Gardos doubles the bet with The Real Santa
With two films on the bill in less than two months, Hungarian filmmaker Péter Gárdos has found autumn 2005 particularly animated. In fact, following the release on the 7th of October of The Porcelain Doll (A porcelánbaba), on to the screens comes his 8th feature: The Real Santa (Az igazi Mikulás). Distributed by Hungarotop, this Tivoli production, with the aid of the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary, the Hungarian Minister of Culture and the Concorde Film Trust, also had co-production investment from RTL Klub- Magyar Televízió, American kPi Entertainment and Serbia-Montenegro from VIT, for a total budget just over 1,5 million euros. Interpreted by Blanka Szilasi and György Cserhalmi, The Real Santa (see making of) retraces the relation between a handicapped person, a failed pianist who plays Father Christmas and a little girl of 8 who dreams of having a bicycle. Péter Gárdos worked on the screenplay for 12 years and wanted to show "how a child can change the personality of an adult, make him better and bring back a sparkle that had disappeared".
Among the other new films on the bill in the Hungarian theatres are the British co-production Harry Potter and the goblet of fire by Mike Newell (distribution InterCom) et As It Is in Heaven [+see also:
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film profile] (distribution Mokép) by Kay Pollak, a film screened at the last Berlinale (read compte-rendu) and which is the Swedish candidate for the nominations for the Oscar for best foreign film of 2005.
As for the Hungarian box-office, the only local blockbuster, Egy szoknya, egy nadrág still resists US production. Released on the 20th October by Best International, the comedy directed by Bence Gyöngyössy and produced by Barna Kabay (Európa 2000 in co-production with Cinemastar) accumulated more than 750 000 euros. Note the presence in 15th place from 24 - 27 November of another Hungarian feature (Fej vagy írás de Andor Lengyel, distribué par Analóg Artists), followed by The amrch of the penguins [+see also:
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film profile] by Luc Jacquet (distribution Intersonic), Oliver Twist [+see also:
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film profile] by Roman Polanski ( released in theatres by Fórum) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit [+see also:
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film profile] by Steve Box and Nick Park (UIP distribution).
(Translated from French)
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