After observing the 1961 trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase 'the banality of evil". If she’d watched Czech director Jiri Menzel’s latest film, I Served The King Of England, she might’ve revised her view to 'the twerpiness of evil".
This black comedy, set in Czechoslovakia in the lead up to the Nazi takeover, revolves around Jan Dite, a grasping little twerp whose only goals in life are to make a million dollars and own his own hotel.
From humble beginnings as a hot dog salesman, his skills as a toady see him rise through the ranks of various swish hotels, although each promotion comes at the expense of workmates and friends.
His final step up the ladder arrives when he meets and falls for a true-believing Nazi superwoman and he must prove genetic worthiness to breed with the Aryan fräulein.
Writer-Director Jiri Menzel’s adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal’s novella has lots going on but it never really coalesces into something meaningful, especially considering it’s set at the edges of the Holocaust and at the centre of Nazi eugenics.
The most touching moments are found in the framing devices in which the older Jan, now living in forest exile, reflects with sadness on who he was.
But younger Jan, played like a silent-movie comedian by Ivan Barnev, is so feckless you’re angered rather than charmed by his blithe collaboration.
German actress Julia Jentsch’s performance is terrific, though, and her fascist uberwench is both comic and excruciating.
Menzel’s film does recreate the glamour and opulence of old Prague, but too much of the first half is given over to pervy old blokes gorging themselves stupid while they ogle young naked beauties.
The second half, as Czechoslovakia falls to Nazism and Jan is ostracised from his countrymen, brings much-needed dramatic tension.
I Served The King Of England does serve up strong performances and visuals but the idiot savant has been better done in movies such as Zelig, while a more searing look at the cost of collaboration can be found in the likes of Mephisto.
I Served The King Of England rates three stars.
