Impulsive, contradictory, wild and a bit out of this world. A spirit of actor, singer and poet Richard Harris materialised at the Small Hall on Saturday. “He was a man of great intensity, a bit like a hurricane – in both his personal and professional life,” Karel Och, the artistic director of KVIFF, described the main character of The Ghost of Richard Harris.
The documentary, which was warmly received at the Venice Film Festival, was presented to the Karlovy Vary audience by director Adrian Sibley. “Harris was a complicated man. He never stopped discovering new layers of his personality even when his life was coming to an end. It was a turning point in his life when he realised how he could use these layers to his advantage,” he told the audience. The actor portraying King Arthur, Cromwell, and Dumbledore has gone down in history for his numerous scandals. Nevertheless, the director disagrees with this simplistic interpretation. “Open your minds to this character, a hugely talented, amazing man who came from a different time and a different place,” he said to the audience before the screening.
The audience learns about the actor not only through Harris’ own distinctive voice, but also through recollections of his three sons – director Damien and actors Jamie and Jared Harris. The film also features Russell Crowe, who met Harris on the set of Gladiator (2000). “For his sons it was a kind of catharsis. They talk about a man they loved, but their relationship with him was far from blissful,” Sibley revealed after the screening. The debate was concluded by the film’s producer Mike Downey: “I can think of no better place to evoke the spirit of Richard Harris than right here in Karlovy Vary.”
