Audition (1964) User Reviews (5)

Enjoyable Czechoslovakian New Wave

[tatsii · 7/10 · 6 December 2012]

11 years before making the masterpiece One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in Hollywood, Milos Forman lived still in the Czechoslovakia making Audition in 1963, a movie that launched what became known as the Czech New Wave. The movie was originally made as to two shorts, but released as one film. The style is something between the Italian neorealism and the French nouvelle vague, and in this movie you can certainly see those influences. There is no big storyline, actors are amateurs and the style is very documentary.

The film is all about little things in life we might all have come across: a girl who has a bit of a stage fright, another girl who dreams to get a job from a theater, a boy who's too lazy to get himself regularly to the rehearsal of the local wind band. These things do not create any big drama into the movie, but when combined with the documentary style, they bring a great feeling of life into the screen. And that is maybe the best thing films can offer. This is also my answer to all of those people who dislike movies without a clear plot (and might dislike new wave films).

Audition is an interesting peak into the film of Czechoslovakia in the 60's. Although it doesn't leave you with a big "WOW!", it is still a very enjoyable film.

Talent Competition Audition.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 20 February 2018]

Recently seeing the dazzlingly stylish French New Wave film The Girl with the Golden Eyes,I felt that it was the perfect time to see a Czech New Wave creation. Only having seen the very good The Loves of a Blonde from Milos Forman's Czech era,I got set to see his first audition to feature films.

The outline of the doc:

Preparing to compete in a orchestra completion nationally,an orchestra find the youngest member to be less than thrilled about performing in the group. Meanwhile, a number of teenagers get ready to perform Rock songs for a talent audition.

View on the doc:

Casting the opening credits against the worn-down backdrop of an industrial city,co-writer/(with Ivan Passer) director Milos Forman & cinematographer Miroslav Ondrícek compose a score to the incoming Czech New Wave (CNW),with flickering whip-pans across the crowds dancing to the rebellious youthful energy of the CNW. Linking two separate docs together, the "screenplay" by Forman and Passer does very well at expressing the generational exchange of music,as the dedication the experienced musicians show towards perfecting their performance of classical pieces,is matched by the giddy high-kicking Rock and Roll performers that include Forman's future second wife Vera Kresadlová,whose singing gives the CNW its first anthem.

wonderful music is a background for passions

[Don Guan · 8/10 · 12 December 1998]

I like the films directed by Milos Forman.This picture is not an exception.It is considered by me to be more an amateur movie than a professional one but it does not mean any negative.The researched theme is really interesting : the different kinds of competition, rivals, all the "great expectations" tied with awaiting of prices.The vocal competition lets us see who is really talent and who is simply singing songs, making the different sounds.If you like czech rock'n'roll , twist you will be completely satisfied. After having seen "Konkurs" we can not wait anything else except "Hair".To my mind these two films are to be seen together.

Another bastard of the 60's new wave

[lefaikone · 12 March 2009]

Miloš is a great director, and I have a lot of respect for him. Now that that has been said, I must say that this movie was a big disappointment to me.

I've never understood the whole new wave concept... I don't care if it's Godard or Miloš or whoever, for me it seems just pointless. This movie has all the typical new wave aspects: an almost non-existent storyline, which evolves slowly enough to make Ozu's movies look like damn express trains, the whole point of the movie (describing the common life of amateur musicians with more ambition than skill) is an interesting one, but to me the handling of the subject was just way too shallow (especially when taking to consideration Forman's cinematic abilities).

So all in all, the movie had some highlights that kept me interested for the first 30 minutes or so, but after that, when I realized that the storyline wasn't going to evolve anywhere from there, I simply decided not to waste any more of my time with this.

My first Czech language Forman

[Morten_5 · 7/10 · 24 December 2018]

"Talent Competition" is the 1st feature-length movie directed by Czech film legend Milos Forman. It is a sort of music documentary & consists of two parts. Being my 1st Czech language Forman, I didn't know what to expect but I liked it.