The August cinema will present films still fresh from this year's KVIFF. We were not missing at the 56. International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. Rather than partying and shouting at the red carpet, our dramaturg ran between theaters to hunt down the best, most interesting and provocative films for you. It must be admitted that this year's edition brought several such titles. A group of new Czech films premiered in the Main Competition, stars such as Benicio del Torro, Geoffrey Rush or Bolek Polívka received awards for their contributions to cinema, and other award-winning blockbusters by the greatest contemporary directors came to us from around the world. Some of them will not be released until the autumn, but we have prepared an exclusive selection of films presented in Venice for August, which should make the festival at least partially present in Olomouc. You will have a chance to see four new films on Mondays in August with an introduction, as befits a screening in Vary. We don't need a spa town, a thousand-headed hall like in the Thermal Hotel or Bartyak when we have the most important thing, namely great films!
1 8 2022 ERUPTION OF LOVE
How hot can the love of two volcanologists be? Katia and Maurice Krafft had two passions in life - each other and volcanoes. He forthright and bold, she calm and cautious, but they always stood together. Explorers of active volcanoes, they spent most of their lives together at the base of red-hot craters. For two decades, these volcanologists have been seduced by the beauty and danger of the bubbling giants, saving tens of thousands of lives in their quest for knowledge and documenting the natural phenomenon in detail. Their incredible story and authentic footage of the volcanoes, shot from breathtakingly close range on 16mm film, has now come to life in a creative adaptation by director Sara Dosa. This dazzling documentary hit from Sundance USA is not only about erupting volcanoes, but also about the dynamics of a unique relationship between two quirky scientists who live together in life-and-death situations. How insignificant is man compared to the power of nature? And what does one live for who may die at any moment?
8 8 2022 GRAND PREMIERE
The only Czech representative of this festival echo is a new comedy by Miroslav Krobot, who filmed it here, on the streets of Olomouc, last summer. In this film, apart from the necessary exploration of the local locations, you will also get a glimpse into the environment of an ossified old theatre, where an actor and sick improviser named Šnajdr (Pavel Šimčík) comes from Prague to perform his original show. His wife, Markéta (Klára Melíšková), is allergic to her husband's brand of humour and her attempts to resolve the marital crisis with a session with a psychologist do not help. Grunt (Miroslav Krobot), the head of the local theatre, hopes that Šnajdra's eccentric performance will be the event of the season, but he has no idea that Šnajdra's grandmother (Iva Janžurová) with tourret syndrome, his wife Gruntová (Ivana Plíhalová) and, finally, he himself will be involved. The main thing is that they won't (according to theatre slang) "šnajdrovat", i.e. cancel the performance because of the audience's disinterest. The Grand Premiere is a funny mosaic of sometimes random stories, where anecdote alternates with gag and gag alternates with vulgarity. However, in the end, the protracted pace of the narrative, the absurd comic situations and the performances of the entire ensemble give the film a stamp of optimism, where even the greatest vulgarity from the mouth of Iva Janžurová will hopefully not offend in the end.
15 8 2022 MEN
British director and visionary screenwriter Alex Garland, the author of acclaimed science fiction dramas such as Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018), has made a recent move into the mystery horror genre. MEN follows the story of Harper, who travels to the picturesque English countryside to rest after a traumatic event. She witnesses her husband's suicide and in the back of her mind she struggles with the idea of whether she was also the cause of it. The idyll of the British countryside is then disrupted by the presence of a nosy landlord, a slimy priest, a prissy little boy and a strange naked stalker from the woods. The mystery of the place and the sense of despondency is then heightened by the gradual discovery by both Harper and the viewer that all the men who live in the village have the same face. The film brims with dense atmosphere, an unforgettably chilling soundtrack, directorial ideas and invention, with Oscar-nominated Jessie Buckley and chameleon Londoner Rory Kinnear shining alongside each other in the lead roles. Symbolism, audience uncertainty, humour and blood are the essential ingredients for a successful horror film and Alex Garland knows this well. In short, a bizarre journey not to be missed.
22 8 2022 UNDERSIDE
Chan-wook Park, South Korea's master of suspense and ingenious play with audience expectations, brought his genre mix of mystery detective story and romantic comedy to Vary. Detective Hae-joon is called to the case of the death of a man who killed himself under unclear circumstances in a fall from a cliff. The shadow of suspicion immediately falls on the newly widowed, beautiful Seo-rae, who doesn't seem at all upset by this fact. However, it seems that she was only cold to her husband, as an unexpected emotional bond begins to form between her and the investigator. But isn't love just a cover to escape the police's gaze? The two-time winner of the Cannes Film Festival, the author of the so-called Revenge Trilogy and cult films such as Old Boy and Chambermaid is also up for the Palme d'Or this year. At the KVIFF, Suspect was particularly noticed in the audience poll, where it jumped between the top rungs of popularity for several days. Those who have fallen in love with recent megahits like Parasite or the Squid Game series will find that uniquely Korean sense of humor and refined storytelling style here.
