12/10/2006

The initiators behind the recent “buy Czech” campaign, an effort to persuade consumers that local produce is as good - if not better – as imported, might have to look to cinema for inspiration. Czech films rule the box office and need minimum promotion to do so.

Halfway through the autumn season two Czech film lead the cinema admissions list. The surprise package is top of the box office Prachy delaj cloveka (lit. “Money Makes the Man”), an action comedy based not on one but on two true criminal incidents and shot partly in Sri Lanka. The film was directed by Jiri Chlumský (who is mainly known for his television work) and produced by Ceska Produkce (Snowboarders) in association with commercial network TV Prima. In less than two weeks after its release the film has had more than 60,000 admissions.

Chlumský’s film is the first Czech action film in years to lead the box office. It has taken over at the top from Jan Hrebejk’s Beauty in Trouble (Kráska v nesnázích), a social drama about a restless young woman, based loosely on the Robert Graves poem. The film, produced by Ondrej Trojan’s Total Help Art in collaboration with Czech TV, has reached 179,000 admissions in five weeks.

But both films have a long way to go before they can catch up with what seems to be the hit of the year, Jiri Vejdelek’s Holiday Makers (Ucastnici zajezdu) which, 25 weeks after its release, has reached 655,000 admissions. This light comedy is based on a novel by successful writer Michal Viewegh and produced by Rudolf Biermann, Tomáš Hoffman and TV Nova.

And the box office might look entirely Czech by December as two eagerly anticipated films are coming to the theatres. David Ondricek’s Grandhotel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] premieres today while The Ro(c)k of the Pariahs (Ro(c)k podvrataku) by Karel Janak (Snowboarders; Rafters) will be released November 2.