Will Tizard Contributor From indoor ice skating feats to Russell Crowe rocking the crowd, the 57th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival has launched with all its unconventional charisma intact.
Audiences who had to weather a downpour clearly showed no signs of dampened spirits as they cheered the fest’s opening gala dancers on ice skates, then rose to their feet to applaud guests Crowe and Alicia Vikander, both of whom accepted honors for their robust range of film work.
Vikander, in accepting the award of fest president Jiri Bartoska, said she was moved to be celebrated in the Czech Republic, where her international career first took off with the 2012 shoot of “A Royal Affair.” “I had a flush of amazing memories,” she told the crowd assembled in the grand hall of the 70s-tastic Hotel Thermal.
Vikander, who will be presenting “Firebrand,” said the role of Henry VIII’s surviving wife appealed to her because Catherine Parr was a woman who survived an abusive marriage with exceptional courage.
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