Bez doteku

Still an hour after it ended, I'm thinking whether I understood this movie correctly, or rather, if I understood it at all. The beginning realistically portrays a suffocating atmosphere, but then it somehow speeds up, changes, and I start to fall behind and can't keep up until the end of the movie. I should be angry at the movie and condemn it as nonsense, but I won't do it, partly because it was directed by a nineteen-year-old director, who chose very good actors, some of whom are excellent (Vítů, Malý), the music and camera work wonderfully. These are not completely clean four stars, but for a debut, it is more than a good film. (24.12.2013)

The youngest Czech director, Matěj Chlupáček, is not afraid to pose more questions than he answers in his debut feature-length film. This was a short excerpt from the official text of the distributor. The debut of the youngest Czech director, Matěj Chlupáček, didn't give me any answers, while not raising any questions, either, except for one. Why the hell did I watch this? Throughout the entire time, I couldn't decipher what the youngest Czech director wanted to convey. The story, dialogues, and monologues were all equally pathetic just like all the performances. The film didn't offer me anything, and I will treat it the same way and keep the stars for myself. / Lesson learned: Practicing at home can be useful in your future life. (03.03.2023)

As a short story, this film would look good, but in a movie, you have to work with actors, sound, and visuals, not just words. This is the problem with this story; it is fundamentally strong, but in its execution, something is missing. Marian Roden doesn't act poorly, but his scenes are sometimes awkward. Tereza Vítů is young, beautiful, and brave, which the film needed. I am glad that she is currently an actress at the South Bohemian Theatre. Unfortunately, there is too much filler in Touchless. It would have benefited from a much shorter runtime. On stage, this would look more interesting as an experiment. Unfortunately, the ending rings hollow. (18.04.2014)

I don’t know why but the story reminded me of a crazy Czech film After Sex. The only difference is that the Touchless is more professionally done. However, the sex scene with Ondřej Malý was horrible. Among the rest of the sex scenes it was so off that I felt embarrassed in his place. Fortunately, he saved it by his brilliant acting performance. After all, the rest of the cast was great too. I didn’t care for the story, but the filmmaking wasn’t bad. (25.05.2018)

Slightly overstating the case, I’d venture to say that this film wanted to look like Sucker Punch directed by Robert Bresson, but it rather looks far more like an average episode of Private Traps with lousy dramaturgy, shallow psychology, very unconvincing dialogue, absolutely unnecessary sex scenes and decent potential for camp (Malý‘s psychopathic asshole). I appreciate the courage it took to make a film that is so unpleasant for viewers, but that unpleasantness should have been derived from the logic of the plot or the narrative form, not just for the pleasure of the filmmakers, whose tremendous pseudo-mysteriousness is a rather feeble defence against possible criticism. 35% (28.02.2013)