Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Those of you who loved the music of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in the film “Once,” here’s a return engagement. No, not a sequel, but as part of the soundtrack for a Czech film called “Beauty In Trouble” (or “Kráska v nesnázích”).
The title is based on a poem by Robert Graves. It begins, “Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel/On whom she can rely.” Pretty much the theme of this movie directed by Czech wunderkind Jan Hrebejk.
This adult fairy tale gives us a sensual Beauty (Anna Geislerová) who is married to a loser husband (Roman Luknár), but has a chance for happiness when a wealthy Prince (Josef Abrham) takes her for his own.
Alas, there’s one small fly in the ointment: Our Beauty is still sexually attracted to her bad boy hubby. More than once their two kids have to cover their ears and turn up the TV to drown out the bed-knocking noise coming through the apartment’s thin walls.
So Beauty has a choice: Either the benevolent and kind man who introduces her to sushi and how to drink wine and presents her with a book about Tuscany, where he owns a lovely villa. Or her good-in-bed car-thief lout of a husband.
Which do you think she’ll ultimately choose?
Do nice guys finish last? Are women attracted to the wrong kind of men, those cads who treat them like dirt and leave them begging for more?
You can find out the answer for yourself. “Beauty in Trouble” is playing at the Tropic Cinema on Eaton Street.
This film won the Czech Lion Award for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor. And director Jan Hrebejk won the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Krzysztof Kieslowski Award at the Denver International Film Festival.
Along with Glen Henson, Ales Brezina provides the musical score. And the cinematography by Jan Malir is as lush and beguiling as a lovers’ tryst.
Along with Glen Henson, Ales Brezina provides the musical score. And the cinematography by Jan Malir is as lush and beguiling as a lovers’ tryst.
This love triangle is a familiar movie theme. In “Indecent Proposal” we were waiting to see if Demi Moore chose Woody Harrelson or Robert Redford. Or which suitor Ingrid Bergman would end up with in “Casablanca.”
But set in Prague, and directed by Hrebejk, “Beauty in Trouble” is a telling with a style of its own.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
[from Solares Hill]
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