Modestly

The 36th Karlovy Vary Film Forum opens today

In Soviet times, film festivals in Karlovy Vary and Moscow were considered great friends: they were even held every other year, alternating so that, God forbid, rivalry would arise between the western and eastern wings of the socialist camp. In post-Soviet times, festivals became annual (first Karlovy Vary, then Moscow), and a desperate battle began for scraps from the Cannes, Venice and Berlin tables. This year, the Moscow festival overtook Karlovy Vary in terms of timing and, as has now become obvious, in importance. At the cost of incredible efforts, the MIFF selectors managed to put together a quite decent competition program, consisting entirely of unexposed films. The Karlovy Vary Festival also belongs to category “A”, but is more liberal in its requirements: films that took part in non-competition programs of other festivals can be included in the competition. For example, this year Jean-Pierre Genet's Amelie, shown at the opening of the Moscow International Film Festival, will compete for Karlovy Vary prizes. Hollywood will present the film “Cocaine” (Blow) with the participation of Johnny Depp - a film that our viewers will be able to see at the Russian box office at the same time.

There is a Russian film in the competition - “Poisons” by Karen Shakhnazarov, which was once awarded a special jury prize at Karlovy Vary-98. Czech cinematography is not represented in the best way - the film “Exit at Angel Station” is not without its youthful daring and skillful use of new digital filming technology, but the absurdity of individual scenes (a drug addict sleeping in an abandoned car is crushed by a press at a scrap metal dump) is depressing. From the fashionable Iranians there will be “The Unfinished Song” - a weak and deadly boring rehash of Kiarostami.

All this does not mean, however, that there will be no discoveries in the Karlovy Vary competition: much is expected from “Song for Martin” by Bille August, twice winner of the Cannes “Golden Bough”, and from the film “Hello, Terezka” by the Pole Robert Glinsky. Nastassja Kinski will come to the opening to present “American Rhapsody” by Eva Gardosh. The festival will close on July 14 with the American hit comedy “Bridget Jones's Diary” (it will also be released in our country).

In a word, something is happening that should have happened a long time ago: the still scanty, but rapidly developing Russian market has attracted the interest of Western producers and distributors, and Moscow has already outpaced Karlovy Vary in the selection of films this year. But the Czechs have their own trump cards. First of all, it's the audience. Students come to the small resort town from all over the Czech Republic and even from neighboring European countries, spend the night in sleeping bags in the open air, fill the halls even at morning screenings... It is they who create the atmosphere of Karlovy Vary, which, hopefully, will one day arise and in Moscow.

Arina INOZEMTSEVA