Beauty in Trouble
| Beauty in Trouble | |
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English-language poster
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| Directed by | Jan Hřebejk |
| Produced by | Ondřej Trojan |
| Written by | Petr Jarchovský |
| Starring |
Anna Geislerová Roman Luknár Emília Vášáryová Jana Brejchová Jiří Schmitzer Josef Abrhám |
| Narrated by | Petr Jarchovský Jan Hřebejk |
| Music by | Aleš Březina Songs Glen Hansard Radůza |
| Cinematography | Jan Malíř |
| Edited by | Vladimír Barák |
| Distributed by | Falcon, Sony |
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Release date
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Running time
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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...'"
The script is based on Robert Grave's enigmatic poem, Beauty in Trouble and it begins with these words set to music sung by a chanteuse who accompanies herself with an accordion.
Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel
On whom she can rely
To pay her cab-fare, run a steaming bath,
Poultice her bruised eye;
Will not at first, whether for shame or caution,
Her difficulty disclose;
Until he draws a cheque book from his plumage,
Asking her how much she owes;
(Breakfast in bed: coffee and marmalade,
Toast, eggs, orange-juice,
After a long, sound sleep - the first since when?
-And no word of abuse.)
Loves him less only than her saint-like mother,
Promises to repay
His loans and most seraphic thoughtfulness
A million-fold one day.
Beauty grows plump, renews her broken courage
And, borrowing ink and pen,
Writes a news-letter to the evil angel
(Her first gay act since when?)
The fiend who beats, betrays and sponges on her,
Persuades her white is black,
Flaunts vespertilian wing and cloven hoof;
And soon will fetch her back.
Virtue, good angel, is its own reward:
Your dollars were well spent.
But would you to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment?
Robert Graves
The Plot:
The film is a naturalistic love story about the sex life of a beautiful woman, Marcela, and her concurrent relationships with three men; Jarda, her abusive husband, Risha, her abusive step-father, and Evzen, a dashing, older man she meets shortly after the film begins. With her husband, Jarda, she enjoys lustful sex and his physical abusiveness is an extension of a chauvinism that powers strong sexual encounters, but he is vain and not particularly bright about this. Richard, her mother's husband is unwittingly cruel, like an obnoxious and malicious child. He is played like one of Steve Martins "wild and crazy guys" but more repulsively. Evžen, who becomes Marcela's benefactor/meal ticket, is a man of sophisticated tastes and fortunate parentage, a Czech who has inherited vineyards in Tuscany, to which home he takes Marcela and her two children.
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Wikipedia