Movie #1708 ........................."What Men Long For" (Czech. film with subtitles)

Movie #1708 "What Men Long For" was the last film  we saw on Sunday at the phoenix film festival, and this was the one I esp. wanted to see because the director is Rudolf Havlik, who directed one of my very favorite movies "Fairy Tales for Emma" that I saw at the Phoenix Fest. a couple of years ago, and we brought it to the Naperville Film Festival where it won the Best Feature Film. So I was anxious to see it, and I'm glad I did.  However, the opening was difficult to watch --- in this me, too movement, it is tough to watch this chauvinistic pig address women who work for him and just people generally --- he's mean, cruel,  bullish and narcissistic........no humor there, and in fact, there were groans in the opening of the film from the audience.  But then as he changes to female (not tootsie-like because the woman is played by a female actress who resembles the man she is replacing), and he/she starts to understand what it is really like to be a woman in a man's world, then we get to laugh at him learning all of this.  And it doesn't even cover half the jobs women do in the world.....it makes him generally more sensitive to others, esp. women, and who wouldn't want to see someone learn that?  Some of this film is  slapstick, some is even farcical, but there's some that is poignant and terribly charming, and it's those parts and the variety of humor  that make the film a 4 stars out of 4 stars rating  for me.  Hope it gets picked up by a distributor.

"WHAT MEN LONG FOR"

• The charismatic and self-confident man, Karel Král, is the editor-in-chief of men's magazine. Although a chauvinistic type, he is very popular with women. However, he struggles in his personal life. He frequently argues with his ex-wife over their 17 year-old daughter Julie, who despises his new way of life. Then the consequences of his behavior catch up with him. He loses his job, and the editor-in-chief position is given to a young and beautiful woman. But his bad luck does not end there. After another fight with his ex-wife and daughter, and a woman driver crashing into his car, Karel and his best friend Cestmír have an evening of binge drinking. During the wild night, he expresses a wish to be a woman. When he wakes up the next morning he discovers that his wish has been granted.
  
  
  
  

  Director:

   Rudolf Havlik

  Writer:

   Rudolf Havlik

  Stars:

   Anna Polívková, Jirí Langmajer, Tatiana Pauhofová