Eighth annual Prague Museum Night will open doors to over 60 museums and galleries and expects record number of visitors. Special programs include hands-on activities for children, while adults can enjoy musical and theatrical programs. There is something for everybody, from women’s fashion to a shooting contest. Be warned, though, the lines at some of the most popular places can be long...
(whole story at Czechposition.cz)
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Focus on Italy at Zlín film fest for kids
With its 51st outing, the Zlín Film Festival — one of the world’s oldest and biggest film festivals for children and youth — begins another era with a shortened official name and streamlined logo. The event will showcase 244 films from 43 countries. Films will be broken up into more than a dozen categories, including four competitive international sections: animated films for children, feature films for children, feature films for youth and first time European feature films. Czech films will feature prominently in all of the competitions.
The festival — until recently known as the Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth — will open with the 3D Czech musical comedy “Under the Duvet” (V Peřině), by which its makers describe as being in the “high-spirited style of Mamma Mia.” The special-effects filled musical — directed by F.A. Brabec and starring Lucie Bílá, Karel Roden and Bolek Polívka — includes 22 original songs from Czech bands Support Lesbiens and Kabát. “Under the Duvet” will be part of the competition for feature films for children together with Zdeněk Troška’s new fairy tale “The Devil’s Bride” (Ďáblova nevěsta) — along with films from South Korea, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Norway, Italy and Germany.
A Czech film will also compete in another category for films aimed at older children or young adults: “One Way Ticket” (Piko), directed by Tomáš Řehořek about the street dug Pervitin — a type of methamphetamine. Director Řehořek, still in his 20s, is quite prolific, as this 2010 film isn’t even his most recent one. He also directed “Czech Made Man,” which is currently in cinemas and will be at the festival in a noncompetative section for recent Czech films. “One Way Ticket” will compete against “Hold Me Tight,” an award-winning Danish film that also played at Febiofest earlier this year, as well as six other films.
The films in these two categories will be judged a jury that includes Czech director Jan Hřebejk, Canadian actress Stana Katic and Japanese-born composer Youki Yamamoto, who has lived in the UK since we was 10. Katic will also introduce her new film,“For Lovers Only,” a look at two people in love on an unplanned journey across France. Yamamoto participated in the soundtrack to “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Separate juries comprising children and young adults will also give awards.
The section for European debut films will see an entry by a native son from Zlín. Václav Karnka will compete with his film “80 Letters” (Osmdesát dopisů), which already won at Finále film festival in Plzeň this year. The minimalist movie shows one day in the life of a young boy whose mother is trying to reunite with the boy’s father in England during the communist era. It is based on the director’s memories of his own childhood.
The last Czech contestant is in the animated film category. The short film “Graffitiger” by Libor Pixa has already won the Magnesia Award for best student film a Czech Lion (Český lev) awards, and has been nominated for a Student Oscar. That prize will be given out June 11 in Hollywood by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film combines animation on real backgrounds to tell a melancholy tale of a graffiti image of a tiger who lives on the walls of various Prague buildings and structures. ‘Scandinavia, Germany, Canada, and even Iran are ahead of us. But we are trying to change this trend.’
The Czech lands have a long history of making cinema for young people. “Czech or Czechoslovak films for children won the biggest international praise in the second half of the 20th century. Numerous foreign film productions were inspired by our approach to production for children and youth,” festival artistic director Petr Koliha told Czech Position.
But there are areas where the country now needs to catch up. “Czech films try to keep their mentality, humor, strong storyline and also nurture the fairy-tale genre, which has been disappearing lately in the world, that is if we don’t count fantasy or history adventures. We let in new influences, which is good, but we also lack stories from the present: ordinary life, schools, families, these topics used to be our strength in the past, but now Scandinavia, Germany, Canada, and even Iran are ahead of us. But we are trying to change this trend.”
Focus on Italy
Aside from the competitons, this year’s major focus is on Italian cinema. Works by Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone and Roberto Begnini as well as the best of recent Italian cinema for children and youth will be showcased.
Older classics worth catching include the beautiful epic “Cinema Paradiso” by Guiseppe Tornatore, where the director recalls his childhood spent in a small rural cinema, and the Neorealist masterpiece “The Bicycle Thieves” by Vittorio De Sica. The latter film used nonprofessional actors and real locations to depict a boy and his father searching for their bicycle, which was an essential possession in postwar Italy. The film won countless awards including an honorary Academy Award in 1950 for best foreign-language film released in the US. (The official competitive category for foreign film Oscars didn’t begin until 1957.)
Most people associate entertainment giant Walt Disney Company with children’s films, and some efforts by this studio will be represented in a section called Walt Disney’s Kingdom, featuring Czech-dubbed versions of seven films made between 1937 and this year. Aside from 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the avant-garde animated musical “Fantasia” and opposites-attract love story “Lady and the Tramp” will be screened. The studios most recent animated effort “Winnie the Pooh,” currently in cinemas, will also make an appearance.
Some of the special guests at the festival include Hungarian director György Pálfi, whose latest mainly improvised film “I Am Not Your Friend” competed at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in 2009 and who is better-known for his controversial film “Taxidermia,” and the Italian actor Franco Nero, who is most famous for his roles spaghetti Westerns. Pálfi be a member of the jury for European debuts.
“Director Jíří Menzel, the living legend of Czech film Otakar Vávra and other Czech actors, actresses and directors will also be present. The actor Petr Nárožný will receive [an award called] Recognition for Creative Contribution to Filmmaking for Children and Youth at the closing ceremony,” Koliha added. Nárožný has appeared in more than 170 film and TV roles during the last decade and is noted for his comic roles.
For real cinephiles the festival is reviving the world’s first interactive film with a fitting name kinoautomat, which was invented by Radúz Činčera and enables the audience to steer the film by voting at several key moments. It was first introduced inthe Czechoslovak Pavilion at Expo ’67 in Montreal, where it ran for six months. The film screened was “One Man and His House” (Člověk a jeho dům) and starred the popular film and theater actor and director Miroslav Horníček. The film was banned in 1971 by the Communist Party. The film was restored in 2006 by the inventor’s daughter Alena Činčerová.
The amount of choice the audience actually has is limited, though. Even though the audience can vote at certain points to determine how an actor should behave, after the several minutes both options synch up to the same result before the next chance to vote comes. This kept the number of reels needed for a projection down to a manageable number.
Beyond the screen
As with most film festivals — especially those held in the summer — there is more to do than just see films indoors. “The accompanying program is really rich this year again. It includes music concerts, 11 exhibitions, events for children, workshops and night screenings at an open-air cinema, where one can sit on the grass with a nice drink,” Koliha said.
One exhibition contains 130 cinema clapperboards painted each year by famous artists. These clappers — which were also displayed in Prague until May 15 — will be auctioned June 3 at the festival’s main venue, the Zlaté Jablko shopping center and its Golden Apple Cinema, to help finance student films made at the Zlín film school.
Artists for the clappers include animator Zdeněk Miler, famous for Krtek and other characters. He began his career at the Zlín animation film studios. Last year’s auction raised Kč 2.143 million, with one donated that year by Miler accounting for Kč 170,000. Other clapper artists include Iva Hüttnerová, Jan Saudek, Boris Jirků, Olbram Zoubek and Miloš Nesvadba.
One popular aspect of the festival takes films out of the cinema and puts them on the rails across Moravia. The Cinematrain (Kinematovlak) project was launched in 2004 to bring films to Moravian towns that often lack their own cinemas. The special coach with 40 seats and a digital projector will screen films for schools and the public. The train began its journey May 11 in Olomouc and will end June 2 when it arrives at the festival’s base.
Zlín has a long film history. In 1936 the first film studios were established to produce advertising spots for Baťa Shoes, and since the 1940s the studios have dedicated their work to films for children and youth. During the early years of World War II, a film festival called Film Harvest (Zlienale) took place there, attracting many Czech and international film stars before it was shut down by the German occupation government. However, 20 years later, the festival was restarted and has run for 51 years without interruption.
“The festival has boomed in the past 15 years. Today, together with KVIFF, it is one of the [country’s] two biggest festivals, and a leader in children’s and youth films in the world. We host 2,000 guests every year and also had 100,000 visitors last year, which proves its rightful place among other similar festivals abroad,” Koliha said.
Prague NGOs strive to help integrate foreigners
“Your car is German. Your vodka is Russian. Your pizza is Italian. Your kebab is Turkish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your movies are American. Your tea is Tamil. Your shirt is Indian. Your oil is Saudi Arabian. Your electronics are Chinese. Your numbers Arabic, your letters Latin. And you complain that your neighbor is an immigrant? Pull yourself together. Copy if you’re against racism,” says a quote that took up Facebook statuses everywhere a while ago. But to what extent do Czechs really get this?
When looking at the real numbers, there are over 400,000 foreigners registered in the Czech Republic, according to the latest records of the Foreigners Police. Another study showed that one out of eight people living in Prague is a foreigner. However, according to a different study conducted by the STEM agency two years ago, two out of three Czechs think foreigners represent a security threat and 80 percent consider the number of foreigners working in the country too high. With blogs, demonstrations, media training, Czech language courses and more, NGOs and volunteers try to change Czechs’ perceptions of foreigners by telling stories of their lives and cultures.
“Information is the basis for tolerance,” says Masha Volynsky, one of the coordinators of the Migration Awareness Program and a member of Fórum migrantů (Migrant’s Forum), a nonprofit Prague initiative trying to help migrants’ integration into the Czech society and provide information about their life.
Migrant’s Forum was originally founded as an informal discussion group by the Migration Awareness Program of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) People in Need (Člověk v tísni).
The Migration Awareness Program’s coordinators also send newsletters to all the country’s major media including TV and radio stations, dailies and magazines informing them about news pertaining to migration in the country. The coordinators also organize training for migrants to help them communicate with media more effectively, and most importantly, manage the Migrant’s Forum blog, which covers the migrant’s viewpoints, problems and experience in the Czech Republic — both good and bad.
The responses to the blogposts vary, Volynsky says , but it serves the main purpose — to inform the readers of the foreigners’ stories and spark discussion.
The forum also plans to organize more free-time events where different cultures can be presented. The first one took place about a month ago, and its participants were shown how to make Vietnamese spring rolls from scratch. “It’s not as easy as it seems,” Volynsky said with a laugh, pointing out the importance of showing the public migrants lead ordinary everyday lives. “It’s more difficult to hate an individual you know closely than an entire group you know nothing about.”
Another way to inform public is with documentary films. While Martin Ryšavý’s biting documentary “The Land of Dreams” (Země snů) about Vietnamese immigrants lured to the Czech Republic by visions of fortune only to end up empty-handed won the Pavel Koutecký award last year at the One World Film Festival, Volynsky invites people to see a new document by Vít Janeček to be screened at the One World festival this year, “Great Opportunity” (Skvělá příležitost), a mozaic about the life of Mongolian minority living in the Czech Republic.
Learning the language
There are several NGOs trying to achieve the same goal as Migrant’s Forum: to inform public about problems foreigners face here and help them to better integrate in the society.
One such civic association is the Center for the Integration of Foreigners (CIC). Founded in 2003 by Lucie Ditrychová, CIC has since developed three major areas of focus: open Czech language courses, social and employment counseling and a volunteer program.
The aim of the Czech language courses is not only just to teach basic language skills but also to help people fill out an application form or be able to respond to questions at a job interview. Czechs also have the opportunity to volunteer to be a “buddy” to a person and take him or her to cultural events or help with the language under the supervision of CIC.
“Working with people directly one-on-one still remains the most important part of our daily work,” Ditrychová says, pointing out the center’s other successes, such as participating on the new Czech compulsory exam for foreigners seeking a permanent residence in the Czech Republic or helping people to deal with state administration offices.
However, the most interesting effort by CIC is the estaablishment of the Osina award for the worst act in integration of foreigners. Osina means “awn grass” in English, the name being derived from the Czech saying “osina v zadku” or “pain in the butt.”
Praise and shame
“We were mostly just upset with some of the actions and rhetoric of the officials and talked about it all the time among us, so we thought why not to make it public,” Ditrychová says. After the first Osina awards were announced in 2008, when the Interior Ministry and Labor and Social Affairs Ministry won for “extremelly effective prevention of foreigners’ integration,” the State Administration suggested they not only focus on the bad actions but also recognized the good efforts being done. A year later, the first Naděžda (derived from the Russian meaning of the name “hope”) award was given to the Ministry of Education for supporting equal opportunities in education.
This year, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs won again for failing to extend visas to foreign workers with jobs requiring low or no qualification in hopes to boost employment of Czechs. Former Social Democrat (ČSSD) leader Jiří Paroubek took the Osina award for the worst quote: “It is not suitable to employ people from other cultures, they stay here. They learn the language, have kids and we have an ethnicity problem on our hands.”
On the other hand, civic association META won the Naděžda award for setting up the website Inkluzivniskola.cz, where teachers can find help for better integration of children to Czech schools, information that is not provided by the Education Ministry.
Anyone could take part at the nominations or vote, and Ditrychová and other CIC members encouraged everyone to do so at the awards ceremony that took place Feb. 17 at the Bio Oko café.
Instead of awards or trying to spread information online, the Initiative for Migrants’ Rights chose a different way to bring attention to problems that foreigners face. Since October, its members started distributing hot tea and coffee to people lining up in front of the Foreigners Police offices at Koněvova street and Chodov,which finally brought attention of public broadcaster Czech Television (ČT), which sent cameras to document the event on the spot one freezing morning.
In June last year, while the temperature reached opposite extremes during the summer, the initiative’s supporters took to Prague streets with posters and slogans calling for better treatment of foreign workers in the Czech Republic, especially those working at low-paying jobs they lost or would lose due to the government’s new idea for solving unemployment.
There are numerous other associations and groups trying to help foreigners and inform the public. Volynsky and Ditrychová both agree that unless the media becomes more interested in these efforts and changes some of the negative messages it sends to the public about foreigners, their job remains difficult.
Plzeň’s Finále showcases Czech screen gems
The Finále festival showcases the best of Czech cinema, past and present, and is one of the annual cultural highlights in Plzeň, the western Bohemian city associated more closely with Pilsner beer than movies of any kind. While the name of the festival, founded in 1968 by the state administration, seems to indicate a culmination, it is actually an acronym of sorts, derived from “FIlmy NAšich LEt” meaning “films of our age.”
The festival has always had a main competition; in 2002, organizers added a retrospective focusing on the “golden age” of Czech cinema — the 1960s — but abandoned it in 2009, replacing it with the Phenomenon of Times section (more on that later). This year, Finále’s main event is the competition of feature films, which includes works premiering between April 2010 and April 2011 with at least 20 percent of production costs coming from Czech-based companies. The winner receives the Golden Kingfisher (Zlatý ledňáček).
Among the 10 films contending this year is Jan Hřebejk’s “Innocence” (Nevinnost), a psychological drama about a doctor who is accused of sexually abusing a minor; Jan Švankmajer’s “Surviving Life” (Přežít svůj život), a psychoanalytical comedy combining animation and acting; and Petr Jákl’s “Kajínek,” a true crime story.
Several new films will also be shown out of competition. “Leaving” (Odcházení) by ex-president turned director Václav Havel looks at a politician leaving office. Tomáš Řehořek’s “One Way Ticket” (Piko) blends fictionalized scenes with archival material and first-hand testimony about the methamphetamine-like drug pervitin in the ’80s and ’90s.
Documentaries in competition include Martin Ryšavý’s poetic “Bear Islands” (Medvědí ostrovy), shot during his expedition to Siberia; Helena Třeštíková’s award-winning “Katka,” which follows 14 years of a heroin addict’s life; and Ivan Vojnár’s “Cinematherapy,” which lets several characters who answered a casting call talk about their lives on camera.
All in the family
A new section this year is family film sagas, starting with the Procházka family “This year’s choice was inspired by the memory of [dissident screenwriter] Jan Procházka, who died exactly 40 years ago due to oppression from the communist regime. [It was] an enormous loss for Czech film,” said Jan Lukeš, a program board member.
Jan’s daughter Lenka Procházková, a Czech writer and signer of Charter 77, wrote the screenplay to a TV film in this section “About Hungry Hag” (O bábě hladové), and his granddaughter Maria Procházková, an award-winning director will see her film “Shark in the Head” (Žralok v hlavě) also screened in this section. “Mahulena Procházková, his wife, and Iva Procházková, another daughter of his and also a writer, will also be present,” Lukeš said. “In the Heat of the Power” (V žáru moci – Jan Procházka), a documentary about the man and his journey, is also not to be missed.
Other sections will pay tribute to another “film family” known by an abbreviation of their last names: MICHR. Cinematographer Stanislav Milota and actress Vlasta Chramostová are celebrating 40 years of marriage, but they have been together almost for 50. Together they worked on one film only: the cult horror “The Cremator” (Spalovač mrtvol) by Juraj Herz, but the section screens other major films such as one of their so-called apartment plays “Play Macbeth,” an anti-communist film that was shot over five days and smuggled unedited out of the country, a finished version aired in Austria in 1978, but it was first shown on Czechoslovak Television in 1991.
“When they were both excluded from Czech film, they made a living for example by selling lamps that they made from waste glass, which led to a saying “S firmou MICHR, licht ist sicher” (With the MICHR company, light is a sure thing),” Lukeš said. A book with the same title will be presented for the first time at the festival, followed by a discussion forum with the couple.
There are three other sections paying tribute to icons of Czech film. One is dedicated to Iva Janžurová, an actress that starred in over 60 films and numerous plays since she begun her active carrier in mid-60s.
The Wonderful Movie Cranks section will, as usual, screen works by filmmakers who are celebrating, or would have celebrated, a significant birthday this year. Otakar Vávra’s “Romance for Bugle” (Romance pro křídlovku) is based on a Romeo and Juliet-themed lyrical poem. Vávra was born in 1911. Gustav Machatý’s “Ecstasy” (Extáze) sparked a lot of controversy due to its nude scene with a young Hedy Lamarr. Machatý was born in 1901.
This year, the Phenomenon of Times section (introduced in 2010, when it focused on underground film) looks at the traditional Czech music festival of folk and country music, Porta. Founded in 1967, the annual festival had over 30,000 visitors at its prime and was sometimes called the Czech Woodstock.
The traditional open-air screenings will take place at U Branky in the city center and will show films of perhaps the most famous film duo, Zdeněk Svěrák and Ladislav Smoljak. Smoljak passed away in June last year.
The festival opened April 17 with the pre-premiere of “Czech Made Man,” starring Jan Budař in a rags-to-riches story based on true events about a take on “entrepreneurship” by one Czech ordinary man, and will close April 23 at the Peklo cultural center.
Long but broken history
The original aim of the “FIlmy NAšich LEt” festival was to show “the most valuable film works of the Czech and Slovak production” and the criteria was “social involvement in the widest and most humane meaning of the word … and the search for new qualities and possibilities for film language.” All screenings were at the Moskva cinema — later known as Elektra — then the biggest cinema in Czechoslovakia with 1,100 seats.
After only three years, the festival was shut down in the early ’70s due to the “normalization” that followed the Soviet-led invasion. It restarted in 1990, after the fall of communism, in the Elektra cinema until it closed in 2007.
“The private owner of the Elektra cinema decided to change it into a shopping venue, and the festival had no choice but to find another venue,” festival coordinator Eva Košařová told Czech Position. “Luckily, the new venue at Měšťanská beseda is a perfect replacement, and the guests — especially the ones coming from abroad — totally love the renovated Art Nouveau building.”
Since then, Měšťanská beseda is where most screenings, meetings with filmmakers and some concerts take place.
But when it comes to program changes, 2002 was when the festival introduced new sections that vary each year, with only some constant ones. Since then, the festival program has included a competition of documentary films completed in the past year, tributes to Czech film icons, concerts, workshops, and discussion forums with guests.
“Until two years ago, the festival focused on the ’60s, and mapped every year of this golden era of Czech film in a section called Czech Cinema’s Most Turbulent Decade,” Košařová said. “After we had covered [the entire decade], we added a section called Phenomenon of Times, which looks as Czech film and social life in the ’70s and ’80s.” she added.
Febiofest celebrates 18 years
Despite it struggles with financing each year, Febiofest remains the Czech Republic’s second-biggest international film festival for feature films and still going strong and getting ready to celebrate its 18th birthday with 190 films from 56 countries.
As in the previous few years, the multiplex CineStar Praha – Anděl (formerly Village Cinemas) in Prague’s Smíchov district will become the center of the nine-day festival, ready to satisfy film buffs as well as music fans. A side project to the films, the Febiofest Music Festival will host close to 50 concerts — three or four in the multiplexes underground garage and two at the venue’s Pizzerie Mediterane on most days.
“With bands playing till early morning hours and film screenings starting as early as 8 a.m., Febiofest actually becomes almost a nonstop event this year, giving a chance to the festival’s greatest fans to spend all nine days here without interruption,” Fero Fenič, the festival’s director said.
Films and guests
The festival will open with three films: “Fair Game,” a spy drama based on a true story starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn; “Somewhere,” Sofia Coppola’s minimalist portrait of one Hollywood actor’s dark side starring Stephen Dorff; and “Mama Gógó,” Friðrik Þór Friðriksson’s autobiographical film on an aging mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, co-edited by the young Czech documentary maker Tomáš Potočný.
Friðriksson will be one of the many festival guests, along with Australian director Peter Weir who will receive the Kristián Award for contribution to world cinema. He is also scheduled to close the festival with “The Way Back,” his new film about a World War II–era escape from Siberian gulag and journey to India, starring Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell and Ed Harris.
Another festival guest, French director Olivier Assayas, will introduce his new film “Carlos,” based on the life of terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. The 330-minute long film, adapted from a minseries, will have two breaks, festival PR manager Pavel Sladký told Czech Position. He also recommends an older film by Olivier Assayas, “Irma Vep,” about an attempt to remake of a silent vampire film. “It stars the beautiful Maggie Cheung and has a really poetic touch to it,” he said.
The jury is in
Actress Dagmar Havlová, the wife of the former president and playwright Václav Havel, will take the honorary chair of the jury. Traditionally, 33 jurors are picked from various social backgrounds and occupations. The jury will pick a winning film from the 12 films in the New Europe section that connected by the topic of an adolescent hero struggling with the outside world.
After four years, the competition has a Czech film again. Václav Kardnka’s “Eighty Letters” (Osmdesát dopisů) is an autobiography about the director’s memories from 1987 about his mother’s plans to escape Czechoslovakia to England to reunite with his father. The film premiered at Berlinale film festival in February.
Another Czech films at the festival is “Normalis” in the Another Shore section. Amateur director Jan Wolf, now 24, started making the film when he was 21 and financed the entire film himself. Wolf was discovered by Fenič.
“The film is a real surprise. It’s stylish, [the director] can work with camera, atmosphere, the film’s editing is professional, this really is not an amateur film at all,” program director Štefan Uhrík said. Fenič compared the film to Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” calling it the first Czech truly independent film.
The annual Slovak day will belong to the brilliant actor Milan Lasica, whose films including the smart comedy “Run He’s Coming” (Utekajme, už ide!), about one family’s unique solution to communist-era housing problems. All films in this section are unfortunately in Slovak without English subtitles.
The festival has added another section this year to celebrate 80th birthday of the Barrandov Studios. Some 16 films will be screened at the Ponrepo cinema and range from the first film ever to be filmed at the studios “Murder on Ostrovní Street” (Vražda v Ostrovní ulici) by Svatopluk Innemann to the first normalization film “The Key” (Klíč) directed by Vladimír Čech.
Febio also offers a wide section focused on Swedish cinema, with films ranging from award-winning films from the 1950s and ’60s, Ingmar Bergman’s lesser-known early films through to fresh work of today’s filmmakers such as the hilarious “Sound of Noise,” which was a popular favorite at last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
From the Asian Panorama, PR manager Sladký recommends two new films of a Korean director Hong Sang-soo: “Hahaha” and “Oki’s Movie.” They are for real cinephiles, he says.
Airport screenings
Prague Airport’s Terminal 2 will offer an unusual space for the annual non-cinema screenings Febiofest offers. Some previous unusual spaces included Prague’s main train station, a shopping center, a hospital and a museum. The films will all revolve around aviation topics made in the US and Czechoslovakia including “Con Air,” “Wrong Side Up” (Příběhy obyčejného šílenství), “The Aviator,” and older Jindřich Polák films such as “Heaven Riders” (Nebeští jezdci) and “Alarm in the Clouds” (Poplach v oblacích).
“There will be no catastrophic films screened there,” Fenič said, adding a free shuttle will be available for all festival guests between Anděl and the airport. One of the theaters built for the festival with some hundred seats will become a permanent fixture for all travelers.
Music and exhibition
Film fans can also stay for the music festival that changes the underground parking space below the cinema into a week-long party. Concerts will start a day early this year March 24 at 8 p.m. with V3ska and Sunflower Caravan. Other bands to perform at the underground improvised stages will be Čankišou, playing rock-based songs on exotic instruments, Tam Tam Orchestra with Afro-Brazilian tunes, and the legendary band Vltava.
Exhibitions by photographer and cameraman David Cysař featuring nine young filmmakers at Cinestar’s second floor and statues by Leopold Habermann at the Cinestar plaza will complete the artistic show.
Secrecy rules in Cinema Royal screenings
It’s 5:30 p.m. on a sunny Saturday and the first masked guests start to gather in the small gated park on Smetanovo nábřeží, in the very heart of Prague. After a while, a crowd of costumed people appears.
A flower girl gives flowers to everyone, an angel sways through the crowd, and other bizarre figures silently seduce the masked guests. The Czech national anthem is sung, followed by a dance. Suddenly, a tall man in top hat and cloak gathers everyone together. People who didn’t know each other several minutes ago start walking through the park to a secret place to see a still undisclosed film.
The crowd is participating in Cinema Royal, a secret screening project founded by an anonymous Prague-based team of cinema enthusiasts. The idea came from a similar project launched in 2007 in London under the name Secret Cinema. Since then, it has spread across the UK and US to the rest of the world.
“The main concept is to pull the audience into the atmosphere of the film. Watching films in the cinema is becoming monotonous, but to actually go someplace where the viewer can become part of the film and stay in its atmosphere for the rest of the night, that’s different,” says the Phantom, one of the anonymous organizers.
The element of secrecy also plays its important role — all of the key information about the screening is concealed until the last moment.
Potential audience members must register on a website or through a social networking site Facebook. Then, one day, members get an e-mail like this: “Sincerest greetings. It’s been two months since we last met. I'm writing to you again because I’ve been waiting for your reply ever since. I look more and more pitiful. I know this is love. I regret every moment I can’t stand by your side. I have adored you from the first day we met. I despise everyone else. Your existence is everything to me.”
Upon confirming your attendance, you get redirected to a page telling you where to buy a ticket. This time, it comes with a mask and directions to meet at the fountain at Smetanovo nábřeží.
“We want to give the people at least a hint of what the topic is, so they have a chance to participate. If they dress up for the occasion that also adds to the atmosphere of the evening,” Phantom said.
Location, location, location
The first Cinema Royal took place May 25 last year at the former headquarters of communist newspaper Rudé právo and screened the 1987 Czechoslovak film “Bony a klid,” about an underground group illegally trading foreign currency and vouchers for Western goods. Actors dressed up as Czechoslovak policemen shouting socialist slogans before the screening.
Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” was the second screening in September last year. Fans were lured to the old Walter Motors factory in the Jinonice district. After a five-month gap, an e-mail announced what seemed like a horror-style meeting at Nové Butovice, where actors chased the crowd to a closed floor of a shopping center to see the mall-themed zombie film “Dawn of the Dead.”
“To find the right place is always the hardest part,” said another team member who is a fundraiser, producer, and planner. “My colleagues, who are closer to film than I am, then pick the right one to be shown.” Actors, art decoration, chair elevation, technical equipment, bartenders and so on also need to be organized. ‘We wanted to cool it a bit this time, so we picked a location and film that would appeal to wider range of our audience.’Each member of the core team of six has an area of specialization. A list of possible locations exists, updated regularly with interesting places, but organizers declined to discuss any specific details. “We want to keep showing genre films in the future, usually these are in the original language with Czech subtitles,” the Phantom said.
According to his colleague, the aim of the most recent location and film was to show that the format is flexible. “We wanted to cool it a bit this time, so we picked a location and film that would appeal to a wider range of our audience. Though we know that our audience will mostly still be younger people who are not afraid to risk paying [for a surprise] and have fun dressing up for the occasion, we’d still like the screenings to vary, we don’t want people to say, yeah, they’ll chase us around again to some place and become predictable,” he said.
Underground cinema
When the masked guests and their mysterious guides reach the entrance to the garages of the New Stage of the National Theater, a descent underground begins. Deep in the fourth floor below the ground, a cinema is set up, dividing the audience in two groups sitting back to back to each other.
Here, three groups of 150 people each (due to the small space, three separate performances were scheduled for the night) will be shown the 1925 silent film “The Phantom of the Opera,” accompanied by electrical sounds by the musician that calls himself the Autumnist.
To fill in the time between the early screenings and the party that will take place at the New Stage’s top floor, beginning at 10 p.m. and lasting till the early morning hours, the National Theater offered a guided tour of the building to Cinema Royal guests, who will definitely not forget this experience — not until they receive a mysterious e-mail asking them to prepare for another royal screening experience.
Werich’s Fimfárum tales launch Czechs into 3D craze
The third entry in a series of animated fairy tales based on the classic Czech book “Fimfárum” by Jan Werich is also the first domestic effort to cash in on the recent craze for 3D animated feature films. Unlike most recent 3D films, though, the film uses puppet animation and not computer generated images (CGI).
“Fimfárum — Third Time Lucky 3D” (Fimfárum — Do třetice všeho dobrého 3D) contains three of Werich’s fairy tales: “How the Ogres Died Out in the Mountains,” “ The Hat and the Little Jay Feather,” and “Reason and Luck.” As with the previous two outings, archival recordings of Werich’s voice will be augmented by modern voice actors.
The middle tale —“The Hat and the Little Jay Feather” — concerns a king who sends his three sons to bring back a hat he left at a tavern when he was young. It was animated by Petr Poš and Vlasta Pospíšilová, co-director and animator of the first and second Fimfárum films, “Fimfárum Jana Wericha”and “Fimfárum 2”
The opening and closing tales were created and directed by new talents. The first story, where a film crews sets out to the Šumava mountains in Southern Bohemia to find out whether Ogres ever lived there, was directed by Kristina Dufková and animated by Denisa Grimmová Abrhámová. Dufková served as a producer on the short film “Bába,” which won first prize in the Cinéfondation section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009.
The third and longest fairy tale, “Reason and Luck” is the most interesting. The two virtues of the title try to prove their importance by changing the life of a pig herder named Louis. This is the only story with a multinational team working on it. Director David Súkup was joined by Spanish animator Patricie Ortiz Martinéz, who lives in Prague.
The screenplays for all three tales were written by Jiří Kubíček. For “Reason and Luck” he added some modern embellishments to Werich’s original storyline. These include the presence of a (fictitious) website called budtekralem, meaning (become a king), and scenes showing that the inside of one character’s brain functions like a computer. These met with accolades from children present at a preview, but purists who grew up with the books and audio recording featuring Werich’s narration might not be so quick to approve.
Making the sequel in 3D with a Kč 30 million budget was a longer and more difficult process than with 2D animated films, according to the animators. “Things you can get away with in 2D animation just wouldn’t work in 3D,” Martin Vandas, producer of all three Fimfárum films, told the press, adding that filming with the new technology takes twice as long. The film took four years to make, 16 months of which involved the actual filming process. “We started post-production in September, and are still making minor changes as we speak,” Vandas said at the preview, making assurances that the film would be in its final from in time for its premiere.
But the investment should be worth it. “There’s a much bigger demand for animated films in the 3D format rather than 2D,” Vandas said. While the demand isn’t universal, it is strong on the demographic group that is most likely to see animated films. “There are still people who remain faithful to the older format plus some 4 percent of people have eyesight problems so they can’t watch 3D, but apart from that, audiences almost always choose 3D films, especially children.”
One problem the filmmakers encountered was the distance and size of the puppets and backgrounds, as 3D requires more space, and optical illusions that can be used to imply a large setting in a traditional film won’t work in 3D. The film will be screened at some 80 cinemas around the country, the majority of which needed to be upgraded to screen digital content.
Some 70 puppets were made for the movie, with one scene alone using 29. Each puppet has up to 40 movable parts, so some 100,000 movements were made for this scene. An animator could do five-seconds of film time on an average day. Up to 10 animators worked on different scenes at the same time, and no computer tricks were used in making the film.
| Fimfárum 3D — Third Time Lucky |
Werich’s book contains 17 tales. The first film, “Fimfárum Jana Wericha,” had five tales and and “Fimfárum 2” had four. With the third film, that totals 12 stories that have been animated, leaving five undone. Vandas declined to confirm plans for another animated feature-length film.
Zděněk Svěrák and Jaroslav Uhlíř, who have been writing songs together for over 40 years, wrote the theme song for “Reason and Luck.” Svěrák, who also recorded the song, is a co-founder of Centrum Paraple, an organization that supports people in wheelchairs. His cooperation on the film led to an idea to help the center by offering the original Luck puppet to the highest bidder via the auction website Aukro.cz, while the entire sum raised will go to support of the center. Bidding started on Feb. 7 and will end Feb. 14.
A new book with the same title has also been released by children’s book publisher Albatros as a tie-in to the film. It contains all three fairy tales illustrated by 3D photographs, and includes special stereoscopic glasses.
The film will be screened in select Czech theaters in 2D with English subtitles, with plans for an English dubbed version for film festivals abroad as well.
‘Czech Dream’ team tackles cars, kimchi in ‘Nošovice!’
The latest documentary by Vít Klusák follows the impact of the construction of a Hyundai Motor Company plant on Nošovice, a small village in North Moravia that was previously best known for its sauerkraut. “All for the Good of the World and Nošovice!” examines the impact of the establishment of the massive automobile plant on the villagers and is the first Czech documentary to take a critical eye to an international corporation.
At 82 minutes, the film portrays how the South Korean company forced land buyouts from locals, the value to Nošovice residents of Kč 100,000 versus the pride of maintaining a family field, a work day consisting of 54.5 second-long operations at the assembly line, a secret Korean ritual and seven linden trees that survived the plant construction.
“Nošovice!” is not a radical departure in tone from Klusák’s previous documentaries —“Czech Dream” and “Czech Peace” — but represents his first time alone in the director’s chair: He had co-directed the earlier films with Filip Remunda, who this time served as the producer. They studied together at FAMU, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts.
The duo’s first documentary, “Czech Dream” (a play on the “American Dream”) involved a controversial advertising campaign ahead of the opening of a nonexistent hypermarket. It got mixed reactions both from the media and certainly from the unwitting Czechs who went to the store’s “grand opening,” only to find a cloth facade in the middle of a field. However, the documentary won numerous awards abroad in 2005, including the JJ Star Award at the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea — an award that, ironically, almost shut Klusák off from filming at the Nošovice plant.
Following “Czech Dream,” Klusák and Remunda went on to film the heated debate over the planned construction of a US anti-missile radar station on Czech soil, at the former military base in the Brdy forest. “Czech Peace” premiered in March 2010, not long after the administration of US President Barack Obama had officially dropped the project.
Filming took three years and shows viewpoints of both sides of the camp including the meeting between then-President George Bush and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, protests from Jan Neoral, mayor of the village of Trokavec, and the establishment by pressure group Greenpeace of an independent state called Peaceland at the proposed spot of the radar base.
“Czech Peace” won praise from many critics and filmmakers including Michael Moore, who called it one of the best documentaries he had seen. Moore shot to fame with his own look at the auto industry in “Roger & Me” in 1989. “Nošovice!” has been nominated for a Czech Lion (Český lev) for Best Documentary and, at the Feb. 5 nominating ceremony, already received a prize from film critics and theoreticians for best documentary.
Unlike the subjects of both their previous films — the imaginary hypermarket or the never-to-be-built US radar base — the South Korean car plant in Nošovice is now a day-to-day reality to its residents.
Land disputes, labor trouble
Klusák says he became interested in the Hyundai story in 2005, after reading an article in the Czech weekly magazine Respekt that disclosed forced buyouts of fields from the locals and the practices the South Korean company used to bully them into selling.
He first brought his camera to Nošovice in 2006 and returned to the village two years later, when the plant had been already built and automobile production had begun. Despite the initial disagreement with filming, some Nošovice locals affected by the construction eventually agreed to tell their stories on camera.
“I cried all night sitting in my cellar,” says Josef Havlas, one of the last Nošovice villagers forced to sell land to make way for bulldozers while his neighbor welds a metal scarecrow out of old car parts, pins the life-threatening letter sent to him on its chest, and places it at the end of a road that once connected the village through the fields.
“They built the plant right in the middle of the village where the cabbage fields used to be,” Klusák said, adding it’s disconcerting how the villagers must now go all the way around the field to reach the Nošovice Town Hall, for example. Sauerkraut production still goes on in Nošovice, despite the cabbage fields now being several kilometers away from the village; scenes depicting women cultivating the vegetables with their supervisor provide a nice contrast to those shot inside the plant.
However, the gates of the kilometer-long building called “the silver UFO” by the locals due to its color — and sudden mysterious appearance — almost remained closed to the director. Just before the filming started, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech spokesman Petr Vaněk called Klusák and told him that the management had withdrawn its previous permission to film anything on the Hyundai premises.
“Apparently, the management in Seoul must approve everything of this sort, and when they looked me up online and saw ‘Czech Dream’ had won at the Korean festival, they got cold feet,” Klusák said. The management later reluctantly agreed that Klusák could film a tour through the factory — organized by Vaněk — to show the factory’s friendly face.
The tour, however, turns out a bit differently than the management would have liked and is just one of the scenes in the film mocking Hyundai’s efforts to do “all for the good of the world” or to “build our common future” — slogans the company has readily at hand.
Filming inside the factory came to an end when the filmmakers were forced to leave the premises by the security while shooting a scene where one worker, Ondřej Frank, has to stand on his tiptoes to attach a rubber piece to every car at the assembly line.
| All for the Good of the World and Nošovice! |
True to his surname, Frank is the only one to openly speak about working conditions in the documentary — and was later fired. Klusák went to the media with the story, which resulted in a health and safety check by the authorities at the Nošovice plant and a fine of Kč 700,000 against Hyundai last year. “Conditions slightly improved after that, but I now hear everything is getting worse again and there might be another strike,” Klusák said.
That’s not quite the end of the story, though. There’s a surprise for the audience at the end of the ending credits worth waiting for, as the director broke a promise he made after finishing “Czech Dream” to never make an advertisement.
Japanese film festival looks beyond ‘extremes’
Now in its fourth year, the Eiga-sai–Festival of Contemporary Japanese Film starting this Friday will feature eight films which, while popular in their homeland, wouldn’t normally be screened for Czech audiences.
“Older Japanese films, anime, and ‘extreme’ [experimental] films were the only ones available on the Czech market before, but the films that are really popular in Japan have not been available, so we decided to finally bring these films here,” Robin Heřman, an expert on Japan who is behind the festival, told Czech Position.
Eiga-sai is the collective effort of the Czech-Japanese Association, the Japan Foundation and Lucerna Palace, supported by the Embassy of Japan in the Czech Republic. The films come from a variety of genres, from historical-themed anime to modern-day melodrama. While the festival is now relatively small, the organizers hope to be able to expand it future.
The film festival — which runs from Jan. 21 to 27 at Lucerna cinema — coincides with other events showcasing Japanese culture that will continue on in various venues across Prague until Feb. 24
| Eiga-sai 2011 |
“The desire for more contemporary Japanese film and the offer to finance this project from Japan happened simultaneously, so it all worked out almost magically,” Heřman said. The Japan Foundation covers the majority of the funding each year plus handles negotiation with film distributors; the rest of the money comes from other sponsors and the box-office receipts.
This year the festival will show eight films. One of the most-anticipated films of this year’s festival is a Czech premiere of “Norwegian Wood” (Noruwei no mori). Based on the best-selling novel by Haruki Murakami, the film uses the Beatles song as the catalyst for a flashback to a bittersweet tale set in the 1960s (unfortunately, this film will not been screend with English subtitles; all others in the festival will).
Another film highly recommended by Heřman is an example of top Japanese anime made during the genre’s boom in the ’80s, “The Dagger of Kamui” (Kamui no ken). Director Hayashi Shigeyuki, known by the alias Rintaro, was an important figure in the development of Japanese anime. The film is adapted from a series of novels set in the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
“Awakening” (Tamamoe!) and “Climber’s High” (Kuraimazu hai) can be described as psychological studies. “Awakening” follows a widow who starts to slowly unravel that there were things about her recently deceased husband that she didn’t know. The melodrama has some touches of humor as the widow tries to rebuild her life.
“Climber’s High” looks at the events surrounding a plane crash and the efforts of a reporter to be the first on the scene. The film — based on the real accident of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in 1985 — takes a quite different approach than the typical disaster flick.
Takeshi Kitano’s 1991 film “A Scene at the Sea” (Ano natsu ichiban shizukana umi) is a somewhat peotic film about a deaf garbage collector who is learning to surf. It is break from the director’s usual tales of police and criminals.
The family drama “Hotel Hibiscus” (Hoteru haibisukasu), the detective story “An Angel With Many Scars” (Kizu darake no tenshi) and the theatrical adaptation “The Youth of Kamiya Etsuko” (Kamiya Etsuko no seishun) round out the list.
Hopes for a bigger festival
“Right now, it’s not really a ‘festival’ in its true sense,” Heřman said. “We’d like to see more specified sections with debates, directors’ retrospectives, etc. The problem is that except for maybe Akira Kurosawa, the audience here does not really know directors famous in Japan. We are trying to change that by bringing their films to the festival, one by one.”The problem is that except for maybe Akira Kurosawa, the audience here does not really know directors famous in Japan.
Heřman added that documentaries, the presence of pop music in film, and the connection that exists between theater and film are other areas he’d like to see explored in upcoming festivals. Bringing Japanese films to other cities in the Czech Republic is also on his to-do list.
But all that depends not only on financing but also on whether Heřman can find people ready to devote their time and effort to the project for several years at the least. “We are looking for people like that at the moment,” he told Czech Position.
Theater, lectures and go
An accompanying program starts on Jan. 22 with the annual Japanese Culture Day also at Lucerna Palace. It’s main event is a traditional performance of shadows by puppeteer Noriyuki Sawa — a Prague-based artist known for combining traditional Japanese art with European elements. The performance, aimed at both children and adults, is separated into three parts — “The Cherry Orchard,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Little Mermaid” — and starts in the main screening hall at 2 p.m.
Saturday afternoon at Lucerna’s Marble Hall will be dedicated to hands-on opportunities to try Japanese traditional pastimes such as calligraphy, ink painting, paper folding and the popular board game “go.”
Heřman also recommends Dōjōji, an example of kabuki theater interpretation of Noh play performed Feb. 5 by Inoue Makoto at the Disk Theater, as well as the opening of the new permanent exhibit at the National Gallery in Prague titled Art of the Ancient World, which will display works from Asia and the Mediterranean.
But perhaps the most potentially interesting from the series of lectures to be held at the Embassy of Japan will be that of translator Tomáš Jurkovič titled “Mysterious Women in Haruki Murakami’s Novels.” As a translator of the celebrated author’s novels, Jurkovič has met the author several times and is considered an expert on hidden messages in Murakami’s novels. (The lectures are in Czech without translation.)
The month-long festival will close with a recital at the New Town Hall that will introduce Chikako Kanehisa and Kifu Mitsuhashi, two Japanese soloists who will interpret classical and contemporary pieces on traditional instruments.
The Czech-Japanese Association holds other events throughout the year. Two of the most interesting annual events include the Japanese spring celebration during the first week in June at Vyšehrad, which hosts numerous actors and actresses who perform traditional Japanese rituals welcoming spring. In November, the Police Museum in Prague hosts the annual Katana Matsuri, a celebration of what is commonly known as a “sword of the Samurai.”
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Karlovy Vary 2010 Update #3
The last day of the Karlovy Vary international film festival has come to an end and soon its glamour will fade into the night.
As many as 126,808 tickets were sold to screenings of 207 films, accompanied by 767 filmmakers and film professionals. Almost 600 journalists from all over the world came to report on the daily festival rush.
Awards have been announced during the closing ceremony with the Spanish film about a family in crisis by Augustí Vila La Mosquitera (The Mosquito Net) taking the Grand Prix – Crystal Globe award as the best film in the main competition, an award handed to the filmmakers by Nikita Mikhalkov awarded the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema and the Special Jury Award going to Kuky se vrací (Kooky), a Jan Svěrák film not only for children, that caused a sensation during the festival when the director launched a competition among the audience that searched for the puppet toy Kooky hidden every day in a different place in the spa town.
Rajko Grlić with his comedy Neka ostane medju nama (Just Between Us) won as the best director. The Best Actress award went to the young Anaïs Demoustier for her role as 15-year-old girl who imposes upon an older married couple in L’enfance du mal (Sweet Evil) and both leading actors of the Polish drama Matka Teresa od kotów (Mother Teresa of Cats) Mateusz Kościukiewicz and Filip Garbacz won as best actors.
The jury’s special mention award went to the Russian film Drugoje nebo (Another Sky) and Iran’s Chiz-haie hast keh nemidani (There Are Things You Don’t Know) simultaneously.
Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits film Familia won as the best documentary over 30 minutes.
The audience award of the Czech daily Právo, decided by 67,070 viewers went to the Danish comedy Oldboys by Nikolaj Steen.
The festival may be over but if you haven’t seen all the films you wanted to or didn’t make it to the festival at all, you can catch a lot of them including the winning picture in Prague cinemas Světozor, Aero, and Atlas. Films such as Single Man, Mr. Nobody, Heaven, Hell, Heartbreaker, Submarino, Four Lions, and Serious Man have already been bought for Czech distribution, so you can look forward to see them in a theatre near you.
And as the awarded artists and lucky Kooky winners take home their prizes, the rest of us can look forward to the festival next year that will take place in the western Bohemian spa town again from 1 to 9 July, 2011.
Karlovy Vary 2010 Update #2
With the second festival weekend quickly approaching, the festival has had a few days to catch a second breath before the final home stretch and the announcement of the Crystal Globe winners on Saturday.
109,251 tickets were already sold and it looks like the festival will beat last year’s figures, proving not even the recession is strong enough of a reason for the fans to miss their favorite festival in central Europe.
Those who followed films in competition were certainly in for some interesting experience so far. The most expected film was Hitler à Hollywood (Hitler in Hollywood) by Frédéric Sojcher. This mockumentary thriller on a plot against European cinema stars Maria de Medeiros (Pulp Fiction, Henry & June), and Micheline Presle (Devil in the Flesh, I Want to Go Home) as well as other renowned actors and directors. This playful, mystifying film playing with the viewer’s conception of reality combining both, fiction and documentary, received mixed reviews so far, the final verdict of the jury yet to be seen.
Another competition film worth mentioning for its provocative nature is definitely Matka Teresa od kotów (Mother Teresa of Cats). This disturbing film based on a true story in Poland that happened two years ago opens with a brutal murder of a mother by her two sons. The film uses retrospective to tell most of the story and was a hard one to chew for the audience as well as film critics.
Among some of the amazing films I had a chance to see in the past couple of days was Na Putu (On The Path), a second feature by Jasmila Žbanić, whose first film Grbavica won a Golden Bear in Berlin. Her second film portraying a relationship of a young couple Amar and Luna set in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina and their struggle to come to terms with the war and religion is as intense as her first feature. The focus stays on the main characters the whole time, studying their motives, never letting you rest. Superb acting, direction, music and cinematography again prove Žbanić is a true master of her craft.
I also have to mention a Jaroslav Fuit film Dvojka (Twosome). This Czech film is a road movie following Veronika and Michal on their holiday in Scandinavia hoping to overcome a crisis of their five-year relationship. After meeting Shimi, their trip takes on a different turn, revealing their true character. This film, together with Zoufalci (Dreamers) proves the new Czech talent is not afraid to dig below the surface and show the raw truth about the values the young Czech generation struggles with today.
Today, I’m looking forward to seeing The Company Men, first feature by John Wells, icon of screenwriting and producing, and tomorrow the screening of Nikita Mikhalkov’s new film Utomljonnyje solncem 2: Predstojanije (Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus), screened in Cannes this year. The film did not receive good reviews, however, so I’m curious what the reactions will be among the KVIFF audience. Mikhalkov will receive a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema before the screening.
Following a Master Class yesterday with the icon of film criticism Michel Ciment, where he spoke of the origins of film criticism in the 20th century, encouraged young filmmakers to experiment, denounced set rules for film criticism, spoke of the work of his favorite filmmakers, and highlighted the growing importance of film festivals and declining impact of film reviews on audience’s opinion, I’m looking forward to see a film he cooperated on, a portrait of John Boorman, as well as a documentary on his work, Michel Ciment: The Art of Sharing Movies, where he chats up directors such as Wim Wenders, Quentin Tarantino, and many others, screening on Saturday afternoon, just in time for me to make it to the closing ceremony, the final celebration of the spa town’s film party of the year.
Karlovy Vary 2010 Update
The first festival weekend is over and everything has settled into the usual festival routine. First guests have already walked the red carpet, first competition films have been screened, the usual fight for the tickets in front of the box offices and inside the theatres has begun, as has of course, the main competition for the Grand Prix – Crystal Globe award for the best feature film.
Jan Svěrák has launched a competition on its own at the screening of Kooky, when he tied the puppet toy Kooky to a bunch of balloons and set free to float over the audience during the film. The new lucky owner would be the one whose lap it would fall into during the film. Kooky really took his time and stayed up during the entire screening only to fall into hands of an eleven-year old Jakub, who was patient enough to wait for him long after the film had ended.
However, the film that I enjoyed the most so far was La Mosquitera (The Mosquito Net) by Agustí Vila, about a suburban family whose each member is disturbed and emotionally unstable, manifesting this in its own unique manner. This incredibly smart, visually perfect, provoking, insightful dark comedy featuring Geraldine Chaplin as a supportive actress was really an unforgettable experience, and not just because of the brave sexual scenes. Definitely a hot candidate for a Crystal Globe in several categories.
Another film I can recommend is Žena sa slomljenim nosem (A Woman With a Broken Nose), by Srdjan Koljević, competing in the East of the West section. This film portraying life of several lost souls in post-war Belgrade whose life connect because of one woman’s suicide attempt is a pleasant, clever mosaic full of hope for the region, symbolics, and love.
And what else’s been hot in the spa town apart from the weather this weekend? Thelma Schoonmaker was Saturday’s star as she talked passionately about her husband’s work, the restoration process of his films, and let us peek behind the closed doors of the editing room with Martin Scorsese. New screens appeared on the terrace and the bar of Hotel Thermal broadcasting football matches providing for a comfortable way how to satisfy both, the passion for film and sport. The unbearable heat has made the pace slower and mojito consumption soar, however, couldn’t stop the crowds at Poštovní dvůr enjoy their one-day festival, and rock the Captain Morgan tent until the early morning hours. Here I can’t help but thank the excellent job the cleaning services do every night to keep the “crime scene” in front of Thermal clean every day from cups, glasses, etc. Great job there.
There is much more to look forward to this week. The lens of cameras will focus on one of the most expected guests at the festival Jude Law today, who will walk the red carpet to receive the Festival President’s Award before midnight, and was all smiles when he arrived to Grandhotel Pupp last night.
With Juraj Herz and Nikita Mikhalkov arriving later this week, you can join Zdeněk Svěrák at the Mlýnská kolonáda on Tuesday for a 100 metre run and help raise money for those who cannot. You can also donate by buying a T-shirt or a nice cup at the Paraple stand in front of Thermal.
The festival has also thought of its smallest visitors this year. Aeroškola in Aeroport is having animated film workshops focused mainly (but not only) on children. As of Tuesday, film tricks and reportage tips will also be taught. Aeroport also turns into a dance club after dark in quite a unique space right on the Kolonáda promenade.
As for more film tips, there are several that I’m looking forward to, some of which I’ve mentioned before:
Official selection:
- Trois temps après la mort d’Anna (Mourning for Anna)
- Matka Teresa od kotów (Mother Teresa of Cats)
- Hitler à Hollywood (Hitler at Hollywood)
Official selection – Out of Competition:
- The Company Men
- Single Man
- L’ arnacoeur (Heartbreaker)
Open Eyes:
- Copie conforme (Certified Copy)
- O estranho caso de Angélica (Strange Case of Angelica)
- Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men)
- Un homme qui crie (A Screaming Man)
- Shi (Poetry)
Horizonts:
- Ondine
- The Illusionist
Variety Critics’ Choice:
- Friendship!
- Rewers (The Reverse)
- Snap
Also, for those of you who feel not just like watching the films but talking to the filmmakers as well, a Masterclass with Andrew and Kevin Macdonald, the creative grandsons of Emeric Pressburger, will take place on Tuesday, 6 July at 2pm at the Radio 1 Lounge of Hotel Thermal. For B-movie lovers and Ozploitation fans, the creative personality of Australia’s wave of pulp movies Brian Trenchard-Smith will be ready to answer your questions at the same time and place on Thursday, 8 July.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2010
The Karlovy Vary film festival is indisputably the biggest film event of the year, not only for Czech movie buffs but also for filmmakers and festival fans from across Europe.
The festival is the country's only FIAPF-accredited competitive feature film festival and has come a long way since its foundation in 1946, through 40 years of censorship to its "resuscitation" by Jiří Bartoška and Eva Zaoralová in 1994.
Today, it boldly stands alongside such renowned European festivals as Cannes, Berlin or Venice, bringing the best of these festivals plus a wide range of new films to thousands of visitors every year.
From Friday, July 2, the box offices will open again and for the next 10 days, the festival will screen 204 films, including many premieres, and play host to industry guests, journalists, and, above all else, visitors, without whom Karlovy Vary wouldn't be known as "The Backpackers' Festival."
Vary, unlike the glitzy festivals mentioned above, is mainly a festival for people.
No other Category A festival in Europe offers so many accreditation-free visitors a chance to see the films of their choosing and even shake hands and sit down over coffee with filmmakers.
For many visitors, the only roof over their heads for the week of the festival will be a tent or the ceiling of a gymnasium shared with dozens of other guests.
Accommodation
If you don't mind sleeping on the floor of a gym, you can try your luck at the school building at Nábřeží Palacha 1, around 100 meters from the Hotel Thermal. The price per person per night is 99 CZK. Bring your own mat and sleeping bag.
If you prefer sleeping outside -- and the weather looks pretty favorable so far this year -- go to the campsite set up every year at the AC Start Karlovy Vary football stadium, where you'll pay 70 CZK per person/night. There's also a hall where you can sleep if you don't have a tent.
Since the festival attracts more and more people every year, it's always the best to book accommodation well in advance, but if you still haven't done so and would like to find a decent room for two or three, I recommend checking the official Karlovy Vary International Film Festival website's discussion forum for accommodation offers.
Tickets
Tickets will again be available again from the box offices in front of Hotel Thermal and the Grandhotel Pupp.
I'd recommend a buying a Festival Pass, however. These are available for one, three or five days or for the entire duration of the festival and entitle the holder to see three films per day free of charge. A Festival Pass also allows the holder to attend concerts and -- if there's room -- press conferences, and to swim in the Hotel Thermal pool at a reduced price.
Also through the Pass, you can reserve tickets via SMS text message from 7am every day. (Be punctual -- only a limited number of seats are available this way and are usually gone by 7:05am.)
Guests
And who is it that you should be looking for this year?
Jude Law will visit Karlovy Vary to receive the Festival President's Award, while Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov and Slovak director Juraj Herz are both expected to be honored with the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
The festival will also welcome iconic film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, whose long-term collaboration with Martin Scorsese has included work on such films as Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, Goodfellas and The Departed.
Schoonmaker will introduce a restored version of The Red Shoes, which, along with six other films, forms part of a tribute to the brilliant British filmmakers Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. Karlovy Vary will also host Pressburger's grandsons, Andrew and Kevin Macdonald --respectively a successful producer and an Oscar-winning director.
And of course, the festival will welcome the creators of the films competing for the festival's main prize, the Crystal Globe, plus the members of the jury that select its winner.
Films
Two-hundred-and-four films are ready to be screened for thousands of visitors. But which ones to choose?
The festival will open with Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as country singer Otis "Bad" Blake, a performance which won him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and close with Heartbreaker, a light romantic comedy starring Vanessa Paradis and Romain Duris that pays tribute to Dirty Dancing.
In between, there are numerous sections to choose from. The main competition features 12 new films, several of which are directorial debuts, and two of which were produced in the Czech Republic: Jan Svěrák's new puppet film Kooky (Kuky se vrací) and the thriller 3 Seasons in Hell (3 sezóny v pekle), based on the early life of underground writer Egon Bondy.
Probably the most sought-after section among film buffs who couldn't make it to Cannes, Berlin or Venice is the Open Eyes section. Cannes-winners such as Certified Copy (Copie conforme), for which Juliette Binoche won the Best Actress Award; Grand Prix-winner Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux); Jury Prize-winner A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie); and Poetry (Shi) (Best Screenplay) are just a few of the films to look forward to.
From the other sections, don't miss the Variety Critics' Choice selection entitled Europe Now!, showcasing new European talent.
For lovers of B-movies, the Midnight Screenings section includes a collection of some of the best Ozploitation movies. Films like Dead End Drive-In, Razorback and the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! are definitely worth staying up late for!
Last but not least, try not to miss the screening in the Grand Hall of Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, truly a masterpiece of the filmmaking art.
The 2010 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs from Friday, July 2 until Saturday, July 10.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Blurring boundaries
Mezipatra, the name of the Czech Republic's international queer film festival, literally means "the space between floors". It's a meeting point not only for gays, lesbians, trans- and bisexuals, but for anyone interested in queer culture and being liberated from traditional sexual and gender identities based on fixed categories like male/female and gay/straight.
The main theme this year is the third world war of genders, which means a full-scale attack on traditional sexual identities and roles, heterosexual norms, male gender superiority, and forced perceptions of the "normal" and "natural” in our society. It's also the main theme of this year's opening film, XXY, which tells the story of an intersex teenager who refuses to decide on a gender at all.
Now in its 10th year, the festival will include screenings of award-winning feature films from previous years on the Czech TV website. (Each week, a new film will be added, with all films staying online until the end of November.) Among festival director Aleš Rumpel’s picks are Reding brothers’ production Oi! Warning, which was best film in 2003, and Whole New Thing, the 2006 winner.
As part of the accompanying programme, don't miss The Other Kind of Blue exhibition at Prague’s Václav Špála Gallery, including a retrospective of the work of Derek Jarman, honoured by the festival some 15 years after his death. Other experimental works come from talented young Czech and Slovak artists such as Darina Alster, Radim Labuda and Tamara Moyzes.
More than 100 screenings will take place at Mezipatra this year. Rumpel also singles out Fig Trees, an experimental film opera about AIDS and the growing complacency around the illness. More mainstream offerings include the Norwegian film Man Who Loved Yngve. Fans of documentary should head to Against a Trans Narrative, a collage of ideas about gender transformation.
Mezipatra also boasts many workshops and lectures, including a highly recommended talk by feminist icon Jack Judith Halberstam. Oher workshops cover bisexuality, asexuality, transgender and gay-speak.
Founded in 2000, the festival began in Brno as a staging of films with lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual content under the title Duha nad Brnem or Rainbow above Brno. In 2002, it became Mezipatra, taking place in Prague and Brno, with offshoots in other Czech and Slovak towns organised by the non-profit organisation STUD.
The festival is mainly financed through state subsidies and ticket sales that barely cover its annual costs of some CZK 2 million. State funding has varied in the past, sinking as low as a few thousand Czech crowns in Brno. This year, the festival might have gone short of any subsidies in the Moravian town, had it not been for Green party representatives at the town hall who granted organisers the CZK 50,000 sum originally planned.
Rumpel says that like every other festival, Mezipatra must pay distributors for most of its films, excluding those in the main competition. Rumpel, his colleague Tereza Hendlová, who looks after media services, and all the other organisers put the festival together every year for no financial reward. There is also a chance for individuals and groups to adopt a film, an option welcomed by various audiences in previous years.
Clearly, there’s a huge need for festivals like Mezipatra. We are still a long way from an open society: The exhibition Tělo (The Body), forming part of the festival, had to be moved from the café Spolek in Brno to a new venue, Starý pivovar, due to protests from visitors.
The festival runs from 23 - 31 October in Brno and 2 - 8 November in Prague. Visit www.mezipatra.cz for the complete programme.
Marko Škop: Films Need State Funding
Marko Škop is one of the emerging
talents of Slovak documentary
cinema. With his directorial debut Iné Svety
(Other Worlds), he won over audiences at
the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
in 2006. Last year the documentary Slepé
lásky (Blind Loves), which he helped
produce, returned from Cannes with
the Art Cinema Award, and his newest
production, Osadné, about a village in
eastern Slovakia, won the Crystal Globe
in its category at Vary this year.
You’ve said that Osadné is a “directed
documentary”, meaning that you
steered the story a bit. Can you
explain how you influenced it? How
important is it to you to maintain the
purity of the documentary form?
The most fascinating and beautiful thing
about documentary is the creativity and
freedom it gives you to use different
styles. When it came to Osadné, I hope
I stayed true to all ethical standards and
factual authenticity.
The project was actually conceived
one day when I was watching the news
and happened to catch a European MP
answering questions. I discovered that any
of these guys can invite up to 100 guests
to see the European Parliament.
At that time, Jarka Sabolová, who
writes for a Ruthenian [ethnic minority]
magazine told me about this village –
Osadné, in the very east of Slovakia – that
has a very good and active Orthodox
priest, a decent mayor and a tourist trail
funded by the EU.
I already knew Fedor Vico; we’d worked
together on Iné Svety. He, in turn, knows
the politician Milan Gaľa, and so we asked
Milan to visit Osadné. He accepted and
came, which I appreciated tremendously.
And then, he invited everyone to Brussels.
So, actually the only thing I set up was
inviting Milan Gal’a. After that, we just
filmed what happened.
I shot this documentary differently
from Iné Svety, in which I, myself, spoke
on camera. With Osadné, I wanted to
try something new; we combined shots
in a more classic documentary style, for
example. Also, the characters don’t talk
directly on camera. Instead I just gave
them the topics I wanted them to cover.
They went with it from there, and we
captured that.
You’ve participated in several projects
to support film distribution such as
Doc Alliance and Docu Talents from
the East. What do you think about
these systems? Are they helpful for
documentary makers, especially
young people in the industry?
I really appreciate what Czech institutions
are doing to support documentaries,
and especially what the Institute of
Documentary Film and the Jihlava
International Documentary Film Festival
have done to help educate young
filmmakers.
It’s generally much harder to finance
a documentary than a feature film.
What has your personal experience
been with this, and what would you
recommend?
As in any endeavour, starting out is always
tough. But I think the most important
thing is that the project get support from
the state, or from some state institution.
It’s also possible to finance films through
international co-productions, but that’s
very hard to do. I admire anyone who can
finance their film like that. Also, I’d like to
thank Hypermarket Film for helping us;
their support was essential.
You’ve described yourself as a “local
documentary filmmaker”. Do you have
any plans to make films abroad?
Yes, I can totally imagine filming abroad.
I’ve already shot in Kosovo after the war.
But it’s true that eastern Slovakia is a
subject that interests me a lot, and there’s
still plenty of inspiration for me there.
Your documentaries Iné Svety and
Osadné, as well as Slepé lásky, which
you co-produced, have been honoured
with prizes. Which filmmakers have
inspired you most?
In terms of Czech film, I’d have to say
Karel Vachek for his gifts as a philosopher
and an instructor and Helena Třeštíková
for her humanity and hard work. Looking
at the filmmakers of my generation, I’d
single out Miroslav Janek for his integrity
and creative abilities. And then there’s
Vít Klusák, Jan Gogola, Pavel Abrahám,
Lucie Králová, Filip Remunda and Martin
Mareček. I hope I didn’t forget anyone. •
talents of Slovak documentary
cinema. With his directorial debut Iné Svety
(Other Worlds), he won over audiences at
the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
in 2006. Last year the documentary Slepé
lásky (Blind Loves), which he helped
produce, returned from Cannes with
the Art Cinema Award, and his newest
production, Osadné, about a village in
eastern Slovakia, won the Crystal Globe
in its category at Vary this year.
You’ve said that Osadné is a “directed
documentary”, meaning that you
steered the story a bit. Can you
explain how you influenced it? How
important is it to you to maintain the
purity of the documentary form?
The most fascinating and beautiful thing
about documentary is the creativity and
freedom it gives you to use different
styles. When it came to Osadné, I hope
I stayed true to all ethical standards and
factual authenticity.
The project was actually conceived
one day when I was watching the news
and happened to catch a European MP
answering questions. I discovered that any
of these guys can invite up to 100 guests
to see the European Parliament.
At that time, Jarka Sabolová, who
writes for a Ruthenian [ethnic minority]
magazine told me about this village –
Osadné, in the very east of Slovakia – that
has a very good and active Orthodox
priest, a decent mayor and a tourist trail
funded by the EU.
I already knew Fedor Vico; we’d worked
together on Iné Svety. He, in turn, knows
the politician Milan Gaľa, and so we asked
Milan to visit Osadné. He accepted and
came, which I appreciated tremendously.
And then, he invited everyone to Brussels.
So, actually the only thing I set up was
inviting Milan Gal’a. After that, we just
filmed what happened.
I shot this documentary differently
from Iné Svety, in which I, myself, spoke
on camera. With Osadné, I wanted to
try something new; we combined shots
in a more classic documentary style, for
example. Also, the characters don’t talk
directly on camera. Instead I just gave
them the topics I wanted them to cover.
They went with it from there, and we
captured that.
You’ve participated in several projects
to support film distribution such as
Doc Alliance and Docu Talents from
the East. What do you think about
these systems? Are they helpful for
documentary makers, especially
young people in the industry?
I really appreciate what Czech institutions
are doing to support documentaries,
and especially what the Institute of
Documentary Film and the Jihlava
International Documentary Film Festival
have done to help educate young
filmmakers.
It’s generally much harder to finance
a documentary than a feature film.
What has your personal experience
been with this, and what would you
recommend?
As in any endeavour, starting out is always
tough. But I think the most important
thing is that the project get support from
the state, or from some state institution.
It’s also possible to finance films through
international co-productions, but that’s
very hard to do. I admire anyone who can
finance their film like that. Also, I’d like to
thank Hypermarket Film for helping us;
their support was essential.
You’ve described yourself as a “local
documentary filmmaker”. Do you have
any plans to make films abroad?
Yes, I can totally imagine filming abroad.
I’ve already shot in Kosovo after the war.
But it’s true that eastern Slovakia is a
subject that interests me a lot, and there’s
still plenty of inspiration for me there.
Your documentaries Iné Svety and
Osadné, as well as Slepé lásky, which
you co-produced, have been honoured
with prizes. Which filmmakers have
inspired you most?
In terms of Czech film, I’d have to say
Karel Vachek for his gifts as a philosopher
and an instructor and Helena Třeštíková
for her humanity and hard work. Looking
at the filmmakers of my generation, I’d
single out Miroslav Janek for his integrity
and creative abilities. And then there’s
Vít Klusák, Jan Gogola, Pavel Abrahám,
Lucie Králová, Filip Remunda and Martin
Mareček. I hope I didn’t forget anyone. •
Movies for the Masses
Young people hold plastic cups of
beer in one hand and paper plates
with sausages in the other while they
chat about the films they just saw or
last night’s parties. This exterior shot of
the Hotel Thermal, built during the peak
of communist-era panel construction,
represents the first scene for visitors
at the Karlovy Vary International Film
Festival (KVIFF). Walk further into the
hotel, past the main hall and up the stairs,
and you find those who came with other
motives. Up-and-coming filmmakers
present new work to their cashhandling
counterparts in the industry,
who are there to scout new genius.
Directors, producers and distributors
talk shop, always surrounded by a herd
of journalists straining ears to catch the
latest on who’s doing what, where and
when.
Jarosław Szoda, an award-winning
Polish cinematographer, said that what
makes Karlovy Vary so special is that it
exists for the fans who are here to see
the films, unlike Cannes or Berlin, which
are festivals that mainly draw visitors
interested in the cinema market. KVIFF
manages to combine the best of both
worlds: It’s a festival for the people, as
well as a meeting point for filmmakers.
Backpackers and celebrities rub
shoulders as they pass each other in the
halls, only to meet later for a chat at one
of the afternoon discussions organised
as part of the festival.
At a master class on 10 July, visitors
had a chance to talk to one of the many
big stars to have visited the spa town over
the years, John Malkovich, who received
the Crystal Globe for Outstanding
Contribution to World Cinema. Around
town, they were also able to catch
glimpses of Antonio Banderas, who gave
out smiles and autographs all around and
was an indisputable favourite among the
many female film fans. He received the
Award of the Festival President. Other
notable guests included two young
talents of American independent cinema.
Scott Sanders made the audience laugh
so hard with Black Dynamite, his satirical
take on 1970s blaxploitation films, that
it seemed as though the creaky old
Thermal might actually collapse. Cary
Joji Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre was another
highly praised work.
Longer lines
More and more, crowds come here
to fill the halls and wait in line each
morning for their daily dose of movies.
To stand a chance of getting tickets for
the most popular films screened at the
festival this year, fans had to wake up
at the crack of dawn and wait for hours
in front of the halls. Soliman Fanzi, a
journalist from Cairo who has been
coming to the festival for more than
40 years, told me that in the early days,
the only hall where films were screened
was at the luxurious Grandhotel Pupp,
up the water from the Thermal. Today
there are 14 halls, ranging from the posh
atmosphere of the Municipal Theatre to
Espace Dorleans, an inflated tent.
This year, a new multipurpose hall,
the KV Arena, saw its premiere screening
with the war drama Tobruk shown in
4K, the latest advance in digital film
presentation. The hall, which has a
capacity of 1,000, will become one of
the regular venues next year. As this
new screening venue opened, rumours
spread about the fate of Hotel Thermal,
a state-owned establishment that is
reportedly severely cash-strapped and
being considered for privatisation. “As
long as the hotel is run by the state,
the festival’s location will remain the
same,” KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška told
journalists. “We don’t know whether a
private investor wouldn’t want to use it
for some other purpose.”
Festival buzz
Usually, the youth from Karlovy Vary
welcome the buzz the festival brings
as well as the various club scenes that
are built especially for the occasion. At
the Captain Morgan tent, which stands
right next to the Hotel Thermal, visitors
dance to the latest radio hits until the
early morning hours. Aeroport, a stage
in the former Česká spořitelna building,
is another popular venue. On the
final night of the festival, I struck up
a conversation with one of the young
people on the dance floor. Jirka said
he wasn’t very interested in films, but
he enjoys the clubs. He regretted that
it would all be packed up and closed
down the next day. I asked what would
be happening in the building for the
rest of the year. “Here?” he asked,looking around sadly. “There’s nothing
here.”
Not everyone is pleased with the
annual crush of visitors the festival brings.
A local pensioner, for example, grumbled
that the festival is mainly for Praguers,
who bring everything they need, hire
companies to build all the stages and
then take everything back once the show
is over. The locals, he said, don’t benefit
from the festival at all.
Still, the thousands of visitors have to
sleep and eat somewhere and they also
party it up in the numerous clubs around
town. “It’s like with the Russians,” said
Jaroslav Šafránek, a school inspector
who lives near the spa town. “Everybody
says how bad it is that they come here,
but actually they bring a lot of money to
the town.”
The festival has come a long way
since its foundation in 1946, surviving
a history that includes the turbulent
years of pro-regime screenings and
normalisation that lasted until 1989.
Some years, the festival didn’t even take
place. In 1990, the festival introduced a
series of Czechoslovak films that were
banned during the communist era. Since
Jiří Bartoška and Eva Zaoralová took over
management in 1994, the festival has
blossomed, attracting more and more
people every year until 2008, when
it sold a record 140,000 tickets. By
comparison, this year saw 131,293 single
screenings purchased, but accreditation
sales were up, at 10,277 versus 9,054
for last year. The festival has hosted such
film stars as Robert De Niro, Leonardo
DiCaprio, Sharon Stone, Roman Polanski,
Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg,
Sean Connery, Michael Douglas, Robert
Redford, Miloš Forman and Andy
García. Last year it began screening
festival trailers featuring stars awarded
the Crystal Globe for Outstanding
Contribution to World Cinema.
When the jury picked Amélie for
the Crystal Globe in 2001, for example,
and that film subsequently won over
millions of people worldwide, no doubt
remained that Karlovy Vary had taken its
rightful place among the better-known
European events such as Cannes, Berlin
and Venice. •
i n f o c us
22 prague monitor magazine | 05 2009 | 24 July - 13 August
beer in one hand and paper plates
with sausages in the other while they
chat about the films they just saw or
last night’s parties. This exterior shot of
the Hotel Thermal, built during the peak
of communist-era panel construction,
represents the first scene for visitors
at the Karlovy Vary International Film
Festival (KVIFF). Walk further into the
hotel, past the main hall and up the stairs,
and you find those who came with other
motives. Up-and-coming filmmakers
present new work to their cashhandling
counterparts in the industry,
who are there to scout new genius.
Directors, producers and distributors
talk shop, always surrounded by a herd
of journalists straining ears to catch the
latest on who’s doing what, where and
when.
Jarosław Szoda, an award-winning
Polish cinematographer, said that what
makes Karlovy Vary so special is that it
exists for the fans who are here to see
the films, unlike Cannes or Berlin, which
are festivals that mainly draw visitors
interested in the cinema market. KVIFF
manages to combine the best of both
worlds: It’s a festival for the people, as
well as a meeting point for filmmakers.
Backpackers and celebrities rub
shoulders as they pass each other in the
halls, only to meet later for a chat at one
of the afternoon discussions organised
as part of the festival.
At a master class on 10 July, visitors
had a chance to talk to one of the many
big stars to have visited the spa town over
the years, John Malkovich, who received
the Crystal Globe for Outstanding
Contribution to World Cinema. Around
town, they were also able to catch
glimpses of Antonio Banderas, who gave
out smiles and autographs all around and
was an indisputable favourite among the
many female film fans. He received the
Award of the Festival President. Other
notable guests included two young
talents of American independent cinema.
Scott Sanders made the audience laugh
so hard with Black Dynamite, his satirical
take on 1970s blaxploitation films, that
it seemed as though the creaky old
Thermal might actually collapse. Cary
Joji Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre was another
highly praised work.
Longer lines
More and more, crowds come here
to fill the halls and wait in line each
morning for their daily dose of movies.
To stand a chance of getting tickets for
the most popular films screened at the
festival this year, fans had to wake up
at the crack of dawn and wait for hours
in front of the halls. Soliman Fanzi, a
journalist from Cairo who has been
coming to the festival for more than
40 years, told me that in the early days,
the only hall where films were screened
was at the luxurious Grandhotel Pupp,
up the water from the Thermal. Today
there are 14 halls, ranging from the posh
atmosphere of the Municipal Theatre to
Espace Dorleans, an inflated tent.
This year, a new multipurpose hall,
the KV Arena, saw its premiere screening
with the war drama Tobruk shown in
4K, the latest advance in digital film
presentation. The hall, which has a
capacity of 1,000, will become one of
the regular venues next year. As this
new screening venue opened, rumours
spread about the fate of Hotel Thermal,
a state-owned establishment that is
reportedly severely cash-strapped and
being considered for privatisation. “As
long as the hotel is run by the state,
the festival’s location will remain the
same,” KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška told
journalists. “We don’t know whether a
private investor wouldn’t want to use it
for some other purpose.”
Festival buzz
Usually, the youth from Karlovy Vary
welcome the buzz the festival brings
as well as the various club scenes that
are built especially for the occasion. At
the Captain Morgan tent, which stands
right next to the Hotel Thermal, visitors
dance to the latest radio hits until the
early morning hours. Aeroport, a stage
in the former Česká spořitelna building,
is another popular venue. On the
final night of the festival, I struck up
a conversation with one of the young
people on the dance floor. Jirka said
he wasn’t very interested in films, but
he enjoys the clubs. He regretted that
it would all be packed up and closed
down the next day. I asked what would
be happening in the building for the
rest of the year. “Here?” he asked,looking around sadly. “There’s nothing
here.”
Not everyone is pleased with the
annual crush of visitors the festival brings.
A local pensioner, for example, grumbled
that the festival is mainly for Praguers,
who bring everything they need, hire
companies to build all the stages and
then take everything back once the show
is over. The locals, he said, don’t benefit
from the festival at all.
Still, the thousands of visitors have to
sleep and eat somewhere and they also
party it up in the numerous clubs around
town. “It’s like with the Russians,” said
Jaroslav Šafránek, a school inspector
who lives near the spa town. “Everybody
says how bad it is that they come here,
but actually they bring a lot of money to
the town.”
The festival has come a long way
since its foundation in 1946, surviving
a history that includes the turbulent
years of pro-regime screenings and
normalisation that lasted until 1989.
Some years, the festival didn’t even take
place. In 1990, the festival introduced a
series of Czechoslovak films that were
banned during the communist era. Since
Jiří Bartoška and Eva Zaoralová took over
management in 1994, the festival has
blossomed, attracting more and more
people every year until 2008, when
it sold a record 140,000 tickets. By
comparison, this year saw 131,293 single
screenings purchased, but accreditation
sales were up, at 10,277 versus 9,054
for last year. The festival has hosted such
film stars as Robert De Niro, Leonardo
DiCaprio, Sharon Stone, Roman Polanski,
Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg,
Sean Connery, Michael Douglas, Robert
Redford, Miloš Forman and Andy
García. Last year it began screening
festival trailers featuring stars awarded
the Crystal Globe for Outstanding
Contribution to World Cinema.
When the jury picked Amélie for
the Crystal Globe in 2001, for example,
and that film subsequently won over
millions of people worldwide, no doubt
remained that Karlovy Vary had taken its
rightful place among the better-known
European events such as Cannes, Berlin
and Venice. •
i n f o c us
22 prague monitor magazine | 05 2009 | 24 July - 13 August
Monday, April 25, 2011
KVIFF results are in
As John Malkovich watched clips selected from all his films and received the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, everyone including myself, held their breath in anticipation of this year's winner of the festival's Official Selection in Competition.
When Marek Eben announced the name of the winner being the Belgian-Canadian co-production Un ange à la mer (Angel at Sea), my tip for the winner, I was especially pleased. The film is a real artistic masterpiece and will leave you moved for several hours after you leave the cinema. Olivier Gourmet also won the Best Actor award for the role of the manic-depressive father and shared the award with Paul Giamatti for his role in Cold Souls.
The Iranian film Bist (Twenty), a story about employees of an eatery in Iran, who have twenty days to sort out their lives, before its closure was awarded a special mention by the jury, a decision I respect the jury for.
Marko Škop's Osadné, which tells the story of a small village in east Slovakia and the struggles of an Orthodox priest, the village's long-serving mayor and a Ruthenian activist and their journey to Brussels, won the best documentary over 30 minutes award.
The winner of the special section characteristic for the Karlovy Vary festival East of the West was Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoje putěšestvije na rodinu (Room and a Half).
Paprika Steen was awarded a the best actress award for her intense performance as an actress trying to overcome an alcohol addiction in Applause, a film by the Danish director Martin Pieter Zandvliet.
The audience award went, as expected, to the lightly humorous Sipur Gadol (A Matter of Size), which Eva Zaoralová, the fest's artistic director, said is a movie that perhaps interests the audience as they themselves solve similar problems in their everyday lives.
What a festival it has been and there's much more to come in our special report in the next issue of the Prague Monitor Magazine.
When Marek Eben announced the name of the winner being the Belgian-Canadian co-production Un ange à la mer (Angel at Sea), my tip for the winner, I was especially pleased. The film is a real artistic masterpiece and will leave you moved for several hours after you leave the cinema. Olivier Gourmet also won the Best Actor award for the role of the manic-depressive father and shared the award with Paul Giamatti for his role in Cold Souls.
The Iranian film Bist (Twenty), a story about employees of an eatery in Iran, who have twenty days to sort out their lives, before its closure was awarded a special mention by the jury, a decision I respect the jury for.
Marko Škop's Osadné, which tells the story of a small village in east Slovakia and the struggles of an Orthodox priest, the village's long-serving mayor and a Ruthenian activist and their journey to Brussels, won the best documentary over 30 minutes award.
The winner of the special section characteristic for the Karlovy Vary festival East of the West was Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoje putěšestvije na rodinu (Room and a Half).
Paprika Steen was awarded a the best actress award for her intense performance as an actress trying to overcome an alcohol addiction in Applause, a film by the Danish director Martin Pieter Zandvliet.
The audience award went, as expected, to the lightly humorous Sipur Gadol (A Matter of Size), which Eva Zaoralová, the fest's artistic director, said is a movie that perhaps interests the audience as they themselves solve similar problems in their everyday lives.
What a festival it has been and there's much more to come in our special report in the next issue of the Prague Monitor Magazine.
Day nine: Banderas and a goodbye
The biggest star to walk the red carpet on Friday arrived in Karlovy Vary in good humour and gave smiles all around to the crowds that were waiting for him for more than two hours in the rain, all just to catch a glimpse of the famous actor: Antonio Banderas.
Earlier that day, replying to a question about one of the roles that brought him his current fame, Zoro, he smiled and said, "I knew it would be a pretty big thing when Stephen Spielberg asked me whether I know the character during an Oscar night back in 1994. I said yes. Than he asked me if I wanted to play the part. I said yes. It was as simple as that," he said smiling.
Starting as a theatre actor, he acted in many Pedro Almodóvar's films. He says the director is a genius, but hard to work with.
He also recalled his stay in Prague in 1992 where he was shooting here for seven months. He remembered the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Malá Strana asked everyone "Jak se máš?", wished "Dobré odpoledne" and said "díky".
Banderas introduced his film El camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), which is a coming-of-age story inspired by a Antonio Soler's novel and his own reflections on growing up in Malaga. When asked about the not-so-good reviews it received, Banderas said he just wanted to shoot the story his way and did not think about the critics or how well it did in the box office.
On Friday, as John Malkovich asked how many people saw his The Dancer Upstairs, following a question how many saw the Transformers, making the packed Grand Hall burst out in laughter. Jan Švankmajer received the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema in the stunning atmosphere of the Municipal Theatre from the hands of the festival's president, Jiří Bartoška.
As the festival ends, all that will be left of the fame and glory and the glitter of the stars that walked the red carpet this year will be packed, dismantled, stuffed into boxes and vans, hauled back to Prague and stored for next year.
Nearly 123,000 tickets were sold, tonnes of beer drunk at the Hotel Thermal terrace and the accompanying concerts. Crowds burst out in an uncontrollable laughter during a screening of Black Dynamite and screamed with fear and disgust during Antikrist.
Yet again, it rained, but the weather did not discourage the patient independent film lovers, who used their Festival Daily to shield themselves from the elements.
This might be the last entry of our blog, but look out for our special festival report coming up in the Prague Monitor Magazine.
Earlier that day, replying to a question about one of the roles that brought him his current fame, Zoro, he smiled and said, "I knew it would be a pretty big thing when Stephen Spielberg asked me whether I know the character during an Oscar night back in 1994. I said yes. Than he asked me if I wanted to play the part. I said yes. It was as simple as that," he said smiling.
Starting as a theatre actor, he acted in many Pedro Almodóvar's films. He says the director is a genius, but hard to work with.
He also recalled his stay in Prague in 1992 where he was shooting here for seven months. He remembered the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Malá Strana asked everyone "Jak se máš?", wished "Dobré odpoledne" and said "díky".
Banderas introduced his film El camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), which is a coming-of-age story inspired by a Antonio Soler's novel and his own reflections on growing up in Malaga. When asked about the not-so-good reviews it received, Banderas said he just wanted to shoot the story his way and did not think about the critics or how well it did in the box office.
On Friday, as John Malkovich asked how many people saw his The Dancer Upstairs, following a question how many saw the Transformers, making the packed Grand Hall burst out in laughter. Jan Švankmajer received the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema in the stunning atmosphere of the Municipal Theatre from the hands of the festival's president, Jiří Bartoška.
As the festival ends, all that will be left of the fame and glory and the glitter of the stars that walked the red carpet this year will be packed, dismantled, stuffed into boxes and vans, hauled back to Prague and stored for next year.
Nearly 123,000 tickets were sold, tonnes of beer drunk at the Hotel Thermal terrace and the accompanying concerts. Crowds burst out in an uncontrollable laughter during a screening of Black Dynamite and screamed with fear and disgust during Antikrist.
Yet again, it rained, but the weather did not discourage the patient independent film lovers, who used their Festival Daily to shield themselves from the elements.
This might be the last entry of our blog, but look out for our special festival report coming up in the Prague Monitor Magazine.
Day eight: More Malkovich
John Malkovich was the biggest star of the festival yesterday, and here are some reflections of what he had to say.
Since he has acted in more than 70 films, I asked him at yesterday's press conference what role he felt suited him the most. Despite initial hesitation, he eventually answered it was a role he played in the movie Colour Me Kubrick: "In that movie I impersonated a character that walked around pretending he was Stanley Kubrick. And throughout my life, I walk around pretending to be John Malkovich." The journalists chuckled.
It might be easier to understand what he meant if you've already heard him speak before. The brilliant actor has his own typical style of responding. "I always think before I speak," says Malkovich. And he clearly means what he says.
Apart from being on tour with his new play Infernal Comedy, which has just finished playing in Vienna and will continue in Spain, he is also scheduled to meet with former Czech president Václav Havel, who, he says, is a very bright man. Malkovich has read Havel's latest play Odcházení (Leaving), as well as his Letters to Olga, which Havel wrote while in prison.
When asked whether he prefers working in film or in theatre, Malkovich answered without hesitation: "They are like two distinct cousins, you cannot compare... It's like when some musicians play more than one instrument."
And has he covered all the themes he wanted in his movies? "No," he said. "And not because there weren't enough chances." Malkovich has several projects going on at the moment, most of them to be shot in the United States; however, at least two of them should be filmed in central Europe.
Besides Malkovich, another big star to come to the festival is Antonio Banderas, one of the most popular actors today. He arrived at the spa town yesterday night.
Finally a tip: The long-awaited concert of Jaromír Nohavica will take place tonight, starting at 10pm at Poštovní dvůr. If you haven't already got your tickets, make sure to get them soon because the performance of this renowned Czech lyricist and musician is not to be missed.
Since he has acted in more than 70 films, I asked him at yesterday's press conference what role he felt suited him the most. Despite initial hesitation, he eventually answered it was a role he played in the movie Colour Me Kubrick: "In that movie I impersonated a character that walked around pretending he was Stanley Kubrick. And throughout my life, I walk around pretending to be John Malkovich." The journalists chuckled.
It might be easier to understand what he meant if you've already heard him speak before. The brilliant actor has his own typical style of responding. "I always think before I speak," says Malkovich. And he clearly means what he says.
Apart from being on tour with his new play Infernal Comedy, which has just finished playing in Vienna and will continue in Spain, he is also scheduled to meet with former Czech president Václav Havel, who, he says, is a very bright man. Malkovich has read Havel's latest play Odcházení (Leaving), as well as his Letters to Olga, which Havel wrote while in prison.
When asked whether he prefers working in film or in theatre, Malkovich answered without hesitation: "They are like two distinct cousins, you cannot compare... It's like when some musicians play more than one instrument."
And has he covered all the themes he wanted in his movies? "No," he said. "And not because there weren't enough chances." Malkovich has several projects going on at the moment, most of them to be shot in the United States; however, at least two of them should be filmed in central Europe.
Besides Malkovich, another big star to come to the festival is Antonio Banderas, one of the most popular actors today. He arrived at the spa town yesterday night.
Finally a tip: The long-awaited concert of Jaromír Nohavica will take place tonight, starting at 10pm at Poštovní dvůr. If you haven't already got your tickets, make sure to get them soon because the performance of this renowned Czech lyricist and musician is not to be missed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)