The ambitious young Czech Jan Dite recalls Charlie Chaplin, but Czech director Jiri Menzel's two-hour comedy, "I Served the King of England" banks so much on a Jean-Pierre Jeunet-style mix of wit, tragedy and playfulness that in the end this 2007 film feels more like Jeunet's "A Very Long Engagement" than Chaplin's "The Great Dictator."

Dite (Ivan Barnev) has one ambition and that is to be rich and so, ever the entrepreneur, he begins by selling hot dogs on train platforms to departing passengers -- already on board -- and upping his profits by dilly-dallying with customers' change until their trains pull out of the station.

Early on he realizes that if he drops small change, even the rich will dive to pick it up and Dite loves watching greed as it consumes those around him. It's a feeling he can relate to.

When he becomes a waiter in a small café, Dite re-encounters one of his former customers who takes him under his wing and the road to his beloved wealth -- via a life as a swanky hotelier -- is paved.

In a range of jobs that he thinks will lead him to his goal, the slapstick-ish Dite is always in the right place at the right time, making the most of the gluttony and pomp (and women) on tap.

When the Nazis invade Czechoslovakia, Dite goes along; he won't let anyone get in the way of his ambition. Then he meets and falls in love with a proud German Sudeten -- and Nazi -- girl named Liza (Julia Jentsch) and they get married.

When they fail to get pregnant, Liza goes off to the front and he takes a job at a hotel (one where he formerly worked) that is now an "institute" full of naked blond German women who are mated with Nazi soldiers to boost the number of the master race.

This story is delivered in the form of flashbacks interspersed with scenes from Dite's later life. Fresh out of nearly 15 years in prison, Dite (the older one is portrayed by Oldrich Kaiser) now lives in a remote corner of the country, near the border.

In this barely inhabited, run-down setting, Dite looks back on his life. He considers the state and the consequences of his dream and the pursuit of it. Rather than spoil anything, we'll stop here.

There's no small amount of tragedy in this slightly over-long film adapted from the novel of the same name by Czech novelist and master of satire Bohumil Hrabal, but the veteran Menzel -- perhaps best known for his 1960s film "Closely Watched Trains" -- injects a healthy dose of humor that keeps things moving.