Watch Autumn Spring For Free

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Admirable film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I am neither an avid movie fan nor an accomplished review contributor but felt compelled to relate the exuberance I felt when I first saw this film. I have repeated the experience and still remain enthralled. I really felt that it was a documentary - a real life expose rather than a dramatized film. The music is absolutely delightful and I am trying to ascertain how I might learn the title and obtain a copy - it lingers and frankly haunts me a little. The entire experience was so rewarding that I fear I will judge all other movies I and tempted to view by this standard. The hero is not really a comedian but someone who has made a judgment about his behavior - deciding that in his old age he will be himself. His character is such that he does not take life seriously and that might be interpreted as comic however that is not his intention it seems. His long-suffering wife does make an attempt to rectify what she sees as the error of his ways but, in the end, he is a hero because whilst conceding slightly, he has the courage of his convictions.

Shakespeare's famous line, "I have liv'd long enough. My way of life. Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf" does not hold water here in this film. Vladimír Michálek pokes fun at, & at the same time offers a shoulder to rest heads on to, those who are counting their last days because, as the saying goes, their days are numbered.Frantisek Hána (Fanda), who is just a few paces away from his grave, thumps his nose at old age and lives life king size; at one place he says, 'old men should be rich and respectable.' Being in the autumn of his life his spring does not fade; rather it's the spring that's mightier. If Fanda is the obverse of the coin called life, then Emílie Hánová is the reverse of it. She's all autumn: and she even tries to make her autumn (death) grand and peaceful. She stashes away money for their funerals; reads various dead person's epitaphs and even, rather hilariously, copies them; she also books a place where their graves would be; she desires herself and pesters Fanda to shift to an old-age home before death. Emilie, a woman rather obsessed than sad and afraid of death, through her small, almost blink-and-you-miss, acts in the film has painted a picture of the intensity of a soul to live every moment of one's life. it's just that her intensity to live has overgrown and surpassed towards death itself. Hence, she wants to die a peaceful death and even stay there peacefully.For Fanda death may be the ultimate upshot, but why whine and pine for it? His gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may attitude towards life jars Emilie's preordained plans. He plays pranks with unknown people and wines and dines in posh restaurants; squanders Emilie's hard-saved money in whimsical trifles; pretends to be a ticket collector or a well-off personality looking for a mansion and so on. The man may be a jumping light of happiness, yet he does not desert them who are not: he often helps people in need with money, though he has none. The way he looks at life becomes a dish to savour and hang on with till the last breath. Jiri Hubac has touched upon the pathos of old age and the outright resignation of such traditional pathos of a man when his last days can be counted on his fingers.A subtly dark, but hilarious, humour plays upon the various strings that transform the film into a musical unison of life and its counterpart - death. The film celebrates and undoes before the viewers the various themes of marriage, friendship, life, death and how they work in consonance with everything that meets the eye. The carpe-diem motif signified by Fanda wins over Emilie's pessimism. She spends most of her savings in the end only to enjoy, and more precisely, to live a moment in her life with Fanda before the Reaper wields his sickle.Ed (Stanislav Zindulka) remains as a living image of friendship and a perfect companion and a sweet accomplice of Fanda in good and mischievous deeds. Ed's death at last tells upon Fanda which signifies the approach of autumn, though spring never fades in this movie - only changes colours at times which seem like autumn.Jara (Ondrej Vetchy), the prying and covetous vulture that he is, tries every opportunity to make his parents' life miserable. He spreads a shroud over the eyes of Emilie which she later clears off. He fails to do anything to Fanda - a master of and in his own terms.

The title of the film seems quite appropriate given the persona of the lead character, Fanda. He's an older man living in the late autumn of his life, yet frolics about as a jubilant school boy who's just entered a spring meadow. The frailties of old age and the warning signs of death are all illusions to him. His wife supports this idea when she observes, "Fanda laughs at funerals and death." In other words, death is not something Fanda takes too seriously; he has more important things to do than worry about what already is inevitable. Life, however, and the pursuit of living life to its fullest, is the philosophy that governs Fanda's existence. He is not one to merely exist, but must live for each day and each passing moment, for tomorrow is not guaranteed. The film seems to make a strong commentary about living as though there is no tomorrow, let alone death. Too many people take life much too seriously and consequently miss out on the actual living part of life. Fanda's wife for example; she's so worried about preparing for death, not in some religiously connotative way, but in a far too practical, even lifeless way that she forgets how to smile, laugh and just have a good time. Her humanity seems to have transformed into zombie auto-pilot mode. Fanda, to the contrary, is perhaps too blithe and absent-minded for his own good. He needs a person like his wife, Emilie, to help balance him. It's as though Fanda possesses the invincible spirit of a child, like a kid trapped in an older man's body. He is introduced as the adventurous type; he pretends to be people he's not in order to get gain, squanders money, factiously lies and is always up for a good laugh. Deep-down, though, he is a kind-hearted and gentle old man who wishes to be submissive to his overly pragmatic wife. The two off-set each other quite nicely, though neither one of them truly appreciates the binary quality of their relationship until they metaphorically chance upon death: meaning, their divorce. It is during this courtroom scene that Fanda realizes the reality of death and what it means if he is separated from his only love. His wife emotionally recalls all of his flaws, yet is tenderly drawn to continue to love him despite his crazy behavior. In this moment of her forgiving him, Fanda realizes his selfish behavior of driving his wife bonkers and makes an internal commitment to make her happy. Ironically, though, after making this commitment he becomes what his wife later calls, "a living corpse." The life-blood within him drains away as he becomes more like her—a zombie going through day-to-day motions. He doesn't seem to live anymore, but exist. For example, he gives up his zany pranks, doesn't squander money, quits smoking on account of his wife (not his health), and overall, just acquiesces to whatever she wants of him. Succinctly put, he changes on account of wanting to make her happy. Thus, the binary quality of their relationship begins to slowly vanish. Realizing that her husband is not who he used to be, there is a part of Emilie that misses the old Fanda. She misses her husband's aloofness and the fights they used to have, because it was in those moments that they were truly living, not just simply existing. I believe the filmmakers were trying to get across a specific message here; that true and loving relationships will not always be easy or convenient, but often times will take sacrifice and endurance to wade through the seemingly bad times. The possibility of death at any moment is what reminds people to live for every moment. Life is often taken for granted, but when threatened with death—be it literal or figurative—people awake from their ungrateful slumbers and are aroused to start living life to its fullest. It's as though they are scared that they'll never live again, so they better make the most of it while they have it. Fanda and Emilie had been married 44 years with fights along the way, but it wasn't till they were both threatened with the possibility of death-like-separation that they began to show their true colors. As the old maxim goes, "Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." They both begin to see what matters most in life and that is the people they meet along the way. More importantly, the intimate relationships they make with their significant others.

As a Czech I am very pleased when I read these comments here. I am absolutely sure that this film is great. And what you maybe don't know is that story was specially written for Mr. Brodský. The man you can see is him and his typical attitude - to live and to resist death. He was one of great actors and we are very lucky that we he has made so many beautiful films during his life. You are lucky you could see at least one of them. Enjoy.