PLEASANT MOMENTS

The grande dame of the Czechoslovakian “New Wave”, who came to fame with SEDMIKRÁSKY / DAISIES (1966), presents a kaleidoscopic survey of the dilemmas of modern existence. Busy is not the word for Hanna’s psychological practice in Prague: she is snowed under with patients. The whole city, it would seem, is in need of therapy. As women and men of all ages recount their minor and major problems on Hanna’s couch, the viewer receives direct insight into their everyday lives. There’s the young mother whose partner brutally beats her for trifling reasons; the elderly couple not able to live together nor apart, waging a subtle war of attrition; the wealthy art historian anxious about her grown-up son who shows laudable social engagement but refuses to embark upon a promising course of study. As if not confronted with enough neuroses and quirks in her professional life, Hanna must also stave off the humiliations imposed by her domineering mother as well as endure her frustrated husband’s petty jealousy. His outbursts are not totally unfounded, however, for his attractive wife does not lack admirers – from the total stranger who gives her flowers in a parking lot to the patient’s son who is pursuing her. Not to mention Dub, an old charmer who may or may not be the film star he so closely resembles. He, too, is obsessed with Hanna. The only question is whether the psychologist, surrounded by this quagmire of tragic, comic and absurd destinies, can hold onto her own sanity... German premiere