(Cerny Petr). Fumbling adolescent Peter (Ladislav Jakim) secures his first job, as a plainclothes dick in a supermarket—informing on fellow citizens, the perfect Soviet occupation. Naturally, Peter’s alienation is almost immediate, and it befuddles his smug father (Jan Vostrcil, one of Forman’s great finds), who is ready to offer sour advice at every turn. Teaming with fellow Czech New Waver Jaroslav Papousek, Forman fashioned a soused portrait of disaffected youth, boisterously evoked through a minuscule mundanity. Peter’s timid presence in the world is wondrously painful but oddly comical: after his dizzying first date, his tentative girlfriend calls him not for a smooch but to inquire if the grocery carries pickles. Yet Black Peter abounds with exuberant hope, as seen in a massive get-together of Czech youth wildly dancing the Twist. Perhaps something as markedly banal as a new dance craze could topple their parents’ authority, and the regime as well.

—Steve Seid

• Written by Forman, Jaroslav Papousek. Photographed by Jan Nemecek. With Ladislav Jakim, Pavla Martinkova, Pavel Sedlacek, Jan Vostrcil. (85 mins, In Czech with English subtitles, B&W, 35mm, From Czech National Film Archive, Prague)