Nonureva Really Surprised!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

gott-1 "Baron Munchausen" ("Baron Prasil" in Czech) is one of the most charming and poetic movies among those thousands which I saw ...It is that very rare kind of movie I love to see for dozen and dozen of times, in virtually any mood and time ...Old illustrations by Gustave Dore brought to life by an unforgettable visual imagination of Karel Zeman ...Everything dressed in a soft melancholy of an enchanting music by great Zdenek Liska, so simple and sophisticated at the same time...Though Zeman is mostly painting his magic world by his unique visual creativity, those able to understand the Czech dialogues get another lovely dimension, inhabited by fine jokes and never-tiring games with words...And of course, Milos Kopecky as the Baron is the very symbol and soul of Munchausen ...An essential classic movie for every true film fan (not recommended for nervous consumers and victims of Hollywood moneymakers, however).How much those modern versions of Munchausen (and whatever are their modifications and names) miss the point of this magic Zeman's version: its fundamental visual craftsmanship, soft melancholy of a fable, an inspired music, and everything in a perfect union ...How poor and tedious is 99.99% of that Hollywood stuff in comparison with this Zeman's masterpiece ...No, they cannot do such a movie any more with all those naturalistic computer tricks, but a total lack of Karel Zeman's insight and visual poetry...

Tuttle Zeman created a hugely imaginative version of the Munchausen story; he is a visualist along the lines of Georges Melies ("A Trip To the Moon") who, through his elaborate matte and composite shots, points the way to the boundless digital worlds of Lucas's "The Phantom Menace." Despite Zeman's trippy whimsy and resourcefulness with special effects, the film is mostly unengaging, due to slack direction and detached performances. The strongest elements are an exciting horseback chase sequence carried by a rousing score, and the Baron's perpetually pathological optimism, which is central to the story and acts as a hilarious counterpoint to the fantastic events in which he finds himself. Despite the film's faults, it has to be appreciated for Zeman's distinctive overall style, and how it must reflect the artistic sensibility of its day in Eastern Europe. (Interesting observation: the eerie Theremin chords which permeate the scene by the steamboat recall the same device used a few years later on the extraterrestrial sets on "Star Trek.") Zeman's style is said to be an influence on the work of Terry Gilliam (seen most sharply in his "Monty Python" cut-out animation). As far as comparing Gilliam's 1989 version of "Munchausen" to Zeman's, Gilliam's is definitely superior: more hedonistically fantastic, entertaining, and fun. For all of Zeman's craftsmanlike wonders, his version is indeed rickety in comparison, but must be admired for the heights of fantasy it reached with the considerably more limited resources available to him.

fowler1 Zeman's magnum opus is every bit as compelling and otherworldly as the legends indicate. In fact, as I also have FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE & ON THE COMET on tape, take my word for it: PRASIL/MUNCHAUSEN is the Zeman to see if your only seeing one. Given those hallucinatory Gustav Dore-meets- Arthur Rackham visuals, the wildly disjointed narrative and from-hunger post-synched soundtrack actually ADD to the out-of-body experience that is this film. It's like stumbling into somebody else's fever dream. While Zeman's other films generally succumb to a deadly torpor around halfway through, this one is just so jampacked with surreal oddities and unforgettable bizarro setpieces that you're in flabbergasted joy right through to the end. Terry Gilliam (a major Zeman fan) attempted a lavish remake that missed the whole point of this film's one-of-a-kind quality: the sense throughout that this is a handcrafted film, an artisan's project free of studio meddling, brand name stars or big budget elephantiasis. PRASIL's amateurism is its crowning glory. Essential viewing...at least once.

vinniex Unfortunately, I was only able to see the Czech version one time. But it made a lasting impression on me and I've been looking for it ever since but just can't seem to get my hands on it. It's elusive, but well worth searching out. I thought I had it once at a rental store, only to find out it was the 1943 Nazi version and it just didn't capture the surrealism that the 1961 Czech version did. When Terry Gilliam's version came out in 1988, it disappointed in comparison as well.So, if you liked the 1988 remake, you owe it to yourself to see the Czech version - if you can get your hands on it!