A showcase for [director Milos] Forman's unique talents.

| Jan 24, 2020

In the microcosm of the ball, there are no bad intentions, just ideas of grandeur that fall sweetly short.

| Oct 9, 2019

The film is shot through with the darkest of Czech humor-everyone, from the committee to the people to the landscape itself is the butt of a joke, representative of petty rivalries, drunken idiocy, and smug leadership that cannot lead.

| Oct 11, 2018

Although the film is enormously engaging, its humour is by no means all comfortable; nor is it meant to be.

| Jul 14, 2018

In 1967, the year before Soviet tanks rampaged through Czechoslovakia, the Czech director Milos Forman subtly, scathingly used the premise of a quaint provincial party to mock the Party.

| Sep 18, 2017

I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard that I cried, but I did for The Firemen's Ball, and more than once.

| Original Score: 89/100 | Feb 11, 2015

A socio-political satire that thrums with warmth and spontaneity, yet so enraged Communist authorities it was banned.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 19, 2014

Begins as a gently mocking comedy of small-town manners, but ends as a blazing allegorical satire on the incompetence, insularity and ideological idiocy of the country's rulers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 19, 2014

With Loves of a Blonde, it's the best work Forman's done, rooted in a social reality that has eluded him in his American projects.

| Sep 19, 2014

This ingratiating farce is perhaps the last noteworthy film of the Czech renaissance before the political crackdown forced most filmmakers, director Forman and co-screenwriter Passer included, into exile.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 19, 2014

A delicious parody-fable of Slavic bureaucracy.

| Sep 19, 2014

Milos Forman and his co-writers knew they were making a dangerous movie.

| Original Score: A+ | Nov 3, 2012

Quietly, irresistibly funny in the early Forman manner (this was his first film in colour); but the belated switch to allegorical satire seems altogether too sour in the context.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2011

The Party, the People, and the flames that won't be extinguished

| Jun 4, 2011

The last film of Czech Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)before leaving his country for the U.S. was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 31, 2011

A lively but gross satire by Czech writer-director Milos Forman.

| Original Score: B | Nov 22, 2009

Forman has cannily used a bevy of non-actors to flesh out a practically plotless vehicle, a lively, brimming comedy on human conduct and smalltown life.

| Mar 26, 2009

The nonprofessional actors, hammy slapstick and overwrought politics make it a better conversation piece than viewing experience.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2008

It may be Forman's greatest work.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 28, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2005