A wonderful looking film, set principally in a wonderful looking house and a decent cast working hard, perhaps too hard to convince of the awfulness of the situation. A suitor arrives at the family home of his young lady and there is no looking back. This is a most depressing film, with absolutely every character unlikeable. I can't recall a film before when I have so taken against the two principals. She wet and manipulative and he rude and stupid, despite his intellectual and scientific abilities. Actually, towards the end when she goes even more crazy (the clue to her change is the Exorcist like spider walk sequence) she becomes a little more endearing, but not that much. The monster in the attic (who thinks he's invisible) is madly overacted but not quite to the point of becoming fun. Relentless and uncompromising it is nevertheless difficult to enjoy.
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christopher-underwood6 March 2015
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hofnarr6 August 2003SPOILERS Although the alternate titles I read given for the Czech PROKLETI DOMU HAJNU were INVISIBLE or THE DAMNED HOUSE OF HAJN, the print I saw had the subtitle UNCLE CYRIL - which is, perhaps, not too unusual as he is the "invisible" man on which much of the story hangs. I am no expert on the Velvet Revolution or other elements of Czech history although I am sure someone who knows these things well might no doubt glean more than just the surface elements of the story.
The visual and aural elements of the film were quite well-wrought and striking: from the eeriness of the shafts of light from the car headlights piercing the fog in the deep blue forest at night; the house lit up from within; maniacal laughter emanating from the house; and the falling shards of glass from a broken window transforming into doves and flying away. A cat's eyes in the dark, stained glass windows, a marble falling down spiral steps, a flower bleeding, a blue painting of Sonya (who is said to have 'bad luck with suitors') by Uncle Cyril - a bit of a departure from most of his more surrealistic efforts - all of these images and more were interesting to observe, although I can't say they made the story all that coherent for me - but since when has art been forced to be coherent?
Uncle Cyril is invisible, explains a relative to Peter - Sonya's current suitor - we pretend not to see him - he was in an institution for 7 months and almost died - "they know nothing about mental illness." Peter and Sonya marry - she carries flowers that bleed, as did other flowers earlier in the film. Inside the house Cyril plays the piano, then he comes to the celebration, later spying at Sonya, naked in her bedroom. Sonya cries out "I never want to be naked again - he wants to be like God, omnipotent, omnipresent, invisible." While other family members claim "He's never hurt anyone" and say "We don't pry into other people's things" Peter questions the family's views on Uncle Cyril "Do you lock up the sane so the insane have more room?!"
Another intriguing quote (perhaps a Czech proverb?) "Better to meet a she-bear than a madman safe in his madness." Whatever Cyril's madness is, it seems to have an adverse effect on Sonya. After Sonya catches Cyril spying on her in a negligee as she brushes her hair, she seems somehow fixated on him; when Peter comes running in response to her screams, she sees Cyril, not Peter. The men in white coats come, and we see an image of bleeding flowers for the 3rd time.
Sonya is pregnant; the paternity of the child is in doubt - Sonja catches Peter in sexual congress with her cousin Katy - the glass marble rolls down the steps again. After Katy's child is born, young Peter is afraid of cats (as was Uncle Cyril).
The film end with a surrealistic painting of a big eye.
What does it mean? I don't know.
But it was definitely an interesting experience - again, had I more historical knowledge, I might have teased more out of it. The most I can say is, when you're invisible, you can't look at yourself in the mirror, and so you can do heinous things with no conscience - that combined with Lord Acton's statement on power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely, may have something to do with the film's theme. -
BandSAboutMovies15 October 2023The Damned House of Hajn is about Sona Hajnova (Petra Vancíkova), who now has all of the money and power of the Hajns, a noble Czechoslovakian family with soap business. She is married to Petr Svejcar (Emil Horváth), who wants to grow in social circles no matter how crazy his new bride's family is. That includes Uncle Cyril (Petr Cepek), who lives in the attic and wants everyone to think he can't be seen, which is hard when he keeps showing up out of every curtain and door while trying to bed his much younger niece, who is married and oh yeah, his niece.
Based on Jaroslav Havlícek's novel Neviditelny, this movie takes place inside a giant mansion that feels like it was made for a Mario Bava movie, filled with mazes of hallways, a spiral staircase and so many places to get scared in.
After the uncle finally gets what he wants - sexual assault with Sona - he and his strange paintings are sent to the sanitarium and she assumes the true place at the head of the family. And that role is someone out of their mind, seeing waking nightmares of sexual encounters with Cyril throughout the never-ending gigantic house she will never leave. Now in love with the ghost of the man who destroyed her life, she even believes that the infant in her womb belongs to him.
There are also very real monsters in this, as the money and power are always for the stealing. Conspiring to murder relatives and the curse being passed to the next generation are just a few of the issues this family will deal with.
This is the type of movie that needs its own genre: Czech gothic noir horror that's a mediation on the impossibility of human happiness.