‘We Have Never Been Modern’ Review: Czech Drama Looks at Sexuality Through the Lens of 1937
thewrap.comThe spectrum of gender and sexuality may seem to be a subject firmly rooted in the political and cultural squabbles of 2023, but Czech director Matej Chlupacek has chosen to look at it through the lens of 1937 in “We Have Never Been Modern,” an affecting drama that both relies on and transcends its period setting.Set in the old Czechoslovakia (a fitting setting for a rare Czech and Slovak co-production) just prior to World War II, the film opened the Crystal Globe competition section of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Friday.
Titled “Úsvit” in Czech but borrowing its English title from Bruno Latour’s 1991 cultural study, the film uses its prewar setting to add resonance to a portrait of a society trying to transform itself even as a large and destructive transformation looms just out of sight.
At the same time, it deals with issues of sexuality, and panic over sexuality, that couldn’t be much more current.An expensive production shot in 35mm by a director still in his 20s, it is a bold work that gets a sense of urgency from the luminous central performance by Czech actress Eliška Křenková as a young woman surrounded by powerful men who have no use for empathy or nuance when they’ve got a company to build and strings to pull.Křenková plays Helena, who at the beginning of the film is very pregnant as she sits at a fancy dinner watching a female choir sing, smiling gamely through tears.
She tells her husband (Miroslav König) that he needs to call the doctor as we see water running down her leg and pooling under her chair – but before he has a chance to do that, the film jumps back in time about a week to give us the backstory.It turns out that Helena’s husband, Alois, is the director of a factory in the Czechoslovakian.
