3 Seasons in Hell

Sans conteste, le meilleur rôle de Krystof Hádek et certainement le rôle le plus futile de Táňa Pauhofová à ce jour. Après avoir vu les rivaux Kawasakiho růže et Protektor, je passe de mes quatre étoiles initiales à cinq et considère 3 sezóny v pekle comme le meilleur film tchèque de 2009, car il surpasse les deux autres films tant par son contenu que par la performance de ses acteurs. Sans parler de Martin Huba, vu qu’il joue remarquablement bien en toute circonstance ! :-) (29/11/2009)

How the poet enjoyed life and how the poet lost his illusions. Simply a poet that Dušan Klein wouldn’t have liked much. The poser Bondy might have liked the result (but he still would have expressed his liking in the way that Tetsuo suggests), but nobody will ever find out. But to hell with it, because what is most important is that I like it in the end. I really like it. However, it is held back from getting the full five stars by the middle passage where it is unnecessarily slow-moving and nothing much happens and Hádek, whose acting is fantastic, just isn’t convincing as a seventeen year old. (29/11/2009)

During its release in movie theaters, the film was met with conflicting reactions, ranging from enthusiastic ovations to significant doubts. I must admit that I didn't have much faith in Mašín's debut film, so I avoided it at the time. However, the time has come to catch up, and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. 3 Seasons in Hell is primarily a carefully and honestly crafted film - such professionalism combined with a solid budget is not common in the Czech Republic. It may indeed be a bit too polished, and I would have preferred the film to be more surreal and provocative, but Mašín simply and correctly decided to make a film for a broader audience, who are not necessarily as interested in the fates and work of this enfant terrible of Czech culture. I agree with the opinion that this is a quality film that may not deserve a perfect 5-star rating but should be up there, and in this case, I happily round it up. Especially for the presence of the charismatic Karolina Gruszka, who perfectly fulfills my idea of a fateful Bond woman, capable of driving her surroundings and especially men to the brink of madness. Yes, one could die for a woman like her, but it's better to run far away from her... Overall impression: 90%. (20/07/2011)

I felt immense relief, because the hopes I had placed in Mašín's film were completely fulfilled. 3 Seasons in Hell is the same as its main character - engrossed in itself, its imagination, hasty, naively burning and sometimes very convincing. Despite the fact that there is an awkward romance after the exposition full of excellent visual metaphors and philosophical insights into the life of post-war intelligence, Mašín's film miraculously retains its integrity and its clear moral message. We can talk about the fact that, like Heinz, the film itself likes to listen to itself all too much, but the characters and their actions result in a completely consistent parable of a man thrown under the wheels of history. What I like about 3 Seasons in Hell is the film’s accessibility – it can be enjoyed by both experts on contemporary society and Egon Bondy, and by those who confuse the “greatest non-living poet" with a German teleshopping salesman... and Kryštof Hádek is finally establishing himself as a great actor. Tomáš Mašín should be thanked for looking at the 1950s without ignorance, tension and habitual patterns. He deduced from these years a moral message that was truly simple, but absolutely universally valid. Sometimes simple human SHIT is more important than a magnificent IDEA. (18/11/2009)

A lyrical poem about sobering up from the naivete of youth and loosing dubious ideals. Like most films that focus on a more abstract storyline, this one isn’t very viewer friendly, but the visuals are beautiful and the performances are better than expected. That said, making the hero a person whom the viewer can never identify with and actually,  based on the logic of the film, should never identify with, is a very bold move. Taking Ivan Heinz as a role model is only possible after a bad reading of the film, a very bad reading. An interesting and unusual approach and this time I’m rounding up the 7/10. (21/12/2009)