13/01/2006

The tour of Europe continues for Kings and Queen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (King and Queen), latest feature form French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin which was released yesterday in Hungarian theatres, distributed by Best Classics. Produced by Why Not Productions, the film registered an excellent score of 540.000 admissions on the French Arthouse circuit at the end of 2004 – beginning of 2005 (distribution Bac Films). Released last year in Belgium (February), the UK (June) and in Portugal (December), the film was also sold by Wild Bunch to Greece, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia and Russia, and is in negotiations with Germany, which promises a fine circulation over time. Kings and Queen was nominated seven times at the Césars of 2005, winning Best Actor, attributed to Mathieu Amalric (acting alongside Emmanuelle Devos and Catherine Deneuve) and who has now moved up a gear since he is now in Munich by Steven Spielberg and has caught the attention of the American producers.

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Among the four other newcomers on the programme in Hungary this week are two American films, and a British production: Human Traffic by Justin Kerrigan. Distributed by FF Film, this first features comes out curiously in Hungary six years after it won numerous prizes at festivals (Golden Hitchcock at Dinard, Best Director at Thessalonica, Discovery Award at Toronto) and was nominated for a Bafta in the Best first film category. For its part, Szimpla City released yesterday Great Communist Bank Robbery, a French-German-British documentary (Libra Film - Les Films d'Ici- France 2 – Arte – ZDF – BBC). Finally, box-office wise, worth noting the performance of the Hungarian feature Just Sex, Nothing Else (Csak Szex és más semmi) by Krisztina Goda which reached second place in the weekly ratings (surrounded in the top 10 by nine American productions) and which accumulated 610.000 euros of receipts in five weeks (against 412.000 euros for King Kong in four weeks and 940.000 euros for The World of Narnia in three weeks). Produced by Megafilm, the film follows a thirty year old bachelor woman who is tired of men but desperate to have a child at all costs.

(Translated from French)