Into the Wild

Audiences in New York have a chance to see a rarely screened cinematic spellbinder on the big screen this Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday, František Vláčil’s singular Czech triumph Marketa Lazarová will be playing at Anthology Film Archives as part of the theater’s series The Middle Ages on Film (along with other medieval masterworks like Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff,Pier Paolo Pasolini’sThe Decameron, and Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko and Onibaba). For those not in New York, this engrossing and revelatory experience, concerning an epic battle between rival clans, will be available on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD for the first time next month. Watch the film’s stark, striking opening images for a taste of Vláčil’s poetic imagery and Zdenek Liška’s haunting score.