Stiny Horkeho Leta (Shadows Of A Hot Summer)

Our old friend Frantisek Vlacil, in 1978, one of his final films. Also, one of his best.
We have some good identification with our central character, and we have fascinating themes of just how much one can take ('Hana-Bi' as the master of this theme, but we have a slightly different angle in this good but lesser film). The use of early scenes to build this theme, and the reaction of the character of the son, initially angry and confused, then finding out he is weak and accepting, is a fascinating dialectic. The ending is of course overheated, if still very interesting theoretically, with one rather major plot hole that we'll let Vlacil get away with. The plot generally is interesting and not taken as secondary; Vlacil has learnt how to tell a good stroy, and it is genuinely tense as we build up.
Formally it is a good even mixture of Vlacil's more usual shots with some nice wide ones of the hot, hot summer. He shoots the action well in a deadpan manner. The rather jarring jabs when quick moments of shots and jolts occur is still rather dated, but less so than in some of Vlacil's earlier works.
Vlacil, in his later work, seems to have focussed more on narrative. He learns to build up tensions but getting nicely inexpressive smouldering out of his actors, and does not have the formal trickery in so far as huge faces and psychoanalytic 'complexity' that could make his earlier work grate slightly.
An interesting director, one of his better films, recommended of one has enjoyed any other pieces of Vlacil's work.