As far as I know, you did not know each other before the founding of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Foundation. Do you remember your acquaintance?
We didn’t know each other at all, I only knew the name Eva Zaoralová, but maybe I didn’t even know what she looked like. I was approached to become president of the foundation, Eva was approached to be its artistic director. So we met on the march, as they say in the weapon, because the beginnings were not easy. When we started writing a new stage of the Karlovy Vary festival, none of us knew how.
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What did she bring to the festival at the time, in addition to the ability to compile the program?
A great education, which she certainly did not show off. Italian and French film was her domain, but she was educated in general. She was ahead of us all because she had previously gone to juries and as a journalist for festivals. She knew a lot about the film. She was actually the only professional in the whole group. One felt it from her – and was devoted to her. And she put the work in the festival in order. We were enthusiastic, we didn’t have much more then, but she had order and seriousness. That combined well.
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What was her relationship to the big stars who go to the festival? She was rarely seen in their company…
Eva was shy. He doesn’t even have many photos with actors. But she didn’t really care about them, she was always more interested in people who brought good movies, she talked to them better and better.
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I also knew her as a person with a sense of humor.
She had a sense of humor, but a little strange. With confusion, she once admitted that I had taught her to speak rudely, yet she never believed that such a thing could happen.
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What did she give you as a person?
She gave me friendship. Even though she handed Karl the scepter, we remained great friends. We had half-hour phone calls together, many times when I drove almost to the cottage, and we discussed everything from her grandchildren to the festival to the dogs. Only recently had the talk time shortened, she was known to be tired.
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