47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as seen by yours truly

Part 1: Absolute #1

You’ve been waiting for it for so long, and it is finally here!  What is?  My KVIFF report AKA what movies I saw and won’t shut up until you see them too, what movies are interesting, but really weird, and a lot more from the amazing Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

I’ll start off with a surprise: my absolute favorite number one movie of the festival.  Wait, why is this a surprise?  Of course you would have a favorite, right? ……..Well, no.  Asking me what my favorite film of a 9-day film festival is is almost as bad as asking me what my favorite movie ever is*.  Get it now?  This is a big deal.  And this big deal goes to Jagten/The Hunt (2012, Denmark, dir. Thomas Vinterberg).  Seeing it at the Grand Hall was the best cinematic experience I’ve had in months; I say this without a doubt, and trust me, I have a lot of cinematic experiences, as my ever-worsening eye sight and ever-growing collection of ticket stubs prove.

Jagten is a story about presumption of innocence.  But WOW!  The film’s brilliant execution made me physically uncomfortable during a large part of it’s running time, and I cried like I’ve probably never cried during a movie (that includes all dead animal protagonists I’ve loved as a child).  I mean I full-on cried, with tears running down my face and dripping down my chin, not the barely-wet-eyes that I usually experience during really really touching movies.  I watch movies all the time, I study them, and I make them, so I dare say I know them, so it doesn’t happen often that I react this strongly, but Jagten totally blew my mind away.  The story is extremely powerful, and it is told with the utmost craft, and topped by a genius performance by Mads Mikkelsen (awarded at Cannes as Best Actor).

Just do whatever it takes and see it.  I promise it will be worth it.

Meanwhile stay tuned for more from my 9-day, 44-screening, 4-drink, 1-antibiotics-treatment presence at the festival.

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* In case it’s not clear to everyone: DO NOT ASK a film person this question.  Never ever.  Just don’t.  Go ask a mother to choose a favorite child, but DO NOT ask this question.  It is impossible to answer.  You’ll get an annoyed look for your ignorance of this fact, or – if the person is in a good mood and feels like talking for hours – a long list of movies.  You’ll find out the person’s top 3 of last year, and other very specific favorites (favorite Coen brothers movie, favorite 60s romance, favorite early Woody Allen film, favorite recent Woody Allen film,…you catch my drift) that are loved by that person for a variety of reasons.  Your subject will explain in detail why these films are great, why this greatness resonates so strongly with them, and add a bonus reasoning of why other films, that may be favored by the general public over your subjects’s choices, just don’t measure up to that, plus an analysis of why the general public has such poor taste……I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.