2024-03-18 21:58:09
Petr Jančárek filmed Václav Havel for the last three years of his life. He caught him running around the hotel corridor in a bathrobe when he wants to have another beer despite his wife’s disapproval, but also in the hospital after a stroke. “We wanted to show him in an unexpected position. I was filming for a giant of trust and respect,” says the director of Tady Havel, do you hear me?, which opens in theaters in April.
After the screening of the film, you said that it was important for you to show Václav Havel mainly as a person. Why did you find it important?
There have been many works about Havel, whether written or filmed. But my colleagues and I said that there are enough encyclopedic reports about him and there will be more. We definitely did not want to repeat ourselves or add another similar format. That’s why we thought it would be more important to show him in an unexpected position. We did not want, figuratively speaking, to publish another encyclopedia with slightly different photos, but the same content.
What exactly do you mean?
A lot of people probably expected that the film would record when, where and what important things he did. This year we commemorate the 25th anniversary of joining NATO and 20 years since joining the European Union. Havel had a huge share in all of this. But why come up with something similar again? We wanted to look at Havel from a more personal and artistic level.
And was that his wish too?
I think maybe so, but we never defined it. Filming was going on from the moment he suggested I spend camera time with him. He was always interested in making sure that I had good conditions and his people always arranged in advance so that I could be with the camera at the given event. He actively helped, but never influenced the filming, never wanted to see the footage. I can only appreciate how great it was that he trusted me so much and let it happen like that.
There really weren’t moments when he wasn’t in the mood or when he stopped you?
There were certainly moments when he was not in the mood, similarly there were moments when I was not in the mood, but mutual respect and trust overcame everything. I remember one moment in Berlin in a hotel where we both couldn’t sleep, so we somehow naturally met in the lobby at midnight with the intention of having a drink before going to sleep. But at that moment it was out of the question for me to sit down with him and start talking with him. In short, I sat down, we knew about each other, we nodded at each other, and then we parted again after half an hour. I totally respected his peace and time with himself.
And have you ever gone beyond your role as documentarian or observer? Were there moments when you became close as people?
It was all just a moment, we were joking. For example, when I came to see him at the hotel pool. He swam, then looked at me and said with a laugh: “I wonder if you will follow me to the sauna with your camera.”
You probably didn’t go there.
I really didn’t go. Our connection was full of trust. The biggest thing for me was that he just let me go. Sometimes, of course, something went wrong. For example, in Bill Clinton’s post-presidential office in New York, when I followed him to the private room of the former president of the United States, Clinton’s security took me away after a minute.
If you compare how you perceived Havel before you started filming him, has your view of him changed?
Of course he has changed, because when you know someone as a politician, playwright, writer or philosopher, you see him from the outside as if through a glass. The moment he lets you into his office and privacy, you start looking at him differently.
I have been with him since 2004, when I filmed video greetings for him, which he sent around the world. From 2009 it became more intense, because I started filming his life directly. It was intimate, beautiful and full of respect and responsibility. It was clear to me right away, when the footage was taken, that one day it would be a big problem to go through them and compile them in such a way that the news about Václav Havel gave some higher meaning than just the fact that he sometimes came somewhere, met someone and they said something .
Is there anything that surprised you about him as a person when you first met him?
The most surprising thing was that he chose me. I came to him in 2004 to ask him for a video to express his support for the Cuban dissidents. The video then went around the world. About a week later, I received a call from the office saying that Mr. President would like to speak with me. Havel appreciated the economy of my filming method. He realized that filming and recording his reality doesn’t always have to be accompanied by a crew of ten and remodeling an office and lots of lights. It dawned on him that the shots could be purposeful, even if they were made very modestly and with one camera.
What was the most powerful moment for you that you could be with Havel thanks to filming?
There are more, I don’t have a ranking, but I definitely had a significant and big moment when Havel suffered a stroke in the United States. Then I also shot a shot of his death mask, which isn’t in the film and it was sad, but I’m glad it’s captured in the archive.
Just as he lies in bed in a New York hospital, Havel describes how he became paralyzed in half of his body after a stroke. He says he found it more cheerful than depressing. How did Havel perceive his health?
He took old age as a natural development of life, rather it annoyed and bothered him. When a person realizes that his powers are weakening and leaving him, he is not happy about it. Sometimes he was irritated by the limitations that old age and illness brought. But at the same time he carried it with complete dignity. He didn’t let himself be limited by it, if it was even a little bit possible.
How is it possible that Havel seems completely natural in the film, as if no one was filming him?
A filmmaker must be able to be inconspicuous, not manipulate people, not tell them “one more time” fifty times a day. I minimally brought my attitude or demand into the world in front of the camera. I remember one moment when we were filming a video greeting and I asked him if he could move a little to the right. He replied: “Petr Uhl wouldn’t be happy that I’m moving to the right.”
Did it take you a while in the beginning to get up the courage to allow yourself to shoot even sensitive moments?
I was in and around his office for a relatively long time thanks to video greetings. It happened that I was at a Christmas toast, for example. So we gradually got to know the president. It was very important that I got to know and eventually became friends with his people, with his secretary Sabina Tančevová and his bodyguards. Then everyone helped me during the filming, because they saw that it was the president’s wish. So, over time, I grew into that environment. It made me happy when I suddenly began to realize that I am part of the team and stop being taken as an external element.
When I spoke with Havel’s photographer Tomki Němec, he said that he followed the motto “Photograph to the fullest, because that moment will never come back”. Did you feel the same while filming?
Clearly. Sometimes it didn’t work. For example, when we drove him to the hospital in New York after his stroke, the examination and all life-saving procedures took place in the public part of the hospital. There, of course, I was afraid to take out my camera, because at that moment I would probably be arrested or fired. But as soon as he was taken to the private part of the hospital, I took the plunge.
Meanwhile, someone called Madeleine Albright to come to him, both to encourage him and also to watch over him. As soon as she walked in, the first thing she saw was me with the camera. She started getting really upset about how the media got there. Mr. President was talking just like that and reassured her: “It’s Mr. Jančárek, it’s all right.”
Your film also offers funny moments. During Miloš Forman’s visit, Havel wants to have another beer, but his wife Dagmar stops him, saying that he already had one and due to his health, he shouldn’t have another. He then explains to her with childlike innocence why he couldn’t get another one when he only had one small one. What was their relationship like?
I’m going to be a rude respondent for a moment, but my answer is that he was married.
How was your presence with Havel in practice, did you even spend several days with him?
It was case by case. On trips abroad, his secretary was important, as she always made arrangements with local organizers in advance so that I could be there. They often had to arrange a hotel room for me, someone had to pay for it when possible, other times I had to pay for it myself.
You spent the last three years of Havel’s life intensively. Can you summarize how he influenced you?
Above all, Václav Havel gave me a great opportunity to make an interesting film and be in his company. He was inspiring and always reminds me that the biggest mistake in life is to be afraid. He taught me a lot. For example, the fact that if a person has an opinion, he should insist on it even when it is not popular. Havel is a reminder that one should stand up for oneself. The saddest thing is to see politicians who change their opinions by 180 degrees just depending on where the hand of the electoral preference meters is currently moving. Havel was consistent in his fundamental positions.
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