After 15 years of invitations, Steven Soderbergh finally arrived at the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) for its International Film Festival that celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. The multi-hyphenate, who likes to shoot and edit his films under the pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard (the names of his parents), had two reasons for coming. One, he was closer after moving to London; and two, he wanted to show his sophomore film, 1991’s “Kafka” starring Jeremy Irons and Alec Guinnes.
He also wanted to present a shorter silent version with a new soundtrack, “Mr. Kneff,” as part of the festival’s Kafka retrospective. The director gave witty intros to both films and also submitted to a thorough 90-minute grilling by journalist Neil Young.
Many people never saw “Kafka,” which was trounced by critics as the follow-up to “Sex, Lies and Videotape.” Written by Soderbergh collaborator Lem Dobbs, “Kafka” was filmed in what was then Prague, Czechoslovakia, nine months after the revolution, the last film to be made under the auspices of the state-run film industry. Without that control to shoot on empty Prague streets, filmmakers could not recreate that film today.
Young pointed out that Soderbergh has worked on more than 35 films in 35 years, not to mention TV. He’s one of six people who have won both the Palme d’Or and the directing Oscar (“Traffic”). He was also nominated that same year for “Erin Brockovich” in that categor.
