Helena Altmanova is a likable high school French and literature teacher, whose healthy, light-hearted attitude has gained her popularity among teachers and students alike. However, her personal life has big surprises in store for her.
Her extended family provides a wealth of opportunity for surprises. Life in the same apartment with her ex-husband, the successful writer Karel, problems with her widowed sister Kristyna, her son Adam’s marital troubles, and grandmother Alzbeta’s new-found love all keep Helena so busy that she doesn’t have time for her own life. Even so, one day she realizes what most of us realize when we’ve given up on our dreams. Helena meets Frantisek, a doctor with Emergency Services under tension-filled circumstances, and falls head over heels in love! This marks the beginning of a stormy, passion-filled story about breaking up and making up, in which the two love birds complicate relationships, whether on purpose or by mistake, with their partners and other family members.
A man caught between two women and a woman caught between two men – are the driving forces behind a comedy fueled by absurdity, self-delusion, and the dreams we all succumb to, regardless of whether we are in love, unloved, or jealous.
When asked where she looks for her stories, screenwriter and director Marie Polednakova gives her usual answer, “That’s easy. Just step outside and listen.” She then, however, is quick to say she’d been planning to just enjoy life, and had been looking forward to traveling, new experiences and discoveries. “I honestly shouldn’t have stepped foot outside, not to mention listen! Except I heard something…. SOMETHING… so irresistible that I grab hold of it without meaning to. This is exactly how the project YOU KISS LIKE GOD began.”
Marie Polednakova tells her universal story with humor, levity, heart, gentle irony and compassion. The human desire for love is infinite, just like the hope that we will find love. “I hadn’t written this quickly and with this much spontaneity in years. The ideas that came to me were exceptionally clear.” The screenplay author says, “I took inspiration from unforgettable situations I’d experienced today, yesterday, or even thirty years ago.” When asked where she finds her stories, screenplay and director Ms Polednakova, admits, “The screenplay contains my experiences, stories told by my friends, acquaintances, and children, as well as situations my grandson came up with.”
Like the director’s previous films, You Kiss Like God provides a light-hearted humorous look at life. What makes this particular film stand apart is that the main characters have already reached middle age; the author felt that there was a need to make a Czech comedy for adults, whose perspectives on life differ from those of young people. “You only go around once, and it is up to you how you experience and make use of this one-time opportunity…” This is a theme we all know; those who have reached their golden years are missing the three dots after the sentence. It is an imperative. Either now or never!” says Ms. Polednakova. “Love at this age is not only more complicated; it is also very exciting and sometimes even fun! No plan A only, like in the past. All of us have commitments of some sort, and have family ties, whether we are married or divorced. We face the issues of whether to break out of stereotypes, to start again, how to hang onto a partner, and whether we have the capacity to do this at all,” adds the director.
FALCON a.s., which four times during the past five years has been the most successful film distribution company on the Czech market, became the film’s producer. Some of the films it has brought to Czech cinemas include Želary, Pupendo, Horem pádem, Snowboarďáci, Rok ďábla, Jak básníci neztrácejí naději, Jak se krotí krokodýli, Účastníci zájezdu, Rafťáci, Vratné lahve, Medvídek, Gympl, and many others.
FALCON has co-produced Czech films including Rok ďábla (2002), Horem pádem (2004) and Zdenek Troska’s fairy tales Nejkrásnější hádanka (2008). FALCON has assumed the role of main producer for the first time with Marie Polednakova’s film You Kiss Like God (2009).
FALCON had already distributed Marie Polednakova’s previous comedy Jak se krotí krokodýli. “We got along well as people, and I am convinced that good human relations make for good business,” says FALCON’s director Jan Bradac. “Most important we loved the You Kiss Like God screenplay – it is a beautiful piece of writing. We are convinced that it is a very watchable film that people will really want to see.”
2008 Líbáš jako bůh, Web by MediaSolution