I Served the King of England (2006).  Directed by Jiři Menzel.

Choreography

Reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s physical comedy in restaurant settings, protagonist, Jan Dite performs several solo “dances” in the film.  In one of the first scenes in the pub, he adroitly swings a tray of nearly overflowing beer steins above the heads of the customers.  The camera follows Jan as he makes his way between the fully occupied tables.  There is a striking beauty to the way he spins and dances among the pub patrons, depositing the frothing steins at each table and then picking up emptied ones with an almost choreographed grace.  In the midst of his dance, Jan pauses at a table in which two men are engaged in a heated game of chess; within a moment of examining the board, he whispers where a piece should be moved and the game ends in checkmate.  While he serves, the voice of the older Jan can be heard narrating the scene, talking about how Jan came from a small village and now felt like he was in “the big world” serving a “select society.” This scene provides the audience with insight into Jan’s early impressions of the rich and the way that rich men were able to spend their time merrily drinking and gawking at women. The style and elegance with which Jan serves is a direct result of his feeling more dignified simply by being around these men. His performance as a waiter, a server, highlights his balance, posture, and poise and creates the impression that service work can be a kind of performing art.

In addition to solo performances by Jan, director Jiři Menzel orchestrates entire “chorus numbers.”  At the Tichota Hotel, the boss strolls around in an automated wheelchair making sure everything is exactly where it needs to be.  He blows a whistle and fast paced “Tom and Jerry” chase type music ensues. The waiters and the girls all run to their respective places. The girls sit on the couches and chairs with their legs perfectly crossed and fix their hair in the mirrors. The waiters all line up with their bow ties straight and their hands behind their backs. It is chaos followed by excellence, as symbolized by the fast paced music and silence respectively.  Jan’s voiceover tells us that this sequence “was like an orchestration.”   Here Menzel uses the “chorus number” to shine the spotlight once more on service workers. It shows the perfection they must create to be the best and the orders they must follow so they can perform at superlative levels for their customers. At the same time, this “number” portrays the harsh reality of management’s control and labor’s exploitation.  The playful music accompanying the cavorting female prostitutes highlights the irony underlying this performance.  As beautiful as their actions may seem, their service work is no game.

Another “number” illustrates Jan’s story of how he received a medal from the Emperor of Ethiopia while serving at a gala dinner in the Hotel Paris. The magnitude of the event is demonstrated by the phalanx of waiters needed to serve all the guests at the large table. While serving the guests, all the waiters were perfectly syncopated.  All the wine is poured for the guests at the exact same time; we only see the arms of the waiters. This choice of camera placement emphasize choreography and discipline as elements of the wait staff’s art. In fact, the praise of such services is visibly bestowed upon Dite in the form of a medal.  This scene also reveals the buffoonishness of pre­war European capitalists.  Compared to the presumably wealthy Ethiopian entourage, the capitalists seem savage. They fetishize food and opulence and begin dancing uncontrollably while eating food as upbeat music plays in the background. The Ethiopians seem to have more in common with the wait staff, as they are stoic, precise, and watchful. The juxtaposition of the Ethiopians and the Czechs creates a critique of interwar capitalism and criticizes the rich and empowered for their crass self-indulgence. 

II. German Representation Before and During the War

The Nazi Germans were depicted unapologetically in this film as absurd fools. They create a reproduction spa to pass on the genes of their “perfect race”; they derive sexual pleasure from Adolf Hitler’s image; and they are convinced that anyone who is not German is inherently subhuman. They are depicted largely from the outside looking in, and their ludicrous ideas and beliefs are mocked throughout the film with Menzel’s sharp satire and sarcasm. The occupying Germans are represented as zombie-like cult followers, proud of who they are.  This depiction is emphasized through the character of Lisa.  Lisa, Dite’s German romantic interest, is portrayed as a true believer in Nazi propaganda.  Menzel intended to present Lisa’s viewpoint as representative of the general German viewpoint regarding Czechoslovakia.

In one scene, Dite and Lisa are walking on a bridge over a body of water, and Lisa is walking on the higher ledge and continuously looking down at Dite while lecturing him about the importance of pure German blood. She continues to lecture him on how it is not good to mix races because the superior Aryan race would become weaker. Meanwhile, Dite looks uneasy, unable to decide whether to walk behind her on the ledge at equal level or to drop down beside her and look up. He switches between the two positions several times, as Lisa never leaves her higher perch.  Lisa accentuates the Germans’ feeling of superiority by walking on the higher part of the sidewalk.

Lisa’s brainwashing is also clearly on display when she and Jan are having sex after their wedding.  One of the reasons why Menzel was able to make this scene particularly effective is because of the various camera angles used and perspectives shown.  We see both Dite’s perspective (who is thrilled that he is finally making love to someone who loves him and is not a prostitute), and Lisa’s (who is motivated to engage in sex because of Hitler and his Aryan Supremacy Theory).  Lisa is robotic and takes off Dite’s clothes without talking or showing any signs of affection.  She lifts her dress and places Dite in position.  During this scene, Lisa never takes her eyes off of the portrait of Hitler on the wall opposite her.  In fact, Lisa repeatedly pushes Jan’s head to the side in order to stare at the portrait of Hitler on the wall.  Rather than looking into the eyes of her lover as he attempts to impregnate her with a child of “pure blood,” she stares instead into the eyes of the portrait of Chancellor Hitler.  She touches herself as she fantasizes of “bear[ing] the new leader of Europe” to the sounds of Wagner being played on the phonograph.  It is as if Lisa is having sex with Hitler and not Dite.  Her face even morphs into Hitler’s face towards the end of the scene.  The camera work and transformation of Lisa’s face in the scene demonstrate how the Nazi occupation and laws had transformed their love into a service partnership.

The repurposing of Hotel Tichota from a brothel into an Aryan breeding facility mirrors the repurposing of sexuality from playful to mechanically purposeful with the advent of the Reich. Immaculate naked blonde women prance on the lawn, ready to be impregnated by the scientifically “fit” sperm of German soldiers.  Echoing the previous scene of the prostitutes and businessmen slipping blissfully into the hallway doors, the doors now close in eerily sharp and regimented slams, emphasizing the clinical nature of an ironically unscientific, unjust breeding methodology.  These scenes reinforce the film’s ridicule and condemnation of Nazi attempts to purify society with the propagation of an Aryan race.

Towards the end of the war, the Hotel Tichota has been transformed into a rehabilitation center, and the Germans are now represented as weak, injured, and childlike. The pool that was once reserved for naked blonde women at the Nazi reproduction center is now filled with soldier amputees flailing around in the pool like children. They are completely naked and battered – weak and vulnerable men who have suffered mightily during the war. When the camera turns to the band, we see that what used to be a trio of naked women playing instruments is now replaced with three disabled men, one of whom is blind. Such scenes draw a sharp contrast between the aggressive occupiers at the war’s beginning and weak and wounded Germans who foreshadow their defeat.

Blog edited by Cody Leović, Emily Pearlman, and Molly Rosenstein