Entertainment

MEMORIES OF A BOUNCED CZECH

SEVENTY-year-old Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel will be most remembered in film-

history books as the director of “Closely Watched Trains” (1966), which won him an Oscar.

But the first thing that comes to my mind when Menzel is mentioned is something that happened in 1998 at a film festival in Karlovy Vary, a ritzy Czech spa town.

As I and about 1,200 other festivalgoers looked on in amazement, Menzel attacked a movie producer with a stick, chasing him from the large hall where a screening was about to start.

I recall the scene now because Menzel’s new “I Served the King of England” opens today in New York.

Charming to the max, “Served” unfolds in Czechoslovakia when it was ruled by the Germans and, later, the Soviets.

The focal point is Jan Dite (superbly played by Bulgarian-born Ivan Barnev), a short blond guy with big dreams: to become a millionaire.

Dite does quite well for himself (up to a point), rising from sausage seller to waiter to millionaire and marrying Liza (Julia Jentsch), a beautiful young member of “the master race.”

Before they can wed, Dite must prove that his sperm is fit to impregnate an Aryan. He does, and he and Liza hasten into bed.

But it is hard to tell if Liza is more interested in Dite or the Fuhrer because, in the throes of passion, she insists on staring at Hitler’s portrait on the wall.

Most of the story is remembered in flashback by an older Dite (Oldrich Kaiser) after he is freed from prison, having served 14 years and nine months of a 15-year sentence for displeasing the Communists.

The movie is strongest when it records Dite’s days as a waiter. The actor is diminutive and cute, and his performance recalls Charles Chaplin, which is no surprise because Menzel considers Chaplin a prime influence.

“I Served the King of England” was the Czech Republic’s offering for the 2008 foreign-language Academy Award. Sadly, Menzel didn’t win a second Oscar.

I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND

Czech mates.

In Czech, with English subtitles. Running time: 118 minutes. Rated R (sex, full-frontal nudity). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Quad.

vam@nypost.com