I Served The King of England

Directed By Jiří Menzel

Film review by Max Burke

Director Jiří Menzel is one of the greatest living Czech directors and has been a major presence on the international film scene since his seminal 1968 release Closely Watched Trains. I Served The King of England is the latest film from the now 70-year-old director. It is the story of  Jan Dítě, a diminutive man who is able to exploit the turbulent changes in Czech society throughout the first half of the 20th Century in order to remain rich and powerful, always just one step ahead of the political climate and his potential rivals. As Dítě progresses up the ladder from one service industry job to the next, working first at a small-town pub, then a luxurious hotel and, finally, a gourmet restaurant in Prague he displays an uncanny ability, despite his small stature and generally reserved nature, to take advantage of his situation, whether it is by cultivating intimate relationships with his superiors or utilizing his playful sense of sexuality to seduce the women around him.

I Served The King of England is a potent history of major turning events in 20th Century Europe such as World War II and the rise of communism as told through a quirky, amusing character whose ability to ingratiate himself among the power players in each passing regime is as much fantasy as historical fact. Menzel has an ironic perspective on the trials and tribulations of Czech society, and this is channeled into the personality of the main character,  Dítě. Using an eccentric outsider as a cipher to form a critique of history is not an original conceit and I Served The King of England often brought to mind Volker Schlöndorff's masterwork of the style, The Tin Drum. However, I Served The King of England is a much less sober affair, and Menzel allows the absurdity of certain situations to realize their full comic potential, as in a memorable scene where  Dítě beds his new bride, an incredibly naive Nazi zealot, while she stares, transfixed, at a portrait of Hitler on the wall.

It is moments like these, as well as the infrequent but pointed use of computer graphics to portray fantastical situations, that gives the film a light tone despite the heavy subject matter. I Served The King of England is not a self-serious epic, but an intimate film that celebrates the simple pleasures that allow people to escape from the horrors of their every day lives. Menzel lingers on shots of beautiful women, delicious food, beautiful art, and cold hard cash. Perhaps some will see in the film a critique of capitalism, or of totalitarian regimes generally. For this reviewer, however, the film simply celebrated the spirit of those who survive and even manage to find joy in life during the worst circumstances. I Served The King of England is  an enjoyable, oftentimes hilarious chronicle of a unique life in turbulent times.