15-04-2009

God's Kiss equals box office bliss

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    Czech director Marie Poledňáková love story and Falcon Film release You Kiss Like God (Líbáš jako Bůh) reached a surprising 709,000 viewers by April 15, two months after opening.

    Compared to the three box office front-runners of 2008, Bathory, Shameless,and Grapes, Poledňáková´s film has an exceptionally strong showing. Only Juraj Jakubisko's smash hit Bathory, with 905,000 viewers at a comparable point, outshone it. Shameless by Jan Hřebejk had 454,000 admissions, and Grapes by Tomáš Bařina climbed up to 350,000 admissions.

    You Kiss Like God was made for €1.5 mil. Euro (40 million CZK) and features a cast of popular Czech actors including Jiří Bartoška (president of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in his off-screen life), acclaimed theatre and film stars Oldřich Kaiser and Eva Holubová, and comedian Milan Šteindler as a terminally confused emergency car driver.

    The film follows of a middle aged woman who falls head over heels in love with a married emergency room doctor in a story filled up with passion, break-ups and reunions.

    Film was produced by a leading Czech distribution company, Falcon Film (www.falcon.cz), theatrical licenser for Sony and Buena Vista Int'l in the Czech Republic. Jan Bradáč, managing director of Falcon Film, states that the production of You Kiss Like God was a "fascinating opportunity" for him. "We recognized we were able handle both production and distribution," Bradáč told FNE. "In distributing You Kiss Like God we made use of the 15 years of experience of our company, nothing else."

    The film was formally co-produced by the gas company RWE which holds zero share. The State Film Fund invested €150,000 into production and €55,550 into distribution. The film was released in 54 prints. Bradáč hopes that over the summer his film will catch up with the 2008 chart-topper Bathory.

    Company information:

    Ústředna Falcon a.s.

    U Nikolajky 5/833
    150 00 Praha 5

    +420 22 44 222 44

    www.falcon.cz, www.libasjakobuh.cz