Living in a relatively young country like America, we can be blissfully unaware how untold European generations of intellectuals can devolve into jaded nihilism or dogmatic elitism, especially a country of writers and artists like Czechoslovakia. Its shabbily ancient cities have become claustrophobic fishbowls of intrigue, paranoia, and infighting. A famous American author sets out to fight the suppression of leftist writers, naively believing his fame will protect him. It's never clear who eventually undermines him or if the intricate system of spies, informers, and surveillance set him up to fail from the get go. One truly grieves for the confiscated manuscript and the explosive secrets it must contain. The dance of deceit between said famous author and Olga (a character like no other in all of cinema--a force of nature akin to Kali, that convoluted Hindu goddess of both birth and death) sparks with scintillating dialogue and dark humor. In fact, the cooly sardonic humor throughout this film is so evocative of its faux-lascivious creator, Philip Roth, that Czecks should not be insulted by its specific location--it grapples with great universal literary themes such as state versus individual, right versus left, art versus realpolitik, which could happen anywhere given enough corruption, paranoia, and economic insecurity. A stunning adaptation!

Prague, under communist rule is described by the observation that 50% of the population is spying on the other half although there does not seem to be a big distinction of which is which. Almost all the dialogue is straight from the novella with this name by Philip Roth. The visuals in the film are perhaps more interesting. For example ,in the orgy of the title in the book everyone is modestly dressed in communist style clothing and mostly talking whereas in the movie there are women in various stages of undress, including some full frontal nudes, and engaging in sexual acts. Strangely the scene in the book where Olga inspects a teenage boy's penis is left out, there is a double standard here. However, the discussion about America's greatest gift to Eastern Europe, the f-word, is the same in the film as the book. The best quote is "To be f---ed is the only freedom left in this country." Olga played by Ksenia Rappoport is certainly more ravishing in the film.

If you like Philip Roth you should like this literal, but visually enhanced, version of his novella. If you don't like Roth then don't bother.