Synopsis
I Served the King of England (2007) is Jiří Menzel's tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM. Jan Dítě, a small and endlessly ambitious waiter, wants one thing — to become a millionaire — and to get there he learns to keep quiet, watch everyone and read the weaknesses of richer men.
The story carries him from a backwater pub to a grand Prague hotel, on to serving a banquet for the Emperor of Abyssinia, then turns his luck inside out under the Nazi occupation, when he marries a German woman and lands on the wrong side of history. Ivan Barnev plays young Jan like a silent-era clown; Oldřich Kaiser is the older man looking back from a prison cell. It's adapted from Bohumil Hrabal's novel.
Menzel, who won an Oscar for Closely Watched Trains, films half a century of Czech history as a sensual, ironic ballet of food, women and money. It took the FIPRESCI Prize in Berlin. The sting under the comedy is plain: the little man wins precisely as the world around him falls apart. Stream I Served the King of England (2007) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0