John Travolta Collects Crystal Globe in Karlovy Vary
John Travolta received a lifetime achievement award in Karlovy Vary Friday.

KARLOVY VARY, Czech Republic – John Travolta became the latest in a long list of top Hollywood and international stars to pick up a Crystal Globe lifetime achievement award at Friday’s opening of the Karlovy Vary film festival.
One of Europe’s leading film events, Travolta told an audience of 2,000 guests and industry figures at the fest’s 48th edition opening night that it was a privilege to be an actor.
“Being an actor is such an interesting journey,” he said after being presented with the distinctive award – a figure of a naked woman holding aloft a crystal glass globe — by festival president, Czech actor Jiri Bartoska.
“We are asked to reflect humanity, mankind. It is our own personal interpretation of that. It does not mean you are going to agree with that or even like it, but I’m so thrilled that you with agree with interpretation.”
He added: “I’ve said it before – to be or not to be. I am glad that you allow me to be.”
Travolta’s appearance onstage at the grand hall at the festival center, the Hotel Thermal, situated in the middle of the quaint bohemian spa town two hours drive southwest of Prague, came after clips from many of his best-known films – including Pulp Fiction, Grease, Saturday Night Fever and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 were shown, eliciting cheers from the audience.
Previous Crystal Globe holders include Helen Mirren, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, John Malkovich and many others who, in a festival tradition, make an amusing or ironic trailer for future editions of the festival with stories revolving around the award and the use to which they put it.
The festival runs through July 7.

John Travolta introduces Killing Season at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
During their first on-screen encounter, two of today’s greatest acting icons, Robert De Niro and John Travolta, play veterans of the Bosnian War who fought on opposite sides. American Benjamin Ford (De Niro) and Serbian army veteran Emil Kovac (Travolta) clash once again years later in order to settle old scores in the best way they know how – mano-a-mano using both physical and psychological force. The archetypal story of two men gripped by mutual hatred while respecting each other´s abilities is here submitted in an attractive form: a tense, action-packed game of cat and mouse set in the gorgeous yet inaccessible Appalachian Mountains.

Working with actors of such caliber is every filmmaker´s dream, as Mark Steven Johnson confirms: “It’s a bit like you’re pinching yourself under the table. But that goes away very quickly when you realize that both of them are just sincerely the two most incredible gentlemen.” Thanks to Travolta’s and De Niro´s acting virtuosity, the highly skilled director was able to elicit the full range of motives and emotions in his characters, including dark humor, fear, and melancholy, thereby transforming a simple genre flick into a far more complex experience.

John Travolta presents screening of Grease at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
After the official festival opening on Friday night, John Travolta stopped by the open air cinema to greet his fans and introduce his famous musical Grease. Even though the outdoor temperature resembled fall more than summer, 2 238 fans came to see the actor and some even danced to the film’s soundtrack throughout the screening.