CZECH REPUBLIC: Former Czech President Vaclav Havel attends premiere of his debut film after recent illness
Record ID:
220280
CZECH REPUBLIC: Former Czech President Vaclav Havel attends premiere of his debut film after recent illness
- Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: Former Czech President Vaclav Havel attends premiere of his debut film after recent illness
- Date: 23rd March 2011
- Summary: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (MARCH 22, 2011) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) EXTERIOR OF PREMIERE VENUE, LUCERNA CINEMA BUILT BY FILM DIRECTOR AND FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT, VACLAV HAVEL'S GRANDFATHER PASSAGE IN PRAGUE WITH DAVID CERNY SCULPTURE OF KING WENCESLAS (VACLAV) SITTING ON AN UPSIDE DOWN HORSE, PAN TO JOURNALISTS WAITING HAVEL'S WIFE DAGMAR WITH FILM ACTOR, JOSEF ABRHAM POSING FOR PHOTO, GOING INTO CINEMA (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) FILM ACTORS AND CREW POSING FOR PHOTO CAMERAS HAVEL ARRIVING FOR PREMIERE, GOING INTO CINEMA HAVEL SITTING TO ANSWER QUESTIONS (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) FILM DIRECTOR AND FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT, VACLAV HAVEL, ANSWERING QUESTION ON WHAT CRITICS WILL THINK OF THE FILM, SAYING: "I didn't care too much if it (film) looked more like a play or a film. I simply did it like I thought it should be done, how I felt I should do it. As to where the piece belongs (theatre or cinema) - that is for the critics to decide." ACTORS AND FILM CREW ON STAGE AT PREMIERE AUDIENCE APPLAUDING (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) FILM DIRECTOR AND FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT, VACLAV HAVEL, REPEATING HIS MOTTO FROM THE VELVET REVOLUTION WITH ACTORS LAUGHING CYNICALLY AS THIS PHRASE HAS NOT COME TO FRUITION: "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate." AUDIENCE APPLAUDING VARIOUS OF HAVEL ON STAGE WITH ACTORS AUDIENCE STANDING AND APPLAUDING VARIOUS OF HAVEL WITH HIS WIFE AND ACTORS BACKSTAGE
- Embargoed: 7th April 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Czech Republic, Czech Republic
- Country: Czech Republic
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA9SP1X2BHNPMBSLSA704IPLXCV
- Story Text: Former dissident and leading figure of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel, recently out of hospital, attends the film premiere of his first movie.
'Leaving', (Odchazeni) the directorial debut from Vaclav Havel, the tenth and last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, premiered in the Czech capital on Tuesday (March 22) .
Havel, who was recently admitted to hospital with a lung infection, turned up for the premiere looking frail but in good spirits.
The popular Czech public figure, who counts playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician on his "done that" list and whose uncle founded the famous Barrandov Studios near Prague, has always said it was a long time dream to direct a film.
Based on his own play, first published in 2007 some 18 years after his first playwriting efforts and a political career in the intervening years, Havel's achievement of this dream comes as he approaches his 75th year.
As to what the critics might think of his directorial debut, Havel said he had done his best and the rest was for the others to decide.
"I didn't care too much if it (film) looked more like a play or a film. I simply did it like I thought it should be done, how I felt I should do it. As to where the piece belongs (theatre or cinema) - that is for the critics to decide," Havel said at the Prague premiere.
Havel's film details the story of a government chancellor who faces a crisis after being removed from political power and is based on Shakespeare's "King Lear" and Anton Checkhov's "The Cherry Orchard".
The film is, according to earlier comments from Havel, not just about the leaving of one politician from his office, but more generally about the phenomenon of change itself: every second something comes and something irretrievably goes. We do not know from where everything emerges and know even less to where it disappears. This is in fact a classic theme of dramas: the end. The end of a man. The end of an era. The end of a community. The end of love.
Speaking on stage at the Lucerna, Havel, a one-time political prisoner, repeated his slogan from Czechosokvakia's 1989 'Velvet Revolution': "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate". Still a provocateur in his 70s, Havel organised the actors on stage to laugh cynically as he said his famous line, as a hint that truth has still not prevailed.
Havel, who has had health problems since his time in jail in the 80s and a history of chain-smoking, was hospitalised earlier in March but had insisted he would make the premiere of his first film. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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