 |
| Dustin Hoffman in Karlovy Vary: 'The pleasure of doing what we do is being engrossed in the work itself and losing track of time' Photo: Richard Mowe |
 |
| Dustin Hoffman on looking at his life's work: 'It makes me very emotional, very nostalgic' Photo: Richard Mowe |
Introducing his choice of a special screening of Mike Nicholls’ The Graduate he said of his student character in the film who lusts after Mrs Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft: “I don’t think we know who were are when we are in our early 20s. We want to be who we are when we looking in the mirror because when we see ourselves in the mirror, we change our look. We have a mirror look.
“We want to be this person who is staring back, but this is not who we are. And the idea is that we spend years trying to find out. And I think I’m still trying to find that out.”
Hoffman revealed that the landed the landmark role almost by accident. “Mike [Nicholls] had spent two years looking for this person who was to be The Graduate. After two years he gad decided that he was not going to make it because he could find the right actor for the role.
“Literally, the last day he was going too see people it was my turn and also the turn of Katharine Ross. Had we been there two years before we could not have gotten the roles. The other people who would have been there the day that we were, they would have gotten the role. That’s the honest truth. It’s all luck,” he smiled broadly to the delight of the audience.
The audience were even more delirious when he took his seat in the auditorium to watch the film, which received a final standing ovation.
 |
| Hoffman applauds the audience, who returned the favour with a standing ovation after the film Photo: Richard Mowe |
“If you’re very lucky, one day you’ll get to be an old man like me, and there it is, your life’s work on screen staring back at you. It makes me very emotional, very nostalgic and most of all very grateful to have had the opportunity to do what I love decade after decade with so many brilliant people who were doing what they loved too.”
Would The Graduate inspire today’s younger generations as much as it did when it was released in 1967?
“It would actually be the same, because the book by Charles Webb was written in 1964, which was before the Vietnam crisis, which divided America, as it is divided today actually.
“I think the important thing to realise – what you’re going to see – is that the parents were coming out of the Great Depression of the 1930s when no one could get a job, and suddenly now, because of the war, they were able to work, and instead of giving themselves, they gave objects, so the generation that was living then was not given love, they were given objects, which you will see at the beginning of the film.”
 |
| Maggie Gyllenhaal with her President's Award Photo: Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary |
To the appreciation of the home crowd she admitted that she had been inspired on a visit to the Czech Republic as a student when she had seen such films as The Firemen’s Ball and Loves Of A Blonde by the late great Milos Forman, a frequent visitor to the festival.
In a poignant nod to the late Festival president Jiri Bartoska the host of the opening Marek Eben suggested: “Jiri always wanted Dustin Hoffman to come. He said, ‘God, wouldn’t it be great?’. I guess he needed to tell God himself.”
The Festival continues until 11 July.
 |
| Dustin Hoffman on stage with festival director Karel Och, right, and executive director Krystof Much Photo: Courtesy of Film Servis Karlovy Vary |
