This tribute article would not have been made if there was not that big... IF. If we wouldn´t prepare article about Jack Nicholson, we wouldn´t have hit the name Monte Hellman who was part at the birth of independent film scene in USA. We wouldn´t have recalled meeting Monte in Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2011(when his name didn´t ring the bell to us) which ignited interest in making an interview with him. While googling details, we figured out he died only four days before we got this idea, at the age on 91. So instead of intended interview (which maybe wouldn´t even happen) we put together tribute article from foreign sources. He deserves that. R.I.P.

Paul Kohner was born on 29. 5. 1902 in Teplitz, town on the North of Czechoslovakia. His parents Julius and Helen Kohner belonged to local Jewish community and Julius had nickname “Kino Kohner” since he run local cinema and published film newspapers. Paul had brothers Frederick who later became writer and script writer and Walter who later became Hollywood agent. His wife Hanna became the first ordinary citizen who talked publicly in celebrity program This is Your Life about her experience in Nazi death camps. It was in 1953. Paul has been a prudent, hardworking and purposeful man, who wasn´t afraid of taking risk and he could do swift decisions. Thanks to that, then 18 years old boy from Teplitz, with no experience, made his way on the ladder to the very top in Hollywood and he became very respected and acknowledged producer and agent and had the likes of Maurice Chevalier, Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Bill Travers, Ernst Hemingway in his agency.

I got a video via email, where ex-Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovskij compared former Soviet Union with current European Union. I liked it and tried to find out more. I realized that, sadly, he has died two years ago in England, where he emigrated in 1976.In that video he talks about system which he witnessed and felt on his own skin (literally) and which is engulfing us now…

We are not sport fans but somehow the name Eddie Edwards has stuck into our mind in 1988 when Czechoslovakian TV showed spots from Olympic Games in Calgary. I always appreciated underdogs rather that firm number ones so despite finishing last in competition Eddie won my sympathy. Then for more than two decades we had no idea what does Eddie do but recent film “Eddie The Eagle” return us back to him. We really liked the movie and tried to find where we could write him. We tried his management and other contact without luck (managements rarely reply- we wonder what they are paid for) so we tried his foundation and BINGO, Eddie replied.

Everybody knows a name of this French actor, who was born on 9. 4. 1933. He wasn´t even 30 years old when he became a star almost overnight. Thanks to his fine look, charisma, attitude, sense of humour, sense for justice and honour and 100 % approach to every film, he became a legend. He became a symbol and treasure of France as well as Eiffel Tower.

During communism, when action movies weren´t made yet in mass quantity and those Americans didn´t get to Czech cinemas, his crime- films or comedies, where he himself did all stunt work, were absolute top for our audience.

He depicted true masculine hero, who was often alone against the evil or system. He was a man every young boy wanted to be and every woman were longing for. Funnily, audience wanted him in these roles and didn´t accept him as enthusiastically in different ones. Despite his heavenly stardom, he stood firmly with his feet on the ground, never turned back to his fans, he was always high- principled man who never forgot what his parents told him. He became an icon. Rest in piece.

As a source of information we used his biography written by Philippe Durant.