Rating:
by Derek Smith 10/30/06

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Sexual politics was one of the prime concerns of many of the Czech New Wave films, most notably Closely Watched Trains and Loves of a Blonde. While both of those films found a nearly perfect balance between their charming and somewhat goofy comedy and the tragedy that lurked beneath, neither can match the pure anarchic delight that drives the narrative and visual design of Who Wants to Kill Jessie?. The film sets up Czechoslovakia similarly to other films of its time; as a country whose suppression of individual freedom, especially the repression of sexuality, has created a populous whose instinctual desires can no longer be contained. Vorlicek's comical vision focuses on this explosion of desire by radically breaking traditional rules of narrative film, using a bizarre combination of comic books and dreams which threaten to overtake the banal of existence of his characters in the "real world". When a new invention designed to penetrate peoples minds and filter in only positive thoughts goes awry, it allows Henry's dreams of a comic book he recently discovered to escape his mind and cause havoc everywhere they go. By continuing their ongoing comic adventure in Czechoslovakia, they disrupt the daily routines of the citizens with comical violence and by speaking only through literal thought bubbles.  Like many films of its time, this one too finds its satirical value in the resulting chaos when certain power structures are challenged or overturn, however Vorlicek attains such a light, almost breezy, pace and tone, that its revolutionary messages never come off as forced or heavy-handed.  As one of the first "pop"/comic-style films - a flurry of these films made their way to American screens and televisions only a couple of years later - Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is one of the few to take the anarchic spirit of the comics-meets-reality to its logical conclusion.  The destruction of the conservative, almost fascist, order of the film's world is in many ways a tribute to creativity and human imagination - an amusing, yet powerful howl for the necessity of individual passion and freedom that must be defended from any state-enforced initiative.