O něčem jiném

One of the great innovators of Czechoslovak cinema and a central figure of her country’s New Wave, Věra Chytilová swam against the social tide with her films, which combined formal innovation and subversive wit, subverting aesthetic conventions and ideological dictates. This film, whose title is not an accident, creates a kind of “double portrait,” juxtaposing documentary footage of the relentless and endless training sessions of gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Eva Bosáková with the staged monotony of the mundane daily life of housewife Věra who starts an affair. Documentary meets fiction; the desire for change meets missed opportunities. In both cases, there is little evidence of the much-vaunted “New woman" in socialism.