# Capricious Summer
**Capricious Summer** (Czech: *Rozmarné léto*) is a 1968 Czechoslovak comedy directed by Jiří Menzel, adapted from a novel by Vladislav Vančura, in which three middle-aged men at a riverside bathhouse have their lazy summer disturbed by the arrival of a traveling magician and his beautiful assistant. It was Menzel's second feature, made immediately after his Academy Award-winning debut *Closely Watched Trains* (1966), and it won the Best Film Crystal Globe at the 1968 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) • [2](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/capricious-summer.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Rozmarné léto*; Czechoslovakia, comedy, Czech language[3](https://www.febiofest.cz/en/films/capricious-summer-1055f) |
| Director and screenplay | Jiří Menzel; screenplay by Václav Nývlt and Menzel, from Vančura's novel[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) |
| Production and premiere | Produced by Filmové studio Barrandov; copyright 1967; Prague premiere 11 April 1968, nationwide 24 May 1968, both rated inaccessible for youths[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396728/capricious-summer) |
| Runtime and format | 76 minutes, color, 1.33:1 (other listings give 73 to 75 minutes)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) • [3](https://www.febiofest.cz/en/films/capricious-summer-1055f) |
| Principal cast | Rudolf Hrušínský (Antonín Důra), Vlastimil Brodský (Major Hugo), František Řehák (Canon Roch), Míla Myslíková (Kateřina Durová), Jana Preissová (Anna), Jiří Menzel (Arnoštek)[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063527/) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Jaromír Šofr; music Jiří Šust; editing Jiřina Lukešová[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) |
| Honors | Best Film (Crystal Globe), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1968; competed for the Grand Prix at the 21st Cannes festival[2](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/capricious-summer.html) • [6](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/capricious-summer/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film is set in a sleepy, wooded riverside village in the Czech countryside in the early years of the 20th century. Three middle-aged men, a businessman (Antonín Důra), a priest (Canon Roch), and a military officer (Major Hugo), spend their days drinking, philosophizing, and arguing good-naturedly at Důra's riverside bathhouse.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) • [8](https://criterioncast.com/column/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series-jiri-menzels-capricious-summer)
Their routines are broken by the arrival of a shabby traveling circus in a caravan, carrying the tightrope walker and magician Arnoštek, played by Menzel himself, and his beautiful young assistant Anna (Jana Preissová, also credited as Jana Drchalová). Arnoštek lays a striped pole across the river and walks over it, then invites the town to an evening performance. All three men try their luck with Anna over three consecutive nights, without much success, while Důra's frustrated wife Kateřina falls for the magician and moves into his caravan.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) • [3](https://www.febiofest.cz/en/films/capricious-summer-1055f) • [9](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/capricious-summer/20034896/main/)
The title refers to more than the men's behavior. Rain constantly erupts from seemingly clear skies and disappears just as quickly, and the capricious weather is bad for Důra's bathhouse business. When the caravan leaves, the men feel better for having had the circus in town but a little sadder as things return to normal.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) • [10](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/capricious-summer/)
## Production
Menzel based the film on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, a Czech writer popular with readers in the years before World War II who moved in the same social circles as [Franz Kafka](https://www.edgepedia.org/franz-kafka); sources date the novel to 1925 or 1926.[8](https://criterioncast.com/column/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series-jiri-menzels-capricious-summer) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) Menzel had just won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for *Closely Watched Trains* when he made it, and Vlastimil Brodský, who plays Major Hugo, had costarred in that film.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer)
Menzel was untrained as an actor but took lessons to learn to walk the high wire for the role of Arnoštek, performing the tightrope walking himself in several scenes. He described his filmmaking as a trade rather than an art form, and he was unapologetically realistic despite the poetic dimension of Vančura's story.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) • [6](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/capricious-summer/)
## Festival history and political context
After his Oscar win, Menzel, then 30, arrived at the 21st Festival de Cannes with *Capricious Summer* to compete for the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. The May 1968 events in France ended that edition: filmmakers withdrew their work, critics resigned, and the festival director Robert Favre Le Bret announced the cancellation, though the film retained its world premiere status. In late September 1968, days after its American premiere, it competed at the 11th Locarno Film Festival, and it won the Crystal Globe at [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary) that year.[6](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/capricious-summer/) • [2](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/capricious-summer.html)
The film was in production when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague and the Czechoslovak government clamped down on artistic freedoms, ending the period of relative creative liberty in which Menzel and fellow filmmakers such as [Miloš Forman](https://www.edgepedia.org/milos-forman), Věra Chytilová, Ivan Passer, and Jan Němec had worked.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer)
## Style and reception
Criterion describes the film as a meditation on aging and sex, shot in warm, sun-dappled color, and calls it one of the New Wave's loveliest reveries. The bucolic riverside setting and the mix of lazy days and sex recall [Jean Renoir](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-renoir)'s *A Day in the Country* (1946), which Menzel cited as "the film which literally enlightened me" in a 2008 interview.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) • [7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) Critics have noted Menzel's knack for magical sequences and abrupt changes of tone, alternating from the lyrical to the ridiculous, and his filling of the frame's margins with local color and sight gags.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/capricious_summer) • [12](https://daredaniel.com/2014/06/12/criterion-collection-review-capricious-summer/)
New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it "a much more interesting and personal movie than Closely Watched Trains." Reception has not been uniformly warm: Dennis Schwartz gave it a C+, calling it an overrated lightweight period comedy, while Time Out praised Menzel's evocation of soft summer days threatened by winter and regret for lost youth. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 71% Tomatometer from 7 reviews, and IMDb records a 6.9/10 rating from about 1,800 votes.[7](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer) • [10](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/capricious-summer/) • [13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/capricious-summer) • [11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/capricious_summer)
The film was released on DVD in the Criterion Collection's Eclipse Series 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave box set in 2006 and streams on the Criterion Channel.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer) • [2](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/capricious-summer.html)
## References
1. [Capricious Summer, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/27852-capricious-summer)
2. [Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto) (1968), Sinekatalog](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/capricious-summer.html)
3. [Capricious Summer, Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest](https://www.febiofest.cz/en/films/capricious-summer-1055f)
4. [Capricious Summer (1967), Filmový přehled](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396728/capricious-summer)
5. [Capricious Summer (1968), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063527/)
6. [Capricious Summer, Senses of Cinema (Alexander Back, September 2024)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2024/cteq/capricious-summer/)
7. [Capricious Summer, Turner Classic Movies (Sean Axmaker, 2019)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1542325/capricious-summer)
8. [A Journey Through the Eclipse Series: Jiří Menzel's Capricious Summer, Criterion Cast](https://criterioncast.com/column/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series/a-journey-through-the-eclipse-series-jiri-menzels-capricious-summer)
9. [Capricious Summer (1968), Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/capricious-summer/20034896/main/)
10. [Capricious Summer, Dennis Schwartz Reviews (2019)](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/capricious-summer/)
11. [Capricious Summer, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/capricious_summer)
12. [Capricious Summer Movie Review, Dare Daniel (Daniel Barnes)](https://daredaniel.com/2014/06/12/criterion-collection-review-capricious-summer/)
13. [Capricious Summer 1968, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/capricious-summer)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1960s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license