Marketa Lazarova/Dvd, Criterion Collection, DVD

In it's home country, Frantisek Vlacil's MARKETA LAZAROVA has been hailed as the greatest Czech film ever made; for many U.S. viewers, it will be a revelation. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vancura, this stirring and poetic depiction of a feud between two rival medieval clans is a fierce, epic, and meticulously designed evocation of the clashes between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence. Vlacils approach was to re-create the textures and mentalities of a long-ago way of life, rather than to make a conventional historical drama, and the result is dazzling. With it's inventive widescreen cinematography, editing, and sound design, MARKETA LAZAROVA is an experimental action film.