Frankie Is a Womanizer

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2008, 83 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Czech Films 2007-2008

Synopsis

As a psychiatrist, Frankie (František Soukenický) would like to have his private life under perfect control, except that he’s too fond of women. In addition to his wife Eliška, he’s in several other relationships, a problem which one day gets out of hand. Now aged forty with an established, lucrative practice and a new dream house, he suddenly doesn’t know where to turn and what to save first. His secret life as a womanizer has come out into the open and he sees only too well how fast his “perfect” life, envied by everyone around him, comes to an unexpected and total end: one day he loses his job, the roof over his head and his wife. “I tried to introduce hyperbole and humour into the film which at times might get a bit absurd. Occasionally I let myself go a little and so there are dramatic moments there, too,” says the director of his story. Jan Prušinovský is also responsible for both the story and the screenplay for his entertaining comedy feature debut.

About the director

Jan Prušinovský (b. 1979, Hořovice) studied script editing and screenwriting at Prague’s FAMU. He was involved in the script for Karel Janák’s summer comedy The Rafters (Rafťáci, 2006) and the short television film Taxi (2006). He also wrote the screenplays for his college shorts The Lesson of God (Boží lekce, 2003), Ládík Is the Best in the County (Ládík je nejlepší v okrese, 2004), Bubble Bath Is the Best (Nejlepší je pěnivá, 2005) and Gallery (Galerie, 2006), all of which he directed. The comedy Frankie Is a Womanizer (2008) is his feature debut. He also worked on music clips and was assistant director on the set of Jan Hřebejk’s tragicomedy Teddy Bear (Medvídek, 2007).