Walking Too Fast Blog

Director Radim Špaček chooses to express the bleak atmosphere of Czech “normalization” in the 1980s with gray, dimly lit exterior shots.  In general, colors are muted; beige, grey, black, dark green, and blue dominate the film. The drab color scheme of the film may convey Gustáv Husák’s aggressive repression of dissidence and difference.  For example, the viewer can tell that the character Klára’s hair is a bold red, but the intensity of that color is only fractionally conveyed by the cinematography. The cinematography also conveys the sense of being followed and controlled, in keeping with the film’s original Czech title, Pouta, which means “handcuffs.” Long distant shots and strange camera movements help create the feeling of being followed, and the many scenes shot through doors, windows, or railings reinforce the feeling of isolation and the fear of being watched.

The cinematographer portrays the urban Czech landscape as a series of smoggy streets and anonymous, industrial-style buildings. Buildings shown in the background have peeling paint or crumbling concrete, revealing the city’s decay.  The soccer field and track where the secret policemen exercise is surrounded by Soviet bloc architecture and devoid of sunlight.  The office of the film’s protagonist, the secret policeman Antonín, with the dark browns and yellows of its walls and furniture, seems drab and lifeless.  Natural landscapes are also industrialized and tainted, as in the scene where Antonín gets out of the car to relieve himself. The place he stops seems naturally beautiful, but is also clearly the site of a mine or quarry.  Only two things appear to bring color and meaning into Antonín’s life—his vividly colored dreams and Klára, with her red hair starkly contrasting with everything else around her.  When the film comes to a close and Antonin, as well as the audience, achieves a final escape from the clutches of his mind, the shot is not at all separated or claustrophobic, but radiates with sunlight and ends in an unusual white screen.

The Czech dissidents in Walking Too Fast are portrayed as troubled characters whose motivations are conflicted. The audience quickly learns of Tomas Sykora’s adulterous affair with Klára Kadlecova and bears witness to his double life as he leaves a wife and children at home to have sex with Klára in his friend Pavel Vesely’s apartment.  Tomas is distinctly unheroic when his wife discovers his infidelity; his only response to her hurt and fury is a short “sorry”. He does, however, have his courageous moments in the interrogation room with Antonín.  In one scene he refuses to submit even when he is being tortured. The cinematographer uses conventional lighting in this shot, casting Sykora in brightness and moving Antonín into the shadows.

Pavel, the film’s second dissident, is torn between trying to collaborate with the secret police in order to save his skin and feeling guilty for not standing up to the secret police and fighting for a free life. It is true that he does seem to believe in the ideals voiced in his writing. That being said, he does not have the courage to live these ideals. He informs on Tomas to stay on good terms with the secret police, and ultimately (at the request of the secret police) convinces his friend to leave the country. During his interview with a German magazine, Vesely tells a story he read: in a future autocratic state, dissidents free themselves from its control because they trust each other. Off camera, it turns out that Pavel is the one who abuses the others’ trust and “slits their throats.”

In Walking Too Fast, Czechoslovakia’s secret police force is a disjointed group of individuals who don’t seem to trust each other. Secret policemen are initially depicted as very privileged, living a seemingly carefree lifestyle with a bar and other amenities installed in their headquarters. The viewer sees just how intimately the secret police establishment is integrated into the lives of its agents – in their leisure pastimes and at home. We are privy to secret police interrogation rooms, offices, long hallways, detention cells, dark alleys, and car rides. The film portrays the secret police as omnipresent and omnipotent in society. Their power is clear: individual police officers can dictate to society through the use of their badges. Antonín uses threats and violence to reinstate Klára in her job, and he uses his badge to thwart interference when beating up a man who was flirting with Klára at the bar. Antonín also uses his power to continuously interrogate and imprison Tomas.

A definite hierarchy is evident within the organization. Both Antonín and his partner, Martin, report to the Major, and the Major reminds them both of the secret police “family.”  He tells Martin to “take care of [Antonín] like a brother, if anything happens tell dad” and explains that the secret police “don’t like people who don’t care about the family; if they disappoint us, we punish them.”  Yet, as subsequent events show, this family is one that cares only about the institution, not the individuals.

The film depicts Martin as jovial and extroverted, whereas Antonín is introverted and never content.  Antonín is tightly wound and this self-induced pressure eventually causes him to crack. Martin, on the other hand, is easy-going and kind of a goofball. Although less intelligent and often manipulated by Antonín, the sociable Martin is ultimately able to salvage his sanity by keeping a lighthearted attitude and refusing to let the job dominate all of his relationships and interactions. The introverted Antonín, on the other hand, lets “the service” become his “dad, wife, and old lady”—in the words of the Comrade Major—and slowly loses his mind. While Martin plays ball with others, the running Antonín ignores the football that Martin throws at him. When the intoxicated Martin tries to entertain everyone, Antonín drinks alone and feels sick. Antonín is tough, knows the miseries of life, assumes the role of driver, and always wants to go “somewhere,” while Martin is simple, never thinks of things too deeply, and enjoys living in the present and sitting in the passenger seat.

Klára, Tomas’s lover and, increasingly, Antonín’s obsession, seems to be a special character because she does not appear to apologize for who she is or have any illusions about her actions. Her job at the factory emphasizes this—she is above it all, above the rats in the maze, as she skillfully drives a crane. In some ways, this attitude makes her similar to Antonín. She has an affair with Tomas, and seems indifferent to his wife’s inevitable suffering. This is in line with Antonín’s actions and character, as he is a man who will do anything for what he wants no matter how much collateral damage he may leave behind. In his desire and quest to have Klára, he ruins the life of not only Tomas and his family, but also his own wife, whom he kicks her out and dispossesses. Loneliness is a common experience for both Klára and Antonín, and drives both of their actions. Antonín even tries to highlight their similarity by telling Klára that she is unhappy and alone, just as he is. It is only when Antonín becomes directly involved in her life and expresses his desire to protect and be with Klára that she becomes disillusioned with her “reality” and sees her world and the people in it as they truly are. Klára’s gradual disenchantment and acknowledgment of the forces operating around her parallels Antonín’s growing delusion and loss of control of the people and circumstances around him, though she refuses to follow him into his “chasm.”

Before the film begins, Antonín apparently served as a model agent, rigid and professional. Over the course of Walking Too Fast, he retreats further into isolation and instability as the stress of his work and jealousy towards Tomas take over.  As he becomes more enamored with Klara, Antonín grows increasingly violent. He begins to use his power as a secret policeman not to suppress dissent but to further a personal agenda.  He loses control of almost everything in his life: his health, his job, his emotions, and his allegiance to the state. First, Antonín begins to have panic attacks where he temporarily loses control of his breathing. Second, as his infatuation with Klára warms up, his fellow officers become suspicious, which in turn, stimulates his paranoia while at work. Next, his feelings for Klára escalate while his other personal relationships deteriorate. Finally, Rusinak is completely out of control. His self-deluded love for Klára trumps his allegiance to the state, which causes him to act impulsively and irrationally, paving the way to his suicide at the end of the film.

Edited by Torrey Lubkin, Alex Stine, and James Wu