“Frantisek Vlacil’s atmospheric, symbol-charged medieval epic is a wide-screen black-and-white feast for the eyes.”

—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

One of the crowning achievements of Czech cinema is this epic celluloid hallucination of savagery and mysticism in the Middle Ages. Centered around a violent feud between two 13th-century pagan clans, Marketa Lazarova is a riddle that’s not to be cracked (at least not on first viewing). Featuring a hypnotic dreamscape—hooded figures wandering through stark, barren landscapes and black wolves prowling virgin snow—and set to a thunderous, primordial soundtrack of clanging bells and liturgical chanting, the film’s lustrous, monochrome ’Scope cinematography gleams anew in this freshly struck 35mm print.

You can get it on Netflix, I think, and on Amazon. I saw it at a special BAM screening last spring and it was amazing. It reminded me of The Seventh Seal but it was also a very different movie. I highly recommend it!

A Janus Films release.