The End of the Festival as We Know It

Sitting in the hotel restuarant, eating the Czech National Dish (pork, saurkraut and dumpings). My train to Krockow leaves in 2 hours....so maybe after this, I'll ride the tram to the end of the line to see what the really nasty part of Olomouc looks like.

So, yesterday. The screening of Adolph was very early. Most of my festival friends trickled in during the first couple of minutes - the mojito-laden birthday party was just the night before. I had gone to Albert Maysles' hotel and retrieved him, so it was great to be able to talk with him about it afterward. There were maybe two dozen people, which for the size of the space was a pretty good crowd. People seemed to appreciate the subtitles, too, which I'm very happy about. What I didn't realize....and I may not have done the subtitles at all if I'd know, is that during all the screenings, there's someone in a sound booth in the back with the scripts of the movie, translating into Czech. Then the Czech audience members wear radio headsets and listen to the translation. But, Jana said it was much preferable to hear the interview subjects talk and read the subtitles than listen to the college student in back stumble through the translation.

After the screening, I sat out in a rooftop cafe was some of the other directors. NYC, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Jerusalem and Vienna were all represented-- and we all equally leched on how amazingly hot the Olomouc girls were. (Really - it's like Prague -without the ugly ones!) That being said, I think Czechs are sick to death of thier country being well known for only beer and pretty girls. I guess they need to kick Skoda production up a couple of notches.

That night was the awards ceremony. Jana later told me that almost every film that won had been in another doc festival in the Czech Republic last year and won there...so nothing new under the sun. Afterwards, there was a party at the Old Town Hall. And the mojito cart was back! It was really great, being in this beautiful 500 year old building (see Town Hall picture below), standing out on the balcony, a light fog settling in, a fountain going in the town square. I told Jana that when she comes to NYC I'll buy her a mojito, but the scenary won't be as nice.

After that, we decamped to a cellar bar. While there, Etienne, the very pretty director from Montreal, tried to pick up his handler. Me? After a couple of beers, I took a taxi back to the hotel with a German guy from ZDF. We sat in the hotel bar and discussed the German Palimentary elections. Yup! Let me loose in the Czech Republic and you'd better lock up your daughters!