| Beauty in Trouble | |
|---|---|
English-language poster |
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| Directed by | Jan Hřebejk |
| Produced by | Ondřej Trojan |
| Written by | Petr Jarchovský |
| Narrated by | Petr Jarchovský Jan Hřebejk |
| Starring | Anna Geislerová Roman Luknár Emília Vášáryová Jana Brejchová Jiří Schmitzer Josef Abrhám |
| Music by | Aleš Březina Songs Glen Hansard Radůza |
| Cinematography | Jan Malíř |
| Editing by | Vladimír Barák |
| Distributed by | Falcon, Sony |
| Release date(s) | 7 September 2006 |
| Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | Czech Republic |
| Language | Czech |
| Box office | $1,491,168 |
Beauty in Trouble (Czech: Kráska v nesnázích) is a 2006 Czech tragicomedy directed by Jan Hřebejk. Eddie Cockrell, writing in Variety, said the "[t]itle comes from the Robert Graves poem, itself adapted into a Czech popular song in the 1980s, and performed in the film by homegrown thrush Radůza. Germ of the pic's idea was the first line, 'Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel/On whom she can rely...'"[1]
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The film is a hard but gentle love story about a beautiful woman called Marcela and her troubles with three men in the roles of lover, abuser, and provider: Jarda (her sexy, unreliable and shady husband), Richard (her mother's trouble-making and unloving boyfriend) and Evžen Beneš (a wealthy, suggestible and well-meaning benefactor). Marcela and Jarda live in modern Prague in small, smelly and ugly house with their two children Kuba and Lucie. Jarda runs a chop-shop, and comes into possession of Evžen’s stolen car, and he must go to prison. Marcela takes her children to her mother's apartment, where tensions grow unpleasant. Marcela despises her mother’s lecherous boyfriend Richard, who she implied had fathered her first child, during which pregnancy she had run off to marry her husband at the age of seventeen. Evžen generously offers Marcela much needed help and relief - she and her children can live in his empty house, and he tries to give her money. Marcela pragmatically takes up with Evžen and his money and they move to Italy. Marcela’s mother dies and Marcela comes to her funeral. Evžen deals firmly with another beneficiary who has tried to extort him. Marcela sees her husband again before divorcing, but chooses again not to live with him any more despite his best efforts. She returns to Italy, her deceased mother’s boyfriend Richard invited along by her well-meaning benefactor. Marcela and her children live in Italy with her provident benefactor, and daydreams about her sexy husband.
Critic Roger Ebert rated the film three stars out of four, describing the film as "This is the kind of film that achieves one simple but difficult thing: It pleases you."[2]
The film was released on 7 October 2006 in the Czech Republic and as of 2007[update], has grossed 1,428,703 US$. It was released in the United States on 13 June 2008 and grossed $19,300 in revenue while it acquired $1,471,868 from foreign markets for worldwide total of $1,491,168.[3]