Before Barry Levinson receives his Crystal Globe, he will present several of his films at the Karlovy Vary film festival. The first was his latest film, Paterno. “Joe Paterno was a celebrated football coach. They almost built monuments to him - until the eruption of a sexual harassment scandal on one of his teams,” Levinson explained the subject of his movie which is based on true events. “I’ve always been interested in human behavior, how we act and react on a personal level. Paterno opens a big subject, one we should try to understand,” he added.
The movie starring Al Pacino was produced by HBO. “In the past ten years, because of economic changes in the business, movies about human behavior appear in theatres less and less,” the director laments. Yet nothing, he says, compares to the communal experience of the movie theatre. “When I was a boy, I went to the movie theatre every Saturday to see whatever they were screening. The shared emotions were incredible,” remembers Levinson and also said he was honoured to be in a country which gave the world Miloš Forman.
