I Served the King of England(2008)

Poster of I Served the King of England

Synopsis

Jan Dite is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating opportunities at every turn. Armed with this knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place of employment, a pub, for a luxury brothel and finally moves onto an elegant Art Nouveau Prague restaurant. But by the late 1930s, things are changing: Hitler has taken the Sudetenland region and is breaking apart Czechoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Líza, a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry, and soon after Líza is sent to serve on the Polish front, while Jan remains behind to serve as a nurse in a Nazi SS Research Hospital, but when she returns, she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had 'left behind.' After Líza's less than heroic death, Jan sells the stamps and becomes a millionaire. But he only has three years to enjoy his fortune: the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions. Upon his release from jail, Jan is sent to live in a decrepit border town. Here Jan reflects on the events that have shaped his life--and to reflect on what might have happened if he had played a different role in these events.
Jan Dite is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating …
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In Theaters

  • August 29, 2008

MPAA Rating

R (for sexual content and nudity.)

Genres

Foreign, Adaptation, Period, Drama

Run Time

2 hours

Distributors

AQS

Box Office

$617,228

Director

Jiri Menzel

Director

CAST

Julia Jentsch

Liza

Oldrich Kaiser

Jan Dite

Milan Lasica

Professor

Marian Labuda

Walden

Josef Abrham

Hotelier Brandejs

Jiri Labus

Manager of Golden City Prague's Hotel
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