Woody Harrelson, Agnieszka Holland and Hirokazu Kore-eda are among the industry figures headlining the 27th edition of the Prague International Film Festival, which is set to go ahead despite fears around the coronavirus.
Harrelson will appear alongside Oren Moverman, who is receiving a Kristián award for his contributions to global cinema, to present the L.A. cop drama “Rampart” in Prague. The duo were both nominated for Academy Awards for Moverman’s Iraqi war pic “The Messenger.”
Kore-eda, Slovak actor Milan Lasica and Czech actress Iva Janžurová will also be receiving lifetime achievement awards.
The festival unspools March 19-27 in the Czech capital, against a backdrop of growing uncertainty as the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival and Greece’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival announced they were postponing this year’s editions, while the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event in Qatar was canceled.
Harrelson will appear alongside Oren Moverman, who is receiving a Kristián award for his contributions to global cinema, to present the L.A. cop drama “Rampart” in Prague. The duo were both nominated for Academy Awards for Moverman’s Iraqi war pic “The Messenger.”
Kore-eda, Slovak actor Milan Lasica and Czech actress Iva Janžurová will also be receiving lifetime achievement awards.
The festival unspools March 19-27 in the Czech capital, against a backdrop of growing uncertainty as the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival and Greece’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival announced they were postponing this year’s editions, while the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event in Qatar was canceled.
- 3/4/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Movie Jungle is pleased to provide you with a chance to win a copy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "I Served the King of England" on DVD! The film is a winner of the Fipresci Prize at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival as well as a nominee of the Golden Berlin Bear. The romantic comedy war film stars Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Martin Huba, Marián Labuda and Milan Lasica. Jirí Menzel, helmer of "Larks on a String" and "The Beggar's Opera," directs the film as well as adapting from the novel by Bohumil Hrabal. What's it about? Dreaming of becoming a millionaire, a short but ambitious Czech works his way into a posh pre-war luxury spa, where his marriage to a Hitler-loving fräulein provides him with a golden opportunity to make his fondest wish come true. Enter now! ...
- 2/11/2009
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Movie Jungle is pleased to provide you with a chance to win a copy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "I Served the King of England" on DVD! The film is a winner of the Fipresci Prize at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival as well as a nominee of the Golden Berlin Bear. The romantic comedy war film stars Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Martin Huba, Marián Labuda and Milan Lasica. Jirí Menzel, helmer of "Larks on a String" and "The Beggar's Opera," directs the film as well as adapting from the novel by Bohumil Hrabal...
- 2/11/2009
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Movie Jungle is pleased to provide you with a chance to win a copy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "I Served the King of England" on DVD! The film is a winner of the Fipresci Prize at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival as well as a nominee of the Golden Berlin Bear. The romantic comedy war film stars Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Martin Huba, Marián Labuda and Milan Lasica. Jirí Menzel, helmer of "Larks on a String" and "The Beggar's Opera," directs the film as well as adapting from the novel by Bohumil Hrabal...
- 2/11/2009
- Upcoming-Movies.com
I Served the King of England
BERLIN -- Forty years after their "Closely Watched Trains" won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, director Jiri Menzel has adapted another novel by the late Bohumil Hrabal, and history could well repeat itself when Academy members get to see "I Served the King of England", which screened here In Competition.
Sharing a similar sensibility, the new picture is the picaresque tale of an ambitious but naive Czechoslovakian waiter whose gumption, opportunism and blinkered awareness of events see him thrive amid political and social upheaval. It is a sumptuously told tale of childlike wonder in the face of darkest corruption and war, mixing high comedy, surreal sequences and genuine drama viewed from a wise, jaundiced perspective.
Given time to finds its audience, which is anyone who likes the Coen brothers, "Served" could do well across all territories as its visual humor and topical significance give it mainstream grown-up appeal.
The film begins with a grizzled, aging Jan Dite (Oldrich Kaiser) being released after 15 years in a Czech prison and assigned to a job as a roadman near the German border. He's given a wrecked building to live in, and as he works cheerfully to rebuild it, flashbacks tell how the fates have conspired to bring him to this pretty pass.
As a young man, Jan (Ivan Barnev) is short, observant and quick-witted, selling frankfurters to passengers on briefly stopped trains. In the first comic sequence -- which is shot like a silent film and will be echoed throughout "Serve" -- he hangs on to a large amount of change until the train pulls out, taking the buyer with it. His innate innocence surfaces too late, and he chases the train with arm outstretched to return the cash, but to no avail.
The film switches back and forth from Jan's adventures as a young man to his later life, where his remote existence is brightened by the appearance of a lethargic but attractive young woman, Marcela (Zuzana Fialova), accompanied by a professor (Milan Lasica) seeking wood to make violins and cellos.
Young Jan makes his way from one waiting job to a better one, and these hotel and restaurant scenes are wonderfully contrived with visual comedy matched by undercurrents of shrewd political comment. In one of the cleverest, the film's title is explained. Hrabal and Menzel employ satire with the sharpest scalpel exercised within comic episodes of high wit and slapstick.
Jan's young life is full of delectably willing young women, though they are usually at the beck and call of salacious capitalists. When he falls in love, it's with a young German woman, Liza (Julia Jentsch), who believes in all things Aryan and supports the Nazi invasion.
The story then follows their passage through World War II and later the Soviet communist occupation and how Jan gets everything he wishes for and then loses it all. Barnev is sublime as the young man, gifted with the physical grace of great comedians and with expressive features that encourage sympathy despite some of the unsympathetic things he does. Kaiser is equally good as the wiser, sadder older man.
The acting throughout is of the highest order, and other standout credits include the colorful production design by Milan Bycek and Ales Brezina's jaunty piano score.
I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND
Bioscop and AQS in co-production with TV Nova, Magic Box Slovakia, Barrandov Studios, Universal Production Partners
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jiri Menzel
Based on the novel by: Bohumil Hrabal
Producers: Robert Schaffer, Andrea Metcalfe
Director of photgraphy: Jaromir Sofr
Editor: Jiri Brozek
Production designer: Milan Bycek
Music: Ales Brezina
Costume designer: Milan Corba
Cast:
Jan Dite (young): Ivan Barnev
Jan Dite (old): Oldrich Kaiser
Liza: Julia Jentsch
Skrivanek: Martin Huba
Walden: Marian Labuda
Professor: Milan Lasica
Brandejs: Josef Abrham
Hotel Chief: Jiri Labus
Karel: Jaromir Dulava
Marcela: Zuzana Fialova
General: Pavel Novy
Running time -- 120 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sharing a similar sensibility, the new picture is the picaresque tale of an ambitious but naive Czechoslovakian waiter whose gumption, opportunism and blinkered awareness of events see him thrive amid political and social upheaval. It is a sumptuously told tale of childlike wonder in the face of darkest corruption and war, mixing high comedy, surreal sequences and genuine drama viewed from a wise, jaundiced perspective.
Given time to finds its audience, which is anyone who likes the Coen brothers, "Served" could do well across all territories as its visual humor and topical significance give it mainstream grown-up appeal.
The film begins with a grizzled, aging Jan Dite (Oldrich Kaiser) being released after 15 years in a Czech prison and assigned to a job as a roadman near the German border. He's given a wrecked building to live in, and as he works cheerfully to rebuild it, flashbacks tell how the fates have conspired to bring him to this pretty pass.
As a young man, Jan (Ivan Barnev) is short, observant and quick-witted, selling frankfurters to passengers on briefly stopped trains. In the first comic sequence -- which is shot like a silent film and will be echoed throughout "Serve" -- he hangs on to a large amount of change until the train pulls out, taking the buyer with it. His innate innocence surfaces too late, and he chases the train with arm outstretched to return the cash, but to no avail.
The film switches back and forth from Jan's adventures as a young man to his later life, where his remote existence is brightened by the appearance of a lethargic but attractive young woman, Marcela (Zuzana Fialova), accompanied by a professor (Milan Lasica) seeking wood to make violins and cellos.
Young Jan makes his way from one waiting job to a better one, and these hotel and restaurant scenes are wonderfully contrived with visual comedy matched by undercurrents of shrewd political comment. In one of the cleverest, the film's title is explained. Hrabal and Menzel employ satire with the sharpest scalpel exercised within comic episodes of high wit and slapstick.
Jan's young life is full of delectably willing young women, though they are usually at the beck and call of salacious capitalists. When he falls in love, it's with a young German woman, Liza (Julia Jentsch), who believes in all things Aryan and supports the Nazi invasion.
The story then follows their passage through World War II and later the Soviet communist occupation and how Jan gets everything he wishes for and then loses it all. Barnev is sublime as the young man, gifted with the physical grace of great comedians and with expressive features that encourage sympathy despite some of the unsympathetic things he does. Kaiser is equally good as the wiser, sadder older man.
The acting throughout is of the highest order, and other standout credits include the colorful production design by Milan Bycek and Ales Brezina's jaunty piano score.
I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND
Bioscop and AQS in co-production with TV Nova, Magic Box Slovakia, Barrandov Studios, Universal Production Partners
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jiri Menzel
Based on the novel by: Bohumil Hrabal
Producers: Robert Schaffer, Andrea Metcalfe
Director of photgraphy: Jaromir Sofr
Editor: Jiri Brozek
Production designer: Milan Bycek
Music: Ales Brezina
Costume designer: Milan Corba
Cast:
Jan Dite (young): Ivan Barnev
Jan Dite (old): Oldrich Kaiser
Liza: Julia Jentsch
Skrivanek: Martin Huba
Walden: Marian Labuda
Professor: Milan Lasica
Brandejs: Josef Abrham
Hotel Chief: Jiri Labus
Karel: Jaromir Dulava
Marcela: Zuzana Fialova
General: Pavel Novy
Running time -- 120 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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