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Oscar stars stay at home

Around Town

March 5th, 2008 issue

There was plenty of big-movie glamour at Lucerna Palác Saturday night, even though none of the invited international stars made it to the Český Lev or “Czech Lion” awards, the Czech equivalent of the Oscars.

French actress Marion Cotillard took the best actress Czech Lion for playing singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, which was filmed in Prague and Los Angeles. She sent regrets from the United States, where she is currently filming a gangster movie with heartthrob Johnny Depp, according to show host Jaroslav Dušek.
Cotillard was represented by colleague Paulina Němcová, who had a bit part in the movie as an American journalist. Němcová said Cotillard’s success has boosted her career as well — she is now working on a French movie with director Patrice Leconte.
“I was really hoping she would get it,” Němcová told The Prague Post afterward. “I’m so happy for her. She really deserves it.”  
Marketa Irglová, the Czech star of the surprising indie hit Once, also sent her regrets from the United States, where the movie just won the Oscar for best song.
But a wealth of homegrown stars showed up, probably the biggest being former president and playwright Václav Havel, who sat in the front row — fitting, as his face is currently plastered on movie screens and posters around town presently for Občan Havel (Citizen Havel), a documentary about his time at the castle.
Former Academy Award-winner Jan Svěrák took the stage several times to receive awards for his movie Vratné lahve (Empties), in which he directed his father, Zdeněk. He was also involved in Alice Nellis’ movie Tajnosti (re-titled Little Girl Blue in English) about a Czech woman’s midlife crisis.
Nellis’ movie also took two Lion awards, and the movie-makers are hoping the latest buzz will give it re-launch potential, Svěrák said.
The biggest problem for the film is that while its subject matter is relatively unusual for the Czech Republic, its themes are very common for the foreign market the movie-makers would like to target, he said.
“It has to be exotic to be noticed,” Svěrák told The Prague Post. “An introspective look at one woman’s middle-aged crisis isn’t that exotic.”
But Nellis said she will use the recognition from the Czech Film and Television Academy as validation to take on more themes that may be slightly offbeat for cinemagoers here.
While she would say only that she is working on two scripts, one connected to “motherhood and parentage,” Nellis said she plans to experiment more with the documentary feel, with a “smaller crew, less money and more freedom.”
“I like to try new things, so we’ll do some things that are more realistic, more documentary-like,” Nellis told The Prague Post.
That refreshing laid-back vibe, characteristic of so many things in Prague, was present throughout the event.
One award nominee took the stage in a suit coat, jeans and tennis shoes. Women marketing Stella Artois beer wore skimpy red dresses that showed off the brand name “tattooed” on their chests. Photographers and reporters rushed the stage immediately after the TV cameras switched off, and no security guards stopped them.
Out in the main hall, Czech stars mingled with guests, took questions and mugged for the cameras. Dušek signed an autograph around midnight for a TV reporter, as other guests surged by him looking for more food and drinks.
Probably the most poignant moment of the evening came courtesy of Ivan Trojan, who won the best actor award for the movie Václav. He told the crowd that he had promised his wife beforehand he would bring the award home to her.
“We men like to make the romantic gestures that we can’t really fulfill, usually, but tonight I did,” Trojan said.


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