Emil enters his house carrying his newly wed wife Eva in his arms. She awaits their first wedding night in bed, but he falls asleep on his chair. Eva feels neglected in their marriage, as her passion is not fulfilled since Emil is uninterested. Eva files for divorce and hides at her father's place. While swimming naked, her horse runs away with her clothes on the saddle, but it is stopped by Adam, who gives Eva her clothes back. Eva later has sex with him in his house. Emil meets Adam and drives him in his car. Emil commits suicide with a gun in a hotel, and Eva sees his corpse. She later does not go with Adam on a train.
The most famous Czech film of the first half of the 20th century, "Ecstasy" gained an almost mythical reputation due to its hyped erotic scenes which caused a scandal—the gimmick worked back then, but today the viewers can only chuckle at how timid the two erotic sequences are, and thus the intensity of the viewing experience has decreased. The script allegedly had only 5 pages and it shows, since the drama sequences are heavily underwritten, overstretched and full of empty walk, though the director Gustav Machaty shows a surprising amount of ideas, from unusual camera angles up to symbolic images (a miniature statue of Cupid in Eva's bedroom as she gets horny; Eva's horse runs away, carrying her clothes, to meet another horse at a barn, belonging to Adam, implying how their fates intermingle...), though some border on pretentious self-indulgance (a fly stuck on a flypaper; after suicide, the man falls in exaggerated manner backwards). Eva swimming naked in a lake became one of the icons of cinema, and the story has sympathy for her sensual plight, trapped in sexless marriage, which became Hedy Lamarr's most famous role, despite her objections. The most fascinating moment is found somewhere in the middle of the film, as Eva's face is seen upside-down in close-ups, as she is experiencing an orgasm in bed with Adam—the whole sequence is actually very timid, but back then it was unheard off for early cinema, and thus this spark of audacity and artistic rebellion of the authors can be sensed even up to this day.
Grade:++
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