Tento text původně vznikl pro americký čtvrtletník NOIR CITY. Kvůli změnám v jeho vedení ale nakonec nebyl publikován. Proto jsme se rozhodli umístit jej alespoň na blog, kde si snad najde své čtenáře. Článek neprošel anglickou jazykovou korekturou.
Czech noir
fans finally got what they were looking for for several years: the country's
first film noir festival took place last summer, August 21–25. What follows is
not an objective and unbiased report, but rather an insider's summation of the
event.
The
Birth of the Idea
The idea
for Noir Film Kokořín 2013 originated with Vít Grigartzik from Prague's Era Art
Club which earlier in the previous year showcased several examples of classical film noir
to generally enthusiastic responses. Grigartzik sensed that there might be a
potential for a larger event and turned to the authors of Film Noir Blog, the only website in Czech specializing in
film noir run by Jana Bébarová and myself. We immediately embraced the idea and
agreed to participate on the project as programmers.
Films
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| Jana Bébarová and Milan Hain |
The process
of selecting films for the festival was an agonizing one because we realized
from the start we could only include about twenty noirs out of several hundred.
We also felt the urgent need to balance to program so as to attract both film
noir enthusiasts and people who had never even heard the term. We decided to
open the festival with Double Indemnity which proved an ideal
introduction to the nightmarish universe of film noir. Most of the other films
were grouped into four program sections. “Hard-boiled noir” presented screen
adaptations of literary works by Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon, The
Glass Key), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and James M. Cain (The
Postman Always Rings Twice). The “Women of Film Noir” section consisted of
three films with strong female protagonists (but not necessarily femmes
fatales): Laura, Mildred Pierce (another Cain adaptation) and
Gilda. The tribute to Marilyn Monroe, composed of The Asphalt Jungle,
Don't Bother to Knock and Niagara, proved an unexpected success,
confirming the undying legacy of this legendary actress. The last section
highlighted what we consider examples of Czechoslovak/Czech film noir, namely
Guard 13 (13. revír), …and the Fifth Rider Is Fear (…a pátý jezdec
je Strach) and Smart Philip (Mazaný Filip).
Outside of
these program sections we screened four additional films and one TV
mini-series. Dark Passage and Leave Her to Heaven were meant as
tributes to noir icons Humphrey Bogart and Gene Tierney, respectively. Joseph
H. Lewis' The Big Combo was selected for Saturday's midnight screening,
testing the endurance of the most loyal visitors. The mini-series Mildred
Pierce provided an opportunity to compare this ambitious HBO project with
the film version of the same novel produced by Warner Bros. and directed by
Michael Curtiz in the 1940s. The festival was fittingly wrapped up with the
screening of Robert Aldrich's “apocalyptic noir” Kiss Me Deadly.
Venues
Noir Film
Kokořín can be partly seen as a bold experiment because the festival was not
held in Prague – or any other big city for that matter – but completely outside
of the urban jungle, in the village of Kokořínský Důl with 13 permanent
residents (data from 2001). Kokořínský Důl, however, lies in the heart of a
beautiful region called Kokořínsko known for its sandstone formations and miles
of tourist trails and is conveniently located approximately 40 miles north of
the Czech capital. The festival thus provided an opportunity to combine an
active holiday in nature with a unique cultural experience.
The Kokořín
Valley is dominated by a charming castle built in 1320 and reconstructed a
hundred years ago in the style of late Romanticism. It was in the castle's courtyard
where the evening screenings took place. Despite the cold weather more than one
hundred visitors found their way to the castle to watch Niagara and Leave
Her to Heaven, two Technicolor noirs that also turned out to be the biggest
hits of the festival. Truhlárna Gallery (named Humphrey Bogart Hall for the
duration of the festival) and a conference hall in Pobuda Restaurant (Gene
Tierney Hall) were used as additional screening venues with seating capacities
of eighty and forty seats, respectively.
 |
| Kokořín castle |
Guests
and accompanying events
Among the
visitors were many popular actors and actresses known from film and television.
Some of them – for example Zlata Adamovská or Michaela Badinková – gladly
agreed to serve as official patrons of the festival. The screening of Smart
Philip, a hilarious parody of noir adaptations of hard-boiled novels, was
preceded by a lively discussion with the director Václav Marhoul, actor Tomáš
Hanák and actress Vilma Cibulková.
Accompanying
the screenings were concerts of jazz pianist Beata Hlavenková, folk singer
Slávek Janoušek, young singers Ondřej Ruml and Radka Pavlovčinová and a string
quartet 4Seasons.
 |
| Václav Marhoul, Vít Grigartzik, Vilma Cibulková and Tomáš Hanák |
Next
Year's Edition
Judging
from the overall attendance and reactions of individual visitors, the festival
– in spite of occasional organizational slips – can be considered a success.
We've also received support from the Czech branch of HBO, the Czech Ministry of
Culture and numerous other public institutions, private companies and
individuals. All of them made our process of deciding whether to continue or
not much easier: next year's edition of Noir Film Festival will take place 21–24 August 2014 at the royal Castle Křivoklát, approximately 50 km west of Prague. Fans of film noir – and readers of NOIR CITY in particular – are
most heartily welcome.
Website: http://www.noirfilmfestival.cz/en/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/noirfilmfestival?fref=ts
