Santini's Enigma

No, Strach did not choose the right key, especially for a film that deals with the sacrament of silence. It’s not that Santini's buildings are not captured nicely by the camera, but it is the aesthetics of UNESCO commercials, not Urban's world, in which modernity blends with anachronism, myth with reality and fiction with truth. Something like this is not transferable to a television film, and if something saves Santini's language, then it belongs to the author's more eventful prose. Thus, at least some of the tension spills over into the film, although it lacks a key dimension of the literary style, without which Urban's works turn into a series of strange nickel-and-dime stories with confused character motivations. However, if this solidly coordinated, nicely shot film with good sound gets at least a few curious people into the buildings of one of the greatest architectural geniuses, then it certainly had a purpose. Although it is completely different from the book, but still... However, I am beginning to worry about Seven Churches, because Strach's diligent television set is not at all suitable for the urban world. (04/12/2011)

I regret the low rating I am giving to Santini's Enigma. Truly. But there’s nothing you can do when the film is as bad as Satan's Stratagem. Maybe even worse. It’s decently shot, but it’s such a stupid piece of work... Sorry, but the story is blatantly naive - what is supposed to be mystical is ridiculous, what is supposed to be suspenseful is ridiculous too... I constantly had the feeling that the creators were just playing at something, that they were imitating something but not creating their own thing. It was misery. Even in terms of acting - Viktor Preiss didn't do much, Martin Stropnický made incomprehensible noises, David Švehlík is a nice guy, but the words that the stupid script put into his mouth sounded very cheap in his performance... The only thing I would praise besides the nice images is Jirásek's music. Jiří Strach's direction bored me quite a bit this time - for example, the arrival to every church looked exactly the same - the camera is rolling, taking in all sorts of arches, the choir singing... And nothing happens. (04/12/2011)