"The Firemen’s Ball" (1969)

The party that takes place in The Firemen’s Ball is a disorganized mess. Scarcely any thought or care has been put into it, and ultimately it only appears to exist to present a gift to the aging chairman of the fire brigade, a man who most of the firefighters constantly forget the existence of. But that real purpose is so far from anyone’s mind. There isn’t a whole lot of plot or incident in the film. Milos Forman is more concerned with observation; he’s aiming to capture the rhythms of social gatherings and human foibles. The film gains what little narrative it does from the fire brigades desperate, half-hearted attempts to organize a beauty pageant that they delusionally believe will make up for their lack of effort or concern elsewhere. (Well, that’s not entirely true: there is a raffle, which leads to an amusing running gag where prizes slowly, casually get stolen). The pageant gives the men an excuse to blatantly gawk at significantly under aged females. This might seem exploitative or creepy, but these guys are all so clearly dolts. They’re old, out of shape and smell of desperation, and the girls (of course, not the knock-outs they’d hoped for) are all giggly and excited at getting attention and confused because the event is so informally structure and poorly handled. So much of the humor errs on the side of farce. Characters are selfish and slapstick-ish as they seek their narrow-minded pleasures, but Forman lets the film’s abundant charm ease us into liking and sympathizing with these doddering fools. They might be losers but they’re all too human ones, and delightfully lacking self-awareness ones, at that. The films of the Czech New Wave used effervescent slice of life stories to slyly critique their Soviet betters. Here the fire brigade stands in for the communist government and its failings (The fire brigade can’t even seem to put out a fire right, as so happens in the middle of the party). You don't need to understand that to enjoy the film though; we've all known or been that bumbling fool, and we've often done it in similar company.

Grade: B+