Why the John Garfield Retrospective at Karlovy Vary May Seem More Political Than Intended

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12 hours ago

A John Garfield retrospective at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) promises black-and-white treasures, a showcase of Hollywood's method acting pioneer and that special 35 millimeter film experience. Oh, and it may also cause some viewers to debate political parallels between the U.S. of Garfield's time and today.
Garfield, known for such movies as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Four Daughters, and Body and Soul, made a name for himself by playing brooding working-class characters in the 1940s. He then sought greater creative control as a contract with Warner came to an end, so he co-founded the production company Roberts Productions.
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'It's my baby,' KVIFF artistic director Karel Och tells THR about the retrospective. 'I've been wanting to do Garfield for many years, since the centenary [of his birth] in 2013, because I don't think we've ever done a tribute to an actor, and also an actor who tried to build his career in times which were very difficult, politically speaking, in America.'
After all, Garfield's career took a hit when he was called to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that looked into allegations of Communist ties and activities by people in Hollywood and beyond.
'The accusations had a fatal box office impact on one of his final films, The Breaking Point (1950), an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's adventure novel To Have and Have Not, which the author himself considered the best film adaptation of any of his books,' according to KVIFF organizers. 'Unlike others who collaborated with the authorities and denounced their colleagues in order to protect their own skins, the exhausted Garfield, already suffering poor health, did not 'name names,'' making him a victim of McCarthyism.
Given U.S. President Donald Trump's battle with cultural and media organizations and personalities, Garfield's life story may strike some as fitting into some of today's narratives.
Och has developed a reputation for booking the festival with a focus on artistic decisions rather than politics or gimmicks, though. And he emphasizes that this was also the case with the long-planned Garfield retrospective. 'First and foremost, the intention for this is aesthetic and historical, to tell people in my country and in Central Europe who have no clue who he was that this guy was here before Marlon Brando and before James Dean, and he was the first method actor. People will maybe also see that America then and America nowadays are not that different in terms of certain things, politically speaking.'
He has an example of a scene that may sound topical again today: 'There is a movie with Garfield, which we are screening, called Pride of the Marines, which is less known and which I only discovered some time ago. It's based on the real story of a soldier, Al Schmid, who went to Guadalcanal in the Second World War, ended up blind, and came back and tried to continue his life. There is a strong scene in the movie set in the hospital with all the soldiers who are about to go home, and they are a little worried about what they will find, in terms of private life, but also in terms of work. And one soldier says, 'Well, I'm going back home, and I may find out that there's some Mexican doing my job.' This is 1946. And the camera pans to a guy who is his fellow soldier, who's Mexican. And the first soldier realizes this, and he's like: 'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean you, I meant the other Mexican.' And the guy responds: 'Well, I am the other Mexican.''
Och understands that scenes like that could leave audiences pondering some very clear parallels with our current moment. 'You have such a strong statement that you could also have in a movie nowadays, basically,' he tells THR. 'And with Garfield, you have this incredible personality who tried to stay true to his ideals in the times of this [anti-communist] witch hunt and economic crisis and whatnot. But first and foremost, these movies are just fascinating. Certain issues might or will be perceived as political, but these are never on our minds in the first instance. We're doing Garfield because he was the most amazing actor.'
Och is also proud to be able to screen a large part of the retrospective on old-school film. 'We have eight of the 10 movies on 35 millimeter prints. So, I hope it will be enlightening, also maybe for a younger generation, from this point of view, because the chances to see films on film material are more and more rare nowadays.'
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