Recently in Karlovy Vary Category

NOTE: Parts of this review originally appeared in my wrap-up of the 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on indieWIRE.com

If you have never seen Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop, get thee to a video store (if you can find one with the ultra-rare DVD) or scour the listings for a rep house playing it. I suppose you might be able to find a torrent, but only until you buy the upcoming Criterion two-disc DVD that Hellman is working on! This blog is anti-piracy. That's right, as you might have read here or on indieWIRE.com, Hellman is shooting new docs for the project. No word on a release date, however.

On Sunday night, my third evening here, I ended up being escorted down to the Becher's Bar in the basement of the Grandhotel Pupp by a fest VIP and I must admit, the place is not hype. I had a great time and some of the best conversations I've had at the fest before or since. While the booze isn't free, there's a food spread that definitely hits the spot once 2 or 3 am rolls around and a dance floor that had the likes of Baltasar Kormákur shaking his tail feathers until the wee hours. The DJ, however, was hit or miss. For every retro-pop one hit wonder like Talk Talk's "Such a Shame" or Dexy's "Come on Eileen," there was a "Tarzan Boy" from Baltimora.

Wanna drink?

That said, the night was a whole hell of a lot of fun, with cigars, Becherovka and lotsa singing and dancing. I managed to pull myself from the place at about 5:30...just as they turned on the lites and said, politely, get out.

I was interviewed for the festival's daily paper and you can read my jet-lagged witticisms, here.

In addition to seeing new films and interacting with filmmakers from all over the world, one of the great joys of attending a film festival is getting the chance to see some rare or archival work from the past on a big screen. This year's KVIFF is no different, with the festival section New Hollywood. A bit of a misnomer, the section title refers to the post-classical period, roughly from the end of the 1960's until the beginning of the 1980's and includes such classics as Harold and Maude, The Conversation, The Sugarland Express and The Last Picture Show, among others.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to catch Monte Hellman's 1971 masterpiece, Two-Lane Blacktop. I'd never seen it, and to be able to watch it on a big screen with Dolby digital sound, a pristine print and the director in attendance! Hellman's intro was a treat, with some choice nuggets being imparted to the audience about the future of the film. Hellman said he had been shooting some documentary material for inclusion in an upcoming two disc DVD of the 1971 classic Universal movie for the Criterion Collection! How fucking awesome is that?

Another day, another festival. Or is it another beer? Well, same difference, sometimes. At any rate, it is another film festival, my umpteenth + 4, I think. This time it's the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF, often pronounced, awkwardly: "K'viff") in the Czech spa town of the same name. I am currently in the lobby of my hotel, the Thermal, drinking a wonderful Pilsner Urquell at the extortionate hotel price of $1.50. Yup, you heard right. The thing is, they're 85 cents on the street, so $1.50 is rather a steep markup!

This being my first trip to the Czech Republic (or to any former Eastern Bloc country for that matter) since 1974, there is a certain amount of adjustment to be made. First of all, unlike the rest of Europe, smoking cigarettes in public places is still a national sport, here and that, combined with the lack of anything resembling dry cleaning in my hotel may prove to be a problem. I also forgot my razor, but the Czechs do shave, so I assume at least that won't be a problem. Then there's the language. While I consider myself lingustically adept, I am finding this one rather difficult to learn, but then again, I've only been in country a little over 30 hours, much of that spent either asleep or in a jet-lag/beer induced stupor.

Now about the alcohol. Cheap beer abounds and does a peculiar spirit called Becherovka. It's akin to Jägermeister, in that it's made with oodles of herbs and packs a wallop, but is significantly less viscous and purports to aid in digestion. Considering the preponderance of meat on Czech menus, I might be making copious use of it. It is usually served cold as a shot or on the rocks, but you can also have it with tonic, in which case it's called a "beton," which oddly means "concrete" in Czech. It's actually pretty tasty. To the left is a pic of a wedge of lime seemingly hovering above the surface of BAM curator Florence Almozini's beton.