In 1946, 15 years before Alain Resnais made “Last Year at Marienbad,” one of the world’s earliest film festivals unspooled in the Czech spa towns of Marianske Lazne — aka “Marienbad” — and Karlovy Vary — aka “Carlsbad.” Tucked in beautiful Bohemia, Karlovy Vary had already made cinema history 50 years before that, in 1896, when a representative of the Lumiere’s pioneering film firm demonstrated the groundbreaking new le cinematographe Lumiere projector, one of a few in the world, at the spa’s popular casino. These aren’t historical facts intended to impress the reader with the importance of the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival . We’ll get to that in a minute. Popular on Variety These are a couple of cultural moments in the ancient spa town’s rich history with the arts. This illustrious “spa town of the royals and nobles” past helps explain why Karlovy Vary became one of the two most important film festivals — along with Moscow — in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and Russia.…