Le Réveil

This is the direction Czech cinema should not have taken. But Jana was ready to set sail. "Marcel! Rock!" On the other hand, let's not pretend that this is something ultra groundbreaking and innovative - these films about troubled youths who lived their childhood during the war and, by the time they were teens, didn't care anymore have been made all over the world. Think of Marlon Brando in The Wild One, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, or Horst Buchholz in Teenage Wolfpack. In the Czech case, it was Jana Brejchová’s spinning skirt that solved it. (02/03/2009)

Krejčík scores again. At the time, a big hit among young people in this country and in the Eastern Bloc as a whole, it made the young Jana Brejchová an international star. Without any hints of ideology, it’s a testimony of the young generation, which in the post-Stalin era of slowly melting ice can start to take a deep breath of rebelliousness and timidly emerging rock 'n' roll. Outstanding Petr Kostka in his acting debut. The final, optimistic reunion scene was delivered at the instigation of the approvers, despite Krejcik's disapproval. (19/08/2006)

This is my truly first film, directed by Jiří Krejčík, and I have to say that my jaw almost dropped. The way he effortlessly guided the actors, and how natural they played, how interesting the story was and how realistically it was presented, even though there were iconic actors we have somehow fixed in our minds, it absolutely amazed me. An excellent film, where you can even bear the ending in the end. (05/12/2014)