A madcap 1966 Czech comedy that becomes even loopier through the filters of translation and time. Uptight female scientist Ruzenka invents a machine to visualize people’s dreams for the purpose of curing subconscious anxieties. An overlooked side-effect is the ability to render imagined objects real. She uses the device on her husband Jindrich, a repressed professor secretly obsessed with the busty sci-fi cartoon heroine Jessie. As you already guessed, soon Jessie and a couple of her comic book co-stars are creating havoc in the real world. The buxom dream girl is a cross between Barbarella and Daisy Mae from L’il Abner. Her nemeses are a muscular super-villain and a pistol-packing cowboy, both intent on capturing the heroine and her anti-gravity gloves. They speak in physical word-balloons, and their scuffles cause heavy property damage and risk to human life. Jindrich tries to overcome his meekness to become an ad-hoc hero and control the growing chaos. Despite the extremely cliched characters and zany premise, it’s played out as seriously as it is comically and ends with some horrifically flippant philosophical conundrums. One involving a day-dreaming dog gives the finale of Being John Malkovich a run for its money. Oddball fun galore.

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