Like so many other films made in Eastern Europe in the 60s and 70s, I've longed to see this gem again. Once upon a time, back in the 80s, the UK's Channel 4 used to show all kinds of weird and wonderful films into the early hours, introducing this teenager (now 36) to a new and exciting world of international cinema.

This Czech classic (banned when Dubcek's regime was toppled in '69) concerns Ludvik, a top bureaucrat, and his wife, Anna, coming home one night from a reception to find their home has been bugged (during a period of political purging). The paranoia and sleepless night sets Lunvik and Aanna against each other, and the film finally shows what it took to 'get head' in a Stalinist regime.

This film from the Czech Republic interested me for two reasons, firstly and mainly because it is one I found in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, but also, secondly, because it was banned by the nation's ruling Communist party, it became available again in 1989, made me think it was controversial, I looked forward to finding out. Basically Ludvik (Radoslav Brzobohatý) is a senior official of Prague's ruling Communist regime, and his wife Anna (Jirina Bohdalová) is an alcoholic. They return home after spending the evening at a government function, a political party dinner, where Ludvik finds out several of his colleagues have been "relieved" of their responsibilities. Ludvik and Anna find that their home has been broken into, they repair the damage, but strange occurrences happen several times after, including the disappearance of the spare house keys and dead phone lines. This leads the couple to believe they are under surveillance by their own government, the house has been bugged, and "the ear" of the government is listening. As the night progresses, the couple are being extremely careful what they do and see, at the same their personal and marital flaws are exposed, until eventually they have had enough, and they make an effort to find and destroy the bugs, but there will be consequences whatever happens. Also starring Gustav Opocenský as Conrade, Miroslav Holub as General, Lubor Tokos as Minister, Borivoj Navrátil as Cejnar and Jirí Císler as Secret Agent Standa. It is a combination of politics and domestic drama, the most memorable scenes are obviously of the bitter married couple at loggerheads, it is a bit dated now, and I can't really understand it being "banned forever", maybe for the invasion of the home and privacy element, but it is interesting enough political thriller. Worth watching!

It's not all that often that I for one come across a movie totally unknown to me and written, directed and performed by people who are just names albeit names worthy of respect in their own country. Ucho is one of those films from a country we used to call Czechoslovakia -Billy Wilder had a lot of fun with the name, recommending spelling it backwards as a cure for insomnia in his script for Bluebeard's Eighth Wife - which then became the Czech Republic and has now fragmented into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. What few films I've seen from there - with the possible exception of 'Daisies' - I've enjoyed though it is a woefully small total, The Fireman's Ball, Closely Observed Trains, Kolya, Divided We Fall, which are now supplemented by Ucho. Watching it I was reminded in turn of L'Aveu and The Trial given that it contains elements of both. It's also something of a Long Night's Journey Into Day chronicling as it does the time that elapses between a government Minister arriving home late from a party to slowly realise that in the absence of himself and his wife their house has been bugged by his own Party, and the next morning when his fears prove theoretically groundless as he learns he is to replace a Minister who has been deposed. Although on paper this makes for a sigh of relief in reality it just means he will have an even higher profile and be that much bigger a target for Party hit men. Shot in black and white the film mirrors a society that for us in the West is virtually impossible to imagine but even then the tension is liberally laced with humour. A fine film in a fine tradition.