Firemen’s Ball - SABOTAGING SOCIALIST REALISM By Milos Forman

Restored classics often come with an intimidating dose of self-importance and grandeur; Milos Forman’s 1967 feature on the contrary stands out for its unassuming genius and timely spirit. Without holding forth grand theories on civil liberties or democratic living the film exposes the encumbering rigidity of Real Socialism by exasperating its absurd and farcical aspects. The annual ball of a provincial fire station becomes a surrealist canvas where the director affectionately observes social tics and amusing conducts.

A clumsy crew of fire-fighters tries to orchestrate the annual ball but every single detail escapes their awkward attempt to stage the enforced mockery of communist orthodoxy. Inelegant uniforms chasing the spell of feminine Eros trying to bridle its uncontrollable attraction in a pathetic beauty contest, that will in fact degenerate in a joyful mayhem. The ideological institution of marriage betrayed under a table, lottery prizes disappearing as the elderly chief of the firehouse, in whose honour the ball is held, waits in vain for his turn to get under the spotlight. Not even the call of duty ignited by a fire next door manages to coalesce the mutinous ball around an ordered semblance; people leave without paying as the situation grows funnier and more ungovernable. The beauty contest turns into a wild race of desire and confusion, the honorary prize to be awarded to the senior fire fighter gets lost; chaos seduces order. Parading on the screen is the unruly authenticity of life exceeding its planned course; it is the instinctual hilarity of a spontaneous humanity colliding with the existential austerity of Five-Year plans.

The heartfelt proximity between the director and its subjects conveys the vivid sense of life under an obtuse regime and the incompatibility of impulses with behavioural control. Forman’s eye captures a universal condition and its anarchic essence transcends geographical borders and historical conditions, The Firemen’s Ball celebrates the unrehearsed drifts of daily situations. It is the intrinsic comicality of indoctrination that denounces the stern regime rather than verbose declarations about freedom of speech and other democratic illusions. It is in fact significant that Forman’s work in the US will rarely boast quite the same creative irreverence, as if the awareness of unfreedom was more stimulating than the statuary illusion of liberty.

One wonders how, if ever, would the equivalent of this artistic line of fire blaze up in the colourful world of consumer fundamentalism.

By Celluloid Liberation Front