turns out that the axe itself has also been stolen.
242:. It is set at the annual ball of a small town's volunteer fire department, and the plot portrays a series of disasters that occur during the evening. The film uses few professional actors – some characters are played by the firemen of the small town where it was filmed. By portraying the prevailing corruption of the local community and the collapse of even well-intentioned plans, the film
389:, "Na střelnici" in Vrchlabí. Most of the actors were not professional actors (e.g. Josef Šebánek, Milada Ježková). To shoot the natural sound of their voices it was necessary to have silence on-set, so during the actors' dialogue scenes the band merely pretended to play and the dancing couples wore woollen socks or slippers.
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I didn't want to give any special message or allegory. I wanted just to make a comedy knowing that if I'll be real, if I'll be true, the film will automatically reveal an allegorical sense. That's a problem of all governments, of all committees, including firemen's committees. That they try and they
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To help
Havelka, who has lost almost everything, people donate their raffle tickets. However, nearly all of the prizes have been stolen during the ball, leaving only a few low-value items. The firefighters announce they will turn off the lights to give the thieves an opportunity to return the prizes.
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A siren sounds because the house of an old man, Mr. Havelka, is on fire. Everyone uses the opportunity to leave the town hall without paying for their drinks. With their fire engine stuck in the snow, the firefighters manage to save some furniture and animals from the house, but they are unable to do
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After much trouble, seven (and eventually eight) contestants for the pageant are found. They are told that the winner will present the gift to the chairman after the contest, and the committee instructs them in how to pose and walk. However, when the contest begins, the girls flee from the hall and
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town organizes a ball in the town hall, including a raffle and a beauty pageant. The firefighters also plan to present a small ceremonial fire axe as a birthday gift to their retired chairman, who has cancer (although they believe he does not know it himself as doctors were forbidden from revealing
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The film generated considerable controversy on its release. Among other things, fire companies across
Czechoslovakia protested that the film was an attack on their integrity, to the extent that Forman and his team felt obliged to tour the country dispelling this literal reading. The Czechoslovak
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to hole up in a hotel and concentrate on writing. "One evening, to amuse ourselves, we went to a real firemen's ball" Forman recalls. "What we saw was such a nightmare that we couldn't stop talking about it. So we abandoned what we were writing on to start this script."
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pretend and they announce that they are preparing a happy, gay, amusing evening or life for the people. And everybody has the best intentions... But suddenly things turn out in such a catastrophic way that, for me, this is a vision of what's going on today in the world.
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terminal illnesses to their patients). During preparations for the ball, a man sets a banner ablaze and finds himself dangling from the rafters of the town hall when his colleagues allow his ladder to fall.
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lock themselves in the bathroom. Consequently, the crowd starts dragging replacement candidates to the stage and a melee ensues. An old woman is crowned the winner and the audience cheers.
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377:(1965), Forman, along with fellow screenwriters Ivan Passer and Jaroslav Papoušek, could not concentrate on their follow-up screenplay and so went to the small north Bohemian town of
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anything about the fire with only a few shovelsful of snow. A table is borrowed from
Havelka and used to sell more alcohol to the crowd that is watching the fire.
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Communist party members took exception to the film's cynical tone. However, the film became a big hit in
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before he relocated to the United States. It is also the first film he shot in color, as well as a milestone of the
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The next morning, outside in the snow, Havelka lies down in his bed next to the fireman set on guard beside the ruins of his home.
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Forman has commented on the issue of whether his film should be seen as an allegory of the larger society of the time:
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Though the film did have a domestic release, and was shown in
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The
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1956–67. A Study of
Normalisation in Czechoslovakia 1968–1978. Edinburgh: Q Press. Page 136.
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659:"Revisiting The Firemen's Ball (Milos Forman, 1967) | UCLA Film & Television Archive"
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Alois Humplík: Hoří má pananko – ve Vrchlabí, in: Kino (magazine), 5/1967
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611:. New York: International Arts and Science Press. pp. 90–91.
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Raffle prizes start disappearing: a cake, a bottle of cognac, a
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19:"The Fireman's Ball" redirects here. For the TV film, see
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561:. London and New York: Wallflower Press. p. 120.
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448:. It was also listed to compete at the
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332:Josef Řehořek as Committee Member #4
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341:František Paska as Committee Member
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228:- "Fire, My Lady") is a 1967
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513:. London: Faber and Faber.
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173:Running time
150:Release date
113:Jan Vostrčil
104:Rudolf Hájek
92:Václav Šašek
77:Miloš Forman
64:Miloš Forman
32:
1097:Elo Havetta
1092:Štefan Uher
1082:Dušan Hanák
1056:Jan Schmidt
1041:Hynek Bočan
1021:Ivan Passer
1006:Jiří Menzel
847:Black Peter
794:J. Hoberman
738:Blu-ray.com
693:15 November
668:11 November
643:11 November
465:Arrow Films
411:Carlo Ponti
393:Controversy
278:head cheese
143:Karel Mareš
101:Produced by
87:Ivan Passer
60:Directed by
1566:1967 films
1560:Categories
1143:Elmar Klos
1087:Juraj Herz
871:Taking Off
688:oscars.org
555:Quoted in
511:Turnaround
496:References
460:Home media
356:Background
177:73 minutes
161:1967-12-15
70:Written by
1193:Key films
1138:Ján Kadár
1026:Jan Němec
475:in 2015.
366:Saul Bass
248:communist
244:satirized
233:satirical
129:Edited by
16:1967 film
1349:for the
772:AllMovie
479:See also
379:Vrchlabí
250:system.
201:$ 65,000
190:Language
139:Music by
109:Starring
1268:Related
1225:Daisies
919:Valmont
911:Amadeus
903:Ragtime
796:at the
781:at the
718:4 April
471:in the
469:Blu-ray
444:at the
182:Country
159: (
1546:(1991)
1538:(1990)
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946:(2006)
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436:Awards
236:comedy
198:Budget
220:Czech
193:Czech
1353:for
1290:FAMU
895:Hair
761:IMDb
720:2009
695:2011
670:2021
645:2021
613:ISBN
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299:Cast
264:Plot
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