\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA John Garfield\u00a0retrospective at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival\u00a0(KVIFF) promises black-and-white treasures, a showcase of Hollywood\u2019s method acting pioneer and that special 35 millimeter film experience. Oh, and it may also cause some viewers to debate political parallels between the U.S. of Garfield\u2019s time and today.<\/p>\n
\n\tGarfield, known for such movies as The Postman Always Rings Twice<\/em>, Four Daughters<\/em>, and Body and Soul<\/em>, made a name for himself by playing brooding working-class characters in the 1940s. He then sought greater creative control as a contract with Warner came to an end, so he co-founded the production company Roberts Productions. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s my baby,\u201d KVIFF artistic director Karel Och tells THR<\/em> about the retrospective. \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to do Garfield for many years, since the centenary [of his birth] in 2013, because I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever done a tribute to an actor, and also an actor who tried to build his career in times which were very difficult, politically speaking, in America.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter all, Garfield\u2019s career took a hit when he was called to testify before the\u00a0U.S. House of Representatives\u2019\u00a0Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that looked into allegations of Communist ties and activities by people in Hollywood and beyond.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe accusations had a fatal\u202f box office\u202fimpact on one of his final films,\u202fThe Breaking Point\u202f<\/em>(1950), an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway\u2019s adventure novel\u202fTo Have and Have Not<\/em>, which the author himself considered the best film adaptation of any of his books,\u201d according to KVIFF organizers. \u201cUnlike others who collaborated with the authorities and denounced their colleagues in order to protect their\u202fown\u202fskins,\u202fthe\u202fexhausted Garfield, already suffering poor\u202fhealth, did not \u2018name names\u2019,\u201d making him a victim of McCarthyism.<\/p>\n \n\tGiven U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s battle with cultural and media organizations and personalities, Garfield\u2019s life story may strike some as fitting into some of today\u2019s narratives.<\/p>\n \n\tOch has developed a reputation for booking the festival with a focus on artistic decisions rather than politics or gimmicks, though. And he emphasizes that this was also the case with the long-planned Garfield retrospective. \u201cFirst and foremost, the intention for this is aesthetic and historical, to tell people in my country and in Central Europe who have no clue who he was that this guy was here before Marlon Brando and before James Dean, and he was the first method actor. People will maybe also see that America then and America nowadays are not that different in terms of certain things, politically speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe has an example of a scene that may sound topical again today: \u201cThere is a movie with Garfield, which we are screening, called Pride of the Marines<\/em>, which is less known and which I only discovered some time ago. It\u2019s based on the real story of a soldier, Al Schmid, who went to Guadalcanal in the Second World War, ended up blind, and came back and tried to continue his life. There is a strong scene in the movie set in the hospital with all the soldiers who are about to go home, and they are a little worried about what they will find, in terms of private life, but also in terms of work. And one soldier says, \u2018Well, I\u2019m going back home, and I may find out that there\u2019s some Mexican doing my job.\u2019 This is 1946. And the camera pans to a guy who is his fellow soldier, who\u2019s Mexican. And the first soldier realizes this, and he\u2019s like: \u2018Oh, I\u2019m sorry. I didn\u2019t mean you, I meant the other Mexican.\u2019 And the guy responds: \u2018Well, I am the other Mexican.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOch understands that scenes like that could leave audiences pondering some very clear parallels with our current moment. \u201cYou have such a strong statement that you could also have in a movie nowadays, basically,\u201d he tells THR<\/em>. \u201cAnd with Garfield, you have this incredible personality who tried to stay true to his ideals in the times of this [anti-communist] witch hunt and economic crisis and whatnot. But first and foremost, these movies are just fascinating. Certain issues might or will be perceived as political, but these are never on our minds in the first instance. We\u2019re doing Garfield because he was the most amazing actor.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOch is also proud to be able to screen a large part of the retrospective on old-school film. \u201cWe have eight of the 10 movies on 35 millimeter prints. So, I hope it will be enlightening, also maybe for a younger generation, from this point of view, because the chances to see films on film material are more and more rare nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A John Garfield\u00a0retrospective at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival\u00a0(KVIFF) promises black-and-white treasures, a showcase of Hollywood\u2019s method acting pioneer and that special 35 millimeter film experience. Oh, and it may also cause some viewers to debate political parallels between the U.S. of Garfield\u2019s time and today. Garfield, known for such<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2607,2603,262,2605,1913,2604,2606],"class_list":{"0":"post-9932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-artistic","9":"tag-garfield","10":"tag-john","11":"tag-karlovy","12":"tag-political","13":"tag-retrospective","14":"tag-vary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}