The White Dove

I started my Czech cinema adventure with the film The White Dove. From what I’ve read, this film was the start of the Czech new wave movement. The White Dove follows the story of a stray, wounded, white dove found and nursed back to health by a young boy.

            Before getting into the whole symbolism and message, I want to talk about technique. So, apparently there isn’t a list of concrete characteristics to look for in Czech New Wave. However, the films tend to be about social issues. I actually want to push that a step farther and say that the films from this era are refreshing realistic. Maybe not realistic in the actual stories that are being told, but as far as the way things fall into place, Czech cinema seems to have a sad but realistic way of viewing everyday issues. The objective of Czech New Wave is “to make the Czech people collectively aware that they were participants in a system of oppression and incompetence which had brutalized them all.” That being said, I think that instead of using “film as a tool” or calling people to act; these filmmakers are merely asking people to live and to live in the manner that they deserve.

            OK- The White Dove was done by Frantisek Vlacil in 1960. It’s in black and white. The dialogue is very minimal, which is a choice that I’ve always been a fan of. I am so glad that I started my Czech adventure with this film because it is this weird, slightly off, dark fun house of images. I’ve never seen a filmmaker use mirrors as beautifully as in this film. You know what, it’s not just mirrors. The amount of materials that are used to film through is insane. With every shot I’m left sitting here like… did you see that? It’s just so creative.  There’s a huge amount of geometric shapes going on as well. These two aspects combined add up to create this extremely clean and planned out yet beautiful film.

            Honestly, I’ve had issues with wanting to be a filmmaker because of the way my brain works. I think in a very black and white, very precise way rather than free flowing, imperfect manner. I’m still creative, but I want to make sure that my creativity is planned out…down to every detail. To be quite honest, this might be one reason I don’t like French film. I really don’t know enough about French film to go into detail; however, for me, there’s just this very pretentious feel about the whole imperfect movement. Honestly, if you’re going to go to the streets and make “imperfect” or scrappy film, then do it without cutting down proper films. Both are beautiful and useful in their own way. The reason for even bringing this up is because I discovered that French New Wave and Czech New Wave actually have some kind of beef going on, which made me pretty happy. Jean Luc Godard hated Vera Chytilova’s films and stated that they were “cartoonish and apolitical”. He went on to describe Czech cinema as “too bourgeois”. Ok, let me just say that when you state that something is being “too bourgeois”, it probably means that YOU are being bourgeois. It’s like starting a sentence with, “I’m not trying to be condescending but…”. Yes you are. And I completely understand that the word “bourgeois” is pretty abstract to us nowadays, which in contrast it was an actual class status back then. But even so, that just rubs me the wrong way.

            So here we are, getting back to this movie. And you’re left thinking, why is she bitchingabout other film movements? Well, it’s because I’m trying to explain howbeautiful this very precise and very detailed film is. There are multiple shotswhere the audience can’t decipher between the actual actor and their reflectionor multiple reflections. Vlacil utilizes not just mirrors but natural reflections as well to make this mind trick evenmore intense. There are shots where the entire screen is filled with water andyet there’s a young girl walking across it disrupting her perfect mirror image.You have this amazing contrast between this very naturalistic dreamlike world and this very geometric harsh world. The natural settings are telling the story of a young girl named Susan who is the actual owner of this white dove. The harsh more realistic setting is the world of the little boy Michael who finds the wounded dove. 

     If you move past the aesthetics and get into symbolism, it's pretty easy to detect that this wounded dove is representing freedom. Other than health issues, the dove's main enemy is a black cat. Appropriately, this cat's name is Satan. Michael, the young boy nursing this dove back to health, is in a wheelchair; however, not because he's crippled but because he chooses to be. As he helps the dove, he too starts to let go of his fears and is able to walk and play again. This for sure is a nod to not just social issue but also the objective of the Czech New Wave.