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I Served the King of England

Name: I Served the King of England
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance, War
Released: August 29, 2008
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 72
Cast: Ivan Barnev, Julia Jentsch, Oldrich Kaiser

2008

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critics

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 16 Ratings

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8.2

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8.2	User Score Universal acclaim based on 16 Ratings

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I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND

Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 29, 2008 | R

Starring: Ivan Barnev, Julia Jentsch, Oldrich Kaiser

Summary: Jan Dít? is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating opportunities at every turn. Armed with this knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place ofJan Dít? is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating opportunities at every turn. Armed with this knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place of employment, a pub, for a luxury brothel and, finally moving onto an elegant Art Nouveau Prague restaurant. But by the late 1930s, things are changing: Hitler has taken the Sudetenland region and is breaking apart Czechoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Líza, a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry, and soon after Líza is sent to serve on the Polish front, while Jan remains behind to serve as a nurse in
a Nazi SS Research Hospital, but when she returns, she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had ‘left behind’ ... After Líza’s less than heroic death, Jan sells
the stamps and becomes ... a millionaire. But he only has three years to enjoy his fortune: the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions... Upon his release from jail, Jan is sent to live in a decrepit border town. Here Jan reflects on the events that have shaped his life – and to reflect on what might have happened if he had played a different role in these events. (Sony Classics)
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Director: Jirí Menzel

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Romance, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 120 min

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Awards & Rankings

77	#77 Best Movie of 2008

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Critic Reviews

100

Peter Rainer

It's a giddy nightmare. Nothing is quite what it seems in I Served the King of England, and this is poetically appropriate. The world it depicts is too dangerous and too lovely to classify. Read full review

Aaron Hillis

A mischievously hedonistic, Chaplinesque farce, the film buoyantly but seriously traverses the horrors of World War II with a subtlety and sophistication that most American comedies cannot grasp. Read full review

Eddie Cockrell

A virtual primer on the unique mixture of self-deprecating dark humor and personal tragedy that has been the Czech cinema's stock-in-trade since their celebrated 1960s New Wave. Read full review

Roger Ebert

It's a film filled with wicked satire and sex both joyful and pitiful. Read full review

David Edelstein

Menzel’s touch is sprightly, lyrical, mischievously understated. Read full review

Richard Schickel

May not be a totally riveting movie, but it is, in its gently insinuating way, a curiously rewarding one. Read full review

Josh Rosenblatt

I Served the King of England, like its hero, is surrounded by and infused with the potential for meaning but feels like a lark: a bit of nothing whistling past the graveyard of 20th century European history without a thing to do but indulge itself. Read full review

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User Reviews

BenY.

Mar 1, 2009

Genius!