Morgiana (1972)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Originally planning to watch Karel Kachyna's Long Live the Republic got stopped in their tracks,when the DVD kept jamming up in the player.Since I had planned to watch the movie after seeing Horseman,I decided that it was time to meet Morgiana.The plot:After the sudden death of their dad,sisters Klára and Viktoria attend the reading of the will.Caught completely by surprise, Viktoria discovers that their dad has left most of the riches to Klára.Shortly after the reading of the will, Klára starts to go out with a guy who Viktoria has secretly had her eyes on for ages.Burning with rage,Viktoria picks up their pet cat Morgiana,and starts to tell Morgiana her plans to take from Klára what is rightfully hers.View on the film:Whilst the print does have some noticeable dirt,Second Run still run with a strong transfer which picks up the notes of Lubos Fiser's spidery score with a clarity and also showcases the depth of vision for this Gothic nightmare.Breaking out from the grainy black and white world of The Cremator,co-writer/(along with Vladimír Bor) director Juraj Herz leaps into colour with an infectious energy.Opening with clipped paintings,Herz and cinematographer Jaroslav Kucera crush the screen with vibrant reds and charcoal blacks which under a cloud of mist reveal the Gothic Horror Melodrama that the sisters are entwined in with a delicious richness. Unexpectedly dipping into the psychedelic,Herz shows an amazingly playful side which jumps from an ultra-stylised "light show" and Giallo-style first person tracking shot, (with black gloves!)to reflecting in-camera special effects which highlight the deadly differences between each sister.Getting Alexander Grin's (whose books were banned by the Soviet Union for "not promoting socialism") novel from out of the cave,the screenplay by Bor & Herz cleverly uses the sisters to link the genres that the movie is crossing,as Klara's ordeal keeps the Melodrama bubble away whilst Viktoria's sting makes the Gothic chills strike with a mysterious atmosphere.Making sure that the sisters don't get to keep all the fun to themselves,the writers edge out their Gothic dream with wonderfully quirky sides,from a cat who witnesses everything,to a dashing lover who injects Viktoria with burning eyes of jealousy. Reuniting with Herz after making Oil Lamps a year earlier, Iva Janžurová gives an exquisite performance as Klára & Viktoria.Taking on both roles, Janzurová lavishly gives each sister a distinctive quality,thanks to Janzurová soaking Klára in a care-free mood which is crushed by Viktoria's blistering eyes and twitch of a furious lip,as Viktoria tells her secrets to the pet Morgiana.

Like his somewhat more famous Cremator, Juraj Herz's Morgiana is primarily interesting because of its unique visual style. In Morgiana, Herz uses fisheye lenses generously and he also gets a lot of mileage out of unusual camera angles. These aren't the only things that give the film visual interest, however: each frame is packed full of Gothic details as it's primarily set in a couple of ornate Victorian style mansions. Further, there are several psychedelic point of view shots that indicate a character's hallucinations and some wild pans to represent disorientation. The plot of Morgiana focuses on a pair of sisters, Klara and Viktorie, who each inherit half of their father's large estate. The two sisters are essentially opposite, which is conveyed both by their behavior-Klara is happy and popular while Viktorie is depressed and lonely-and by their looks as Klara wears bright colors while Viktorie wears dark colors. Viktorie becomes jealous of her sister who has the better life and better inheritance and decides to poison her, which causes her to hallucinate and waste away. Meanwhile Viktorie becomes increasingly unable to hide her guilt. There's nothing particularly novel or clever about the plot as is (though Herz reportedly did have a clever twist in mind that he wasn't allowed to film) but the visuals enrich the narrative as well, particularly the way Herz develops different motifs for the different sisters. Overall, Morgiana is a masterpiece that should be especially appealing to fans of The Cremator or other Czech New Wave films such as Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.

This is my favorite film. possibly the most melodramatic films i've seen, the costumes and make up are so over the top that you can barely tell that the two main characters are played by the same actor. The film has so much color in it with all the costumes and gardens but this dark fairytale could almost be considered a film noir. The soundtrack might be it;s only downfall, the music itself is so beautiful and powerful but it plays too big a part in creating an atmosphere, some scenes are downgraded by the overwhelming score. My favorite scene is in the brothel, i've never seen such amazing looking prostitutes! they make me want to buy a caravan and take up witchcraft.as a matter of interest; In the book the two sisters are one character with a multiple personality. Unfortunately Herz was unable to make such a controversial film, so, to stay as close to the original story as possible the two sisters are played by the same woman. This book by Alexander Grin (who starved under Stalin) has not been translated into English as far as i know.

I really enjoyed the opening with the gilt black coffin being lowered into the grave and then the reading of the will to the two sisters (both played by Iva Janzurova'). Following that scene was the opening credit sequence with a montage of somewhat surrealistic paintings of different body parts (eyes were prominent) and geometrical patterns.I rather liked the "Morgiana-cam" (well before David Letterman used the "monkey-cam" on his late-night show) and it was very effective seeing from the cat's P.O.V. - I wish it could have been used more, and perhaps more effectively the few other times it was used.I was trying to pay particular attention to the two sister's being played by one actress, noticing the various technical devices used. There were a couple times I was pulled into the story that my attention to this slipped - one time that Victoria slapped Clara I didn't quite see how it was done. The other special effect that was interesting was the use of overlapping shimmering shadings of blue and red, used to indicate the effect the poison was having on Clara.The basic story line is that of two sisters whose father has died with the older & less-liked sister attempting to do away with the younger to get all of the estate. Victoria's cruel streak is shown not only by her poisoning her sister; she also holds Morgiana the cat up to a birdcage and puts poison in the water for a dog in the household - you'd think she might worry about her cat - the one creature she appears to have a liking for - besides herself, anyway, but perhaps knowing cats have "nine lives" is enough for Vicky to know, at least in the present.The doctor brought in to treat Clara seems to be a bit of a buffoon, telling her to "read a novel or something and take the quinine and watch your diet."Victoria begins to get blackmailed by the woman who sold her the poison and Clara gets an anonymous letter telling her of the poisoning - the story spools out from these events, but I can't say anything more without getting into spoilers. I wasn't entirely pleased with the ending - I thought it might have been more inventive, but it did point up a little foreshadowing that I'd missed earlier in the film.I really did like the painted images before the opening credits, though . ..