ben's weekend bag
52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
June 30 - July 3, 2017

Justin
That's what she said anyway.
But speaking of impulses you don't engage in often, what's this about you being at KVIFF? I thought you were staying in this weekend. And you're with Rebekah?
She said Uma Thurman was going to be here, I couldn't resist.
I, too, can be impulsive. Hear me roar.
It's been really great though. It's amazing not to have to not be hounded with questions and just, you know, bask in film and enjoy a festival.
And about the Bekah thing...
You don't have to explain anything to me of all people, I know what a Boy Scout you are.
But, since I have to...
What do you think Maeve will think?
To be honest, I hadn't thought about it. Beks just suggested that I come and instead of laughing her off like I normally do, I thought... why not?
I guess in that moment, it didn't occur to me that there would be... you know, people here. And that people carry cameras to festivals. And that photos usually end up online. And that someone might forward to Maeve any photos that show up. And that photos of your ex-fiance being out in public with your sister might look a little... untoward.
So, eh. But I don't really know what I can do about it. M knows who I am (or did, who knows about now) and she knows better than most that 99% of online rumors are just rumors.
In the moment, I just didn't think about it.
Of course, I haven't thought about anything since.
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Little Crusader Křižáček
 Directed by: Václav Kadrnka
Czech Republic / Slovak Republic / Italy, 2017, 90min.
5/7 20:00 Grand Hall

 Little Jan, the only descendant of the knight Bořek (Karel Roden), has run away from home. His anxious father sets out to find him but his despair at the fruitless search gradually starts to overpower him. Václav Kadrnka has turned out a stylistically well-contoured adaptation of the poem by Jaroslav Vrchlický, where he employs a taciturn film form in order to encourage our imagination to engage in a poetic, cinematic pilgrimage.


God's Own Country
 Directed by: Francis Lee
United Kingdom, 2017, 104min.
1/7 17:00 Drahomíra Cinema

Skipping some of the more predictable clichés we’ve come to expect from the coming-out drama, Francis Lee’s sexy, thoughtful, hopeful film — about romance between an English farmboy and a Romanian migrant worker — advances a pro-immigration subtext that couldn’t be more timely in Brexit-era Britain.


“Let us keep going, going, going, back to La Dorada.”

Fermina Daza shuddered because she recognized his former voice, illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and she looked at the Captain: he was their destiny. But the Captain did not see her because he was stupefied by Florentino Ariza’s tremendous powers of inspiration.

“Do you mean what you say?” he asked.

“From the moment I was born,” said Florentino Ariza, “I have never said anything I did not mean.”

The Captain looked at Fermina Daza and saw on her eyelashes the first glimmer of wintry frost. Then he looked at Florentino Ariza, his invincible power, his intrepid love, and he was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.

“And how long do you think we can keep this goddamn coming and going?” he asked.

Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights.

“Forever,” he said.

 

Waiting Alice Boman3:06▶
Darden Road Beta Radio 4:24▶
Want You Back Lashburn 3:54▶
My City of Ruins Bruce Springsteen 5:00▶
Suffering You, Suffering Me Slow Club 4:07▶
Hiding Tonight Alex Turner 3:06▶
Ghosts Laura Marling 3:01▶
All I Can Think About Is You Coldplay 4:31▶
Death of All the Romance The Dears 6:00▶
Traveling Light Leonard Cohen 4:24▶
Mathematics Cherry Ghost 3:59▶
Tu oublieras mon nom Cœur De Pirate 4:19▶
Poison & Wine The Civil Wars 3:42▶
Bitter Poem Cold War Kids 5:09▶
9 Crimes Damien Rice 3:44▶
The Gash The Flaming Lips4:03▶
My Broken Heart Noah & The Whale 5:12▶
Someday John Legend 3:04▶
Justin and I have never been more "Justin and I" than we were the night we first got high. We'd gotten a brownie from his brother that was thick and sticky - two traits I still try to avoid in most arenas - and ate it with napkins in my parents' basement.

J spent two hours flipping through records, so flooded with opportunity that he couldn't make a decision. Which album should he swim in first? Simon & Garfunkel? No, Thelonious. No, Pink Floyd. No - !

And I - at first I didn't feel anything, but then it hit me: a dizziness, like those moments before you faint: starting to black out, second by second. And since I felt like a goldfish - my thoughts living for only a millisecond at a time - I sat and I wrote everything, every neuroses, every tingle, every impulse, every fear. Present Ben needed to uncover, unpack, understand it so that future Ben would be able to remember, re-live, re-enter...