The Joke is a film based on the Milan Kundera novel with the same title and the screen play is co-written by Kundera and Jires. Another example of the Czech New Wave in film, The Joke was oppressed soon after its release in '69 after the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia.
Central to the plot is Jahn's sardonic joke denouncing political enthusiasm and optimism. The scenes weave in and out of the present breaking up the continuity of time. Flashbacks of Jahn's interrogation or his futile relationship with Margarette demonstrate the reverse shot techniques, and, in effect, blend the past with the present. At one point during his interrogation, Jahn is questioned by an official and we see that his former friends have abandoned him. When asked a question we see Jahn replying but we cannot hear his voice. Rather, we hear a voice over of the present Jahn translating his perspective both then and now giving the effect of past and presence co-existing.
Throughout the film, we hear folk songs playing and sung during a political rally. Here, Jires is again demonstrating the collapse of time. The celebratory folk apparel and music adds a cheerful nostalgic element from previous generations to the perpetual nascent urgency of political movements. These two positive strands reach through time to create a sense of eternally reoccurring happiness inherent in the participating groups of people. The past was great, so is now, and if we keep up, the future will look that way too.
By contrast, Jahn explodes the delusion of persistent sunniness with a line of dark humour. Of course in a strict regime, there is no room for mocking honesty and Jahn is tagged criminal as far as his friends, his object for affection (or sexuality), and the government is concerned. There is the critique of voting because rather than agreeing to the terms of the ballet, Jahn expresses his own perspective but is convicted for it. As a result, he looses ties with all of his relationships and is expelled from school.
His dark plot carries on, interrupted with flashbacks of the harsh sequence at the mines. His colleagues work beyond their strengths in order to keep up with the superintendent's orders. He then spends his adulthood with hopes of revenging the injustice that has plagued his life. Over and over we see the dark undersides, with the story of Jahn, lining up with the positive aspects of the socio-political context. The film sets us up to despise the unfair circumstances as much as Jahn does but we pull away when he lies to Helena and kills her young lover. The film consequently achieves nothing. It does not position itself other than to perhaps highlight the futility of Jahn once the irony pulls us away from the sympathy we wanted to feel for him.
The twisted plot exemplifies the break from traditional plot structures that the Czech New Wave film makers championed. Rather than providing the audience with a sense of release, we can only dwell on the baffling action and conclusion. Did Jahn lie to Helena out of his spite for womankind? Who did he mean to beat if not the young boy? Perhaps his revenge had been at some time directed towards the selfish collectivity of the men from his school, who sacrificed their friendship on the premise that they might be convicted for agreeing with Jahn's non-conformist views. Then over time the object of his hatred replaced by another happy cosmetic, was misdirected towards the young boy who was involved with the wrong woman and the wrong time. My distaste for the conclusion of this film is in part because I realized the joke was actually on me for anticipating a boring resolution for the cynical smart-ass, like killing him off like the fate of Wajda's sexy Maciek or even the legendary Prince Hamlet.
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