Karlovy Vary taps Eastern riches
Kachyna receiving lifetime artistic nod at Czech fest
On the guest side, Hollywood is supplying the names. Woody Harrelson (presenting "The Hi-Lo Country"), Matthew McConaughey and director John Landis (presenting his newest, "Susan's Plan") are among the celebs already confirmed.
Robert Forster is slated for jury duty, along with helmers Brian Gilbert, Karen Shachnazarov, Yves Boisset, and Jaroslav Brabec. Polish director Agnieszka Holland serves on the jury of the latest addition to the prizes, the Philip Morris Freedom Award, for early films by Eastern European directors.
Receiving the award for lifetime artistic contribution will be 75-year-old Czech director Karel Kachyna, whose 1970 film "The Ear" was one of the boldest political statements of the Czech New Wave.
Out-of-competition films are strong on auteurs, with Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," David Lynch's "The Straight Story," Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune," Franco Zeffirelli's "Tea With Mussolini" and Peter Greenaway's "8-1/2 Women."
Accompanying programs will include Variety's Ten to Watch, spotlighting European films and supported by the European Film Promotion, and a seminar on Eurasian filmmaking in connection with a retrospective on Kazakh films.
Less welcome, from the management's viewpoint, is a concurrent festival of films organized by the old Karlovy Vary Film Foundation. It lost a battle for con-trol of the festival after last year's event, but is carrying on with a two-salle lineup of its own.
The competition lineup minus one (the U.S. entry is still in negotiation) is: "A Reasonable Man," director, Gavin Hood; "Agnisakshi" (With Fire as Witness), director, Shyamaprasad, India; "Amok," director, Natalia Koryncka-Gruz, Poland; "Blockpost" (Checkpoint), director, Alexander Rogoshkin, Russia; "Dolce Far Niente," director, Nae Caranfil, Italy/France; "Fucking Amal (aka Show Me Love)," director, Lukas Moodysson, Sweden; "Hachaverin Shel Yana" (Yana's Friends), director, Arik Kaplun, Israel; "La Fille Sur le Pont," director, Patrice Leconte, France; "La Vida Es Silbar" (Life Is Whistling), director, Fernando Perez, Cuba/Spain; "Le Grand Serpent du Monde," director, Yves Dion, Canada; "Nekem Lampast Adott" (The Lord's Lantern in Budapest), director, Miklos Jancso, Hungary; "Pelisky" (Cozy Dens), director, Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic; "Qu Nian Yan Hua Te Bie Duo" (The Longest Summer), director, Fruit Chan, Hong Kong; "Sled Kraja na Sveta" (After the End of the World), director, Ivan Nicev, Bulgaria/Germany/Greece; "V Leru" (Idle Running), director, Janez Burger, Slovenia; and "Wege in die Nacht" (Paths in the Night), director, Andreas Kleinert, Germany.
