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Post by Bonobo on Feb 8, 2009 0:05:21 GMT 1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manuscript_Found_in_SaragossaThe Manuscript Found in Saragossa (original French title: Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse; also known in English as The Saragossa Manuscript, and in Polish as Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie), by the Polish author Jan Potocki (1761–1815), is a frame-tale novel from before the Napoleonic Wars.
The novel was adapted as a 1965 Polish-language film by director Wojciech Has, and later as a Romanian-language play, Saragosa, 66 de Zile (Saragossa, 66 Days) written and directed by Alexandru Dabija.The legendary head flick from the '60s in a polished new print
BY GARY MORRIS
"Head movies" — those mind-bending epics like 2001 or El Topo that are supposedly best viewed under the influence — frequently require drugs just to get through them. In the case of The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), the equation is reversed; anyone going into this three-hour mind-f**k straight may well come out feeling stoned. Those who like a challenge and can handle a dizzyingly dense structure that’s more puzzle than plot will be well rewarded. A great score by Krzystof Penderecki and gorgeous cinematography (black-and-white Cinemascope) keep the ear and eye riveted even while the brain is in meltdown.
Directed by the well-regarded Wojciech Has, the film is an adaptation of at least part of a legendary, massive novel by Count Jan Potocki (1761-1815). Potocki’s resume would take almost as long to read as the film takes to watch. Sources say he was a noted travel writer, "novice king of Malta" (whatever that is), Egyptologist, occultist, historian, balloonist, linguist, melancholic, and eventual suicide at age 54. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1813) was his crowning work, favorably compared by aficionados to The Decameron and The Arabian Nights for its rich folkloric elements, supernatural motifs, bawdy humor, and surreal touches. It also contains heavy doses of Jewish mysticism and scientific theory of the day (including discussions of mathematics and philosophy). Like its predecessors it has a very modern, labyrinthine, story-within-a-story structure, but it’s even more multilayered, so much so that a slide rule and a scratch pad are advisable for keeping track of who’s who and what’s what. If the movie is any indication, there are as many as five levels of drilldown in some sequences, with one person telling a story about another person, who then tells another story about someone else, who then — you get the idea.
The Saragossa ManuscriptThe film version is reputedly a respectful, mostly faithful adaptation of this literary cat’s cradle. Zbigniew Cybulski stars as the charming Alphonse van Worden, a young Belgian captain of the Walloon guards traveling through the arid landscapes of 17th-century Spain on his way to Madrid. In an abandoned house he becomes entranced by an old book (the "Saragossa manuscript") that chronicles the life of one of his famous ancestors. He becomes so spellbound that he fails to notice the group of enemy soldiers that have come to arrest him. In the first of many twists, they too succumb to the book’s spell, and the action moves into a series of dreamlike adventures starring Alphonse and a gallery of memorable characters. In the first of these adventures, he meets two gorgeous princesses — actually ghosts — who alternately terrorize and seduce him, finally proposing a series of tests he must pass. On the verge of succumbing to their charms, he suddenly awakens next to a gallows on which two corpses are hung. This kind of collision of the horrific with the sensual permeates the film.
This scene only occupies the first ten or fifteen minutes of the film, but it sets the tone for what follows. From there, the story escalates into a series of increasingly complex enchantments. Alphonse is captured by the Inquisition in a fetish-drenched sequence, complete with metal masks and a rack, that will warm the hearts of sadomasochists. He fends off ghosts, fights duels, frequently wakes up to find himself in the shadow of the gallows, and best of all, listens as we do to a series of richly detailed stories of cuckolded husbands, treacherous business rivals, and deals with the devil told by those he encounters in what may or may not be a dream. The film has a wonderfully modern sensibility, by turns leisurely and discursive, and energetic and intense. It reaches a comic-ironic apotheosis when Alphonse stops the narrative to try to figure out where they are in a particularly complex story: "Frasquita told her story to Busquenos. He told it to Lopez Soarez, who in turn told it to Senor Avadoro. It’s enough to drive you crazy."
The Saragossa ManuscriptIt’s no surprise that this was a counterculture classic and Jerry Garcia’s favorite movie. (He, along with Martin Scorsese, put up part of the money to have it restored to its full length.) Besides the convoluted structure, characters pop in and out of each other’s stories with the random logic of a trip. The sexy ghost-princesses meander in and out of several of the other stories, moving mysteriously in the background or popping up in other guises. Sudden, startling imagery like Alphonse reaching out to touch one of these ghostly gals but finding his hand on a corpse recur throughout. And of course no one is who he or she seems. The kindly hermit priest who takes Alphonse in and counsels him on how to avoid perdition turns out to be a shiek who claims he’s arranged all the scenarios and hired the players to enact them in the interest of Alphonse’s enlightenment. The priest’s howling, allegedly demon-possessed assistant Pasheko, whose eye is removed and eaten by ghouls in a gruesome scene, is revealed as an acrobat who was blinded in a fall.
Director Has also deserves praise for bringing Potocki’s droll anti-clericalism to the fore. When the Inquisitors grab Alphonse, they’re amusingly blasé about their methods: "His confession," one of them says, "though slightly forced, has its advantages." Bracing, too, is the film’s charming sense of the value of camaraderie. During one of the later stories — a Byzantine affair involving rival bankers, a naïve son, a coquettish daughter, and a trickster who manipulates them all for his own amusement — one of the characters says "Good company is more precious than wealth or black magic." There’s plenty of wealth and black magic in the film, but it’s also enthralling good company.www.brightlightsfilm.com/27/saragossa.htmlalsolikelife.com/shooting/2007/07/930-rekopis-znaleziony-w-saragossie-the-saragossa-manuscript-1965-wojciech-has/Stories within stories remind Russian dolls within dolls upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Russian-Matroshka2.jpgSee a film analysis in English Trailer Cuts
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 11, 2009 21:57:34 GMT 1
Janosik was a television series that aired in Poland in 1974. It is about a famous Slovak highlander outlaw (named after, but not actually the legendary Juraj Jánošík) who in folk legends steals money and goods from the rich and helps out the poor. The Main Characters: Janosik - Marek Perepeczko It has 13 1-hour episodes. Film: The series is imbued with humour. PS. Janosik was hanged on a hook under the 7th rib. Item Description Janosik is a legendary hero of the Tatra Mountains. As the leader of a band of outlaws this mountain robber steals from the rich and helps the poor. An exciting action film, in the tradition of Robin Hood, full of adventures, fights, duels, pursuits and traps. TV series contains 13 episodes. Screen selection and biographies.
Volume A:
1. - First Lessons: After defending a boy being tortured by the Count`s guards, a young highlander is captured and thrown into prison. The Count`s daughter, intrigued by the brave highlander, helps him escape from his captors. 2. - Outlaw`s Laws: A failed attack on a noble`s manor leads to Jakubek seeking unjustified revenge on the owner of the manor, who happens to be an honorable man. This causes a conflict between Janosik and Jakubek. 3. - In a Stranger`s Skin: Several guards disguised as highlanders attack a merchant`s caravan, hoping to blame the robbery on Janosik`s gang. In return, Janosik disguises his highlanders as guards, and they face their enemy. 4. - The Kidnapping: Maryna, Janosik`s girl, is kidnapped by order of the Count and brought to his castle. Disguised as sheep herders, Janosik and his men sneak into the castle to save her.
Volume B:
5. - Dancing Outlaws: There is a ball at the Count`s castle. To attract more people, several highlander girls are forced to come against their will. Janosik`s men also arrive, dressed in the clothes of some of the guests� guests who were robbed on the way to the ball. Unfortunately, they are discovered and must escape before they`re caught. 6. - The Money Bag: The Count has decided to impose new taxes on the countryside. Several desperate peasants beg Janosik for help. He decides to contribute some of the stolen money he and his men "acquired" to help the peasants in their time of need. 7. - Okowita Barrel: The Austrian authorities send the army to get Janosik and his gang. The men decide to escape across the Tatra mountains to a slovak village. When they get there, they get involved in the defense of a peasant being beaten by some guards.
Volume C:
8. - Good Price: Janosik, who`s been called back by some highlanders, decides to trick the Austrian army into leaving. The highlanders start to spread word that there is a Chicken Pox epidemic going around, while Janosik`s men ambush a fleeing general. 9. - The Draft: During a draft for the Austrian army, rich families pay bribes to keep their sons from being drafted, while poor peasants have no choice. Janosik decides to solve the problem by trading some of the rich families` servants for the poor families` sons. 10. - All For One: Two highlanders are captured by some guards. Right before their execution is to take place, the army enters the square. All of a sudden, a fire breaks out nearby, and one of the officers takes off his uniform, revealing his true identity.
Volume D:
11. - Too Bad... It`s Love: During a feast, a Duke shows up with his beautiful niece, Evelyn. Janosik, struck by the girl`s beauty, kidnaps her for ransom. Before he knows what happened, the girl is kidnapped from him, and given back to the Duke. After looking around, he finds out who was behind it� a jealous Maryna. 12. - The Two Fighting Highlanders: The Austrian army enters a village, and begin to pillage. Janosik calls a different highland leader, Bardos, for help. Unfortunately, instead of helping much, a rivalry develops between Bardos and Janosik over the beautiful Maryna. 13. - Treason: Janosik decides to get married with Maryna. As the wedding takes place, the church is surrounded by a strong regiment of the Austrian army. Janosik is captured along with his men, and they are all later executed. The execution is witness by a young highlander, who later takes on Janosik`s role as savior of the highlands.
By Jerzy Passendorfer. 1974, color. English Subtitled. www.polishmoviesonline.com/janosik-higlander-robber-4dvd-p-368.html
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Post by Bonobo on Feb 17, 2009 8:32:24 GMT 1
Wajda's film awarded in Berlin thenews.pl 15.02.2009
Andrzej Wajda's Sweet Rush (Polish title: Tatarak) has won the Alfred Bauer Award at the 59th International Film Festival in Berlin.
Named after the founder of the Berlinale, the award is given to directors who chart new horizons in cinema.
Eighty three year-old Wajda told a press conference that he never thought an old filmmaker can be recognized as someone who charts new horizons. In his view, a blend of feature film and documentary is the cinema's future. He also recalled that at the start of his career, he deeply believed that the cinema could play a social and political role. `It seems to me this is what we'll be witnessing again', he said.
Sweet Rush is an intimate, psychological film based on a short story by the famous Polish writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980), with some elements from a story by the Hungarian writer Sándor Mároi. It stars Poland's top actress Krystyna Janda as Marta, a middle-aged woman, the wife of an ageing doctor whose life is turned upside down when she meets a young man, Bogus.
In the film, Wajda confronts fiction with reality, intertwining the fictitious story with heart-rending monologues from Janda about the death of her real-life husband, the acclaimed cinematographer Edward Klosinski, to whom the film is dedicated. On the one hand we see the actress reconstructing the last months of her husband's life in a simple but extremely touching way and, on the other, we follow the struggles of her fictitious character, who cannot get over the death of the man with whom she was so happy.
A critic for Frakfurter Rundshau, Daniel Kothenschulte, described Wajda's film as `the diamond in the ashes of this year's Berlinale', a reference to the director's feature Ashes and Diamonds, which skyrocketed him to stardom five decades ago. Sweet Rush, he wrote, is yet another genuinely personal film from Wajda, a minimalist work of a truly poetical power.'
The daily Tagesspiegel called the film `a moving meditation about death; an almost suicidally courageous work.'
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 17, 2009 19:49:36 GMT 1
Top Polish actor gets a Hollywood role Created: 02.03.2009 12:16
Poland’s top actor Daniel Olbrychski is to star alongside Angelina Jolie in the thriller Salt directed by Philip Noyce. He is to play a Russian agent and the fact that he is fluent in both English and Russia is said to have been of much significance for the director. Olbrychski flies to the States on 20 March.
Location shooting is to take place in Washington and New York.
Sixty four year-old Olbrychski has played in over one hundred films, including major roles in films by Wajda, Lelouch, Michalkov and Schlondorff, alongside such stars as Marina Vlady, Michel Piccolo, Burt Lancaster and Leslie Caron. He has also made a name in the theatre. His many distinctions include the French Legion of Honour. (mk)
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Post by valpomike on Mar 18, 2009 0:15:44 GMT 1
Shows you we have to go to Poland for a great actor.
Mike
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gigi
Kindergarten kid
Posts: 1,470
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Post by gigi on Mar 18, 2009 15:40:49 GMT 1
Shows you we have to go to Poland for a great actor. Mike Not so fast Mike - you forget that we had Polish American Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka for many years... ...though he went by a much shorter name professionally.
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 18, 2009 15:46:29 GMT 1
Shows you we have to go to Poland for a great actor. Mike Mike, watch him a a great movie. This is him:
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 19, 2009 23:46:34 GMT 1
Shows you we have to go to Poland for a great actor. Mike ...though he went by a much shorter name professionally. What?
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gigi
Kindergarten kid
Posts: 1,470
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Post by gigi on Mar 20, 2009 13:51:17 GMT 1
...though he went by a much shorter name professionally. What? Ted Knight. Rather boring, but much easier to pronounce, I suppose. Btw...the pic I posted is from the movie Caddyshack.
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Post by Bonobo on Mar 20, 2009 21:20:09 GMT 1
Ted Knight. Rather boring, but much easier to pronounce, I suppose. Btw...the pic I posted is from the movie Caddyshack.Never heard of or seen the guy. Must be second league....
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Post by Bonobo on May 1, 2009 22:19:09 GMT 1
All-Polish Youth documentary wins German festival thenews.pl 29.04.2009
The documentary Kocham Polske (I love Poland) was won a prize for best documentary film at the goEast festival in Wiesbaden, Germany.
The film features a critical portrait of the ultra-right youth organization Mlodziezy Wszechpolskiej (All-Polish Youth), directed by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz and and Joanna Slawinska, a Polish Radio News Agency reporter.
The festival's jury, headed by Jerzy Stuhr, the renowned Polish actor and director, granted the award due to its "unusually perfect way of analyzing a very difficult aspect of social relations in Poland."
The 55-minute film features the All-Polish Youth organization, founded in 1989 by Roman Gietych and features street protests under slogans such as "Zero tolerance for perverts!"
The award, entitled "Memory and Future," is worth 10,000 euro. The festival, inaugurated in 2001, aims to give Western audiences a view into life in Central and Eastern Europe. Over 100 films are being shown throughout this week in Wiesbaden, western Germany.
'Katyn' is full of visual imagery, but lacks emotional intimacy By Steve Ramos Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Apr. 28, 2009
For Poland's greatest filmmaker, Andrzej Wajda, returning full circle means telling the epic World War II drama "Katyn."
Nominated for an Oscar this year for best foreign-language film, "Katyn" - showing Wednesday and Thursday in free screenings at UWM Union Theatre - is a sprawling wartime drama about Poland's split occupation by the Nazis and Soviets during the war, and the subsequent massacre of 15,000 Polish military officers and intellectuals in 1940 by Joseph Stalin's secret police in the Katyn forest.
Katyn is a national tragedy in Polish history - the Soviet Union blamed the massacre on Hitler, and spent 50 years trying to hide the truth - but it's also a personal story for Wajda. The Oscar-winning director's father was one of the prisoners of war murdered at Katyn.
His telling of the Katyn massacre - the first Polish film to deal directly with the subject - focuses as much on the torment felt by the surviving Polish families as it does on the horrific murders themselves.
"Katyn" is in many ways traditional Wajda, with deliberately paced if somewhat dour storytelling rich in visual metaphor. In the powerful opening scene, two retreating crowds of Polish refugees meet on a bridge: one group trying to escape from the Germans, the other fleeing the Soviets. Both crowds are convinced that they're facing the greater danger, but the truth is that they and their homeland are destined for tragedy from both sides.
What "Katyn" is missing - especially compared with Wajda's best works, including "Kanal," based on his experiences as a fighter in the Polish resistance, and "Man of Iron," a drama about the Solidarity movement - is a sense of emotional intimacy and a spirit of neorealism that make his dramas feel like great documentaries.
"Katyn," on the other hand, is a sprawling melodrama with large crowds, elaborate set pieces and exquisite period details.
At 83, Wajda, who received an honorary Academy Award in 2000 for his body of work, is arguably near the end of his illustrious career, but with "Katyn" he shows himself to be a skilled ringmaster still capable of handling the film's many elaborate scenes. Yet the film's best moments belong to individual characters and choice moments of dialogue.
Katyn massacre film denied Chinese release thenews.pl 29.04.2009
Authorities of the Chinese People's Republic have decided that the Andrzej Wajda film Katyn will not be shown in the country.
Wajda received an official statement from representatives of the Chinese government who claim that the film is "contrary to state ideology."
"The authorities wrote a letter informing film distributors that it cannot be shown in China due to the fact that it's ideology runs contrary to that of the official point of view of [China's] leaders," state Wajda. "What that point of view is and how it is contrary to the film is unclear," added the director.
The filmmaker claims that there is not real explanation as to the decision, but "it is an official document with a lovely red stamp."
The document was presented to Wajda by the head of the Polish Film Society, Jacek Bromski, who was on an official visit in China to inspect whether or not Katyn was being pirated and illegally distributed.
The director is not unhappy with the Chinese government's decision. "The whole affair reminds me of the […] Polish People's Republic [communist Poland]."
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Post by Bonobo on May 9, 2009 21:55:20 GMT 1
Polanski's Knife is dazzlingly sharp By Philip Martin Arkansas Online Friday, May 1, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — The Criterion Collection is an autodidact's dream, allowing those of us with time and inclination to lose ourselves in movies we might otherwise only read about. I finally got around to Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962), which had been sitting on our shelves for a couple of years, and I don't quite know how to reconcile what had been my expectations with the reality.
I had expected to like it, to be impressed in the ways that audiences and critics had remarked upon over the almost 50 years it has been in our cultural bloodstream. Considered one of the landmarks of Polish cinema, it was nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award (it lost to Fellini's 8 1 /2) and earned Polanski the cover of Time magazine.
It's widely cited as one of the best directorial debuts ever, right up there with Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and Godard's Breathless.
But there is a way of appreciating film that has little to do with the gleeful release into the world of the movie, when we let go of ourselves and our external concerns and simply bask in the lit-up screen. If you are charged with writing about a movie, you approach it differently than if you're simply looking for recreation. For me, one of the tests of genuine art is that it engages me to the point where note taking is futile.
If you see enough movies you begin to learn their tricks, to see around the sides of the frame, to imagine what the director must have been thinking when he placed that particular hat box behind the left shoulder of the ingenue. When you know a little about how movies are manufactured, their magic is demystified and you have to guard against the kind of cynicism that leads cruel people to pull the wings off butterflies. That is how a lot of people see critics and film snobs, and there is some truth to the typing - it is not always possible to see the good in benign mediocrities like Paul Blart: Mall Cop or Wild Hogs when they have stolen otherwise useful evenings away from you.
While almost every movie requires miracles to be made, most of them - even those that make critics' Top 10 lists and win Oscars - are not great. Most are average movies, and if you like movies you will like a lot of them in a casual way. There might be one or two authentically great movies in a good year, and genuine excellence isn't always apparent at close range. Some movies need decades before a consensus coalesces - and even then sometimes the consensus is wrong.
Seeing a movie like Knife in the Water is a wonderful corrective to watching well-meaning, intelligent movies that don't quite transcend commercial entertainment - it is a dazzling black-and-white chamber piece with only three characters (a middle-aged man, his younger wife and a hitchhiking young man who is never even accorded the dignity of a name) who for the most part occupy the tiny claustrophobic space of a sailboat that lends itself to some startling, stifling compositions. (Seeing around the sides of the frame, we wonder how Polanski and his film crew could manage in the cramped circumstances. )
The plot is so simple as to be elemental; the men compete for the attention of the woman, the older one relying on his sailing competence and the younger on feral energy and athleticism. It's a nakedly Oedipal fable, shrunk down to human dimensions, that ends - as most things do - inconclusively.www.100latpolskiegofilmu.pl/files/image/Leon-Niemczyk-Zygmunt-Malanowicz_94.jpgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_in_the_Water_(film) Knife in the Water (Polish: Nóż w wodzie) is a 1962 film directed by Roman Polański. It features only three characters and deals with rivalry and sexual tension.
Plot
The film begins as Andrzej and Krystyna are driving to a lake to go sailing when they come upon a young man hitchhiking in the middle of the road. After nearly hitting him, Andrzej invites the young man to pick his seat and to take a nap while they continue driving. When they arrive at the docks, instead of leaving the young man behind, Andrzej invites him to sail with them for the day. The young man accepts the offer, and, not knowing much about sailing, is forced to learn many hard lessons from Andrzej. Meanwhile, tension gradually builds between Andrzej and the unnamed hitchhiker as they vie for the attentions of the young wife. The title refers to the major turning point in the film when Andrzej taunts the young man with the latter's treasured pocket knife.
Production
Knife in the Water was shot by Polanski in 1962 with three actors. It was Polanski's first feature film and two of the actors (Jolanta Umecka, who plays Krystyna and Zygmunt Malanowicz, who plays the young man) had virtually no previous professional experience. Krzysztof Komeda's music is used in the film.
Knife in the Water was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1963 Academy Awards. It brought Polanski the cover of Time (previous to Knife in the Water, he had only made short films). It is sometimes referred to as one of the best debut feature films in history (alongside Citizen Kane by Orson Welles and Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard).------------------------------------------------------------------ DVD Reviews Danton Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, May 3, 2009
Danton
Polish director Andrzej Wajda conceived and directed this 1983 film as Solidarity's struggle with Poland's Soviet-dominated communist government was a matter of international concern. He uses this struggle as the unspoken subtext in his tale of the French revolutionary Danton, who found himself in collision with his old ally, Maximilien Robespierre, during the Reign of Terror. The film showcases two extraordinary performances. Robespierre is portrayed by Polish actor Wojciech Pszoniak as a bloodless functionary, immersed in dogma and divorced from human concerns. Danton (Gérard Depardieu) is a man of the people, full of lust and zest. Over the years, as Depardieu has gotten heavier and slower, it's become easy to forget the impact he had as a young man. In his early 30s, Depardieu was already packing on the poundage, but only to the extent that he seemed carnal and vital. He is loud, coarse, full of life, and yet - this is the brilliance of the performance - he also suggests that Danton almost wants to be guillotined, or that he feels himself so steeped in blood and guilt that he can't muster the will to protect himself. Anne Alvaro, as Robespierre' s wife, is eerie as a doctrinaire revolutionary, teaching her son to memorize precepts under pain of punishment. Her maxims sound as Stalinist as they do French.
DANTON
1983
NOT RATED
THE CRITERION COLLECTION
$39.95
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Post by Bonobo on Dec 4, 2009 20:43:51 GMT 1
The ninth International Human Right Film Festival “Watch Docs” starts in Warsaw today. The ten-day event presents the Warsaw premieres of the world's 80 top documentary films broadly related to issues of human rights. Nineteen films are vying for the Watch Docs Festival Award. The festival will open with the screening of the Belarussian film The Kingdom of Dead Mice by Viktar Dashuk, documenting the propaganda of the Lukashenko regime. Among the competition entries is also an Israeli documentary by Moshe Zimerman called Pizza in Auschwitz presenting the clash between the historical remembrance of the Holocaust and the modern reality of Central Europe. In addition to the competition, the Festival's permanent thematic sections include the "Discreet Charm of Propaganda," "Close-ups," this year devoted to post-Soviet states, and "I Want to See," with films on current events.
Four thematic retrospectives are part of the event’s program, including "The Money is Doing Fine" - about the relationships between money, power structures and human rights violations, as well as "Cinematic resistance - documentary underground" rife with subversive documentaries made without the knowledge or consent of authorities. The annual event, Watch Docs Film Festival was launched in 2001 in Warsaw by the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation.
Trailer www.thenews.pl/international/artykul121278_watch-doc-human-rights-fest-in-warsaw.html
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Post by tufta on Jan 17, 2010 19:01:29 GMT 1
The first Polish film ever comes to Sundance Festival. I didn't see the film yet, but heard it is really good and I will see it soon. Polish film for Sundance Festival 04.12.2009 07:59 Jacek Borcuch’s "Wszystko co kocham" (All That I Love) has been selected for screening at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, to be held in Salt Lake City in the second half of January.
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, it is the one of the most important independent cinema festivals in the world. The action of All That I Love is set in the spring of 1981, during the Solidarity revolution in Poland.
Its protagonists are four teenagers who form a punk group that allows them to express their longing for freedom and rebellion toward the grey socialist reality that surrounds them. Their texts and music find appreciation at a music festival in a nearby, seaside town, and there they can see the thousands of punk rock adherents that share their feelings. One of the boys, a son of an army officer, falls in love with a daughter of a Solidarity activist. The film shows how politics interferes with the private lives of people and families.
Thirty nine-year old Jacek Borcuch started his career as an actor, appearing in several high-acclaimed films. All That I Love is his fourth film. (mk) www.thenews.pl/culture/artykul121343_polish-film-for-sundance-festival.html
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 7, 2010 20:55:33 GMT 1
Pole in Pursuit of Golden Lion Nick Hodge | 1st September 2010
Essential Killing, a new feature by veteran director Jerzy Skolimowski, will be competing at the Venice Film Festival this week
Known as something of a wild card in the film world, director Jerzy Skolimowski remains true to form with his latest movie, which had already whipped up a fair amount of controversy prior to its premiere in Venice on 6 September.
Essential Killing stars Vincent Gallo as a Taliban fighter captured by American forces in Afghanistan. Transported to an unspecified military location in Central Europe, the prisoner manages to flee his confinement, but faces a seemingly insurmountable challenge in evading his pursuers.
Emmanuelle Seigner, Roman Polanski’s wife, also stars in the film, which was shot in Israel, Poland and Norway.
Since 2005, Poland has repeatedly been cited as one of the “black sites” in Central Europe that were allegedly used to hold terrorists. However, successive Polish governments have been evasive on the matter. Nevertheless, given that Gallo is an outspoken Republican, it is unlikely that the film will be an unfettered apologia for the Taliban.
Essential Killing is the only Polish film competing for the Golden Lion this year. Regrettably, Jan Jakub Kolski’s Wenecja (Venice), which would have made a wonderful opening movie, will not be included in the festival. On one count at least, Kolski’s film is ineligible, as films in the main competition must receive their world premiere at the festival.
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Post by Bonobo on Sept 12, 2010 19:42:42 GMT 1
Essential Killing wins special jury prize in Venice 12.09.2010 00:00 Essential Killing (2010): Syrena Films Essential Killing by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski has won the special jury prize at the 67th Venice Film Festival.
Skolimowski received the award from Quentin Tarantino, who was chair of the seven-member jury.
The director also collected the ‘Best Actor’ award on behalf of Vincent Gallo, who plays the lead role in Essential Killing.
Gallo was considered favourite to pick up the award for his skilful portrayal of a Taliban fighter who does not say a single word throughout the whole film.
Gallo’s character is taken prisoner by Americans who suspect him of killing three US soldiers. While being transported through Eastern Europe he escapes and embarks on a bloody fight for survival.
Essential Killing is a Polish-Hungarian-Norwegian-Irish production and also stars Emmanuelle Seigner.
The 72 year-old Polish director has many internationally-acclaimed films to his credit, made both in Poland and abroad, such as Walkover (1965), Barrier (1966), Le depart (1967), Deep End (1970), King, Queen, Knave (1972), The Shout (1978) and Moonlighting (1982).
In 2008, he returned to film-making after a lapse of seventeen years with the highly successful Four Nights with Anna.
The Golden Lion for Best Film was won by Sofia Coppola for Somewhere.
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 19, 2011 21:45:59 GMT 1
The National Film Archive in Warsaw (Filmoteka Narodowa) has announced that a further raft of classic Polish films is due to be digitally restored.
The archive's director Tadeusz Kowalski said that, "dozens of pictures have already been earmarked for a special digital protection programme."
For 2011, these include much-loved movies such as Jerzy Hoffman's swashbuckling 17th century dramas Colonel Wolodyjowski (1968) and The Deluge (1974) as well as Andrzej Munk's The Blue Cross (1955) and Czeslaw Petelski's The Depot of the Dead (1959).
Kowalski added that as many as 16,000 titles were stored in the institute's archives in Lodz, but warned that "even though stored correctly, they were often in a bad, and in specific instances catastrophic technical state."
Two long-term projects are currently in action, "The Digital Repository of the National Film Archive" and "The Development of a Record System for the Presentation of the Resources of the National Archive."
The latter will include a bilingual internet portal in Polish and English, presenting vintage materials relating to prewar documentary and feature films.
Both projects are being financed by the Ministry of Culture, with this year's restoration plans building on the work completed last year by KinoRP, an enterprise working in conjunction with the National Film Archive.
In 2010, KinoRP restored several classic films including Wojciech Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium (1974) and Aleksander Ford's Knights of the Teutonic Order (1959).
Films to be restored:
The Deluge:
Colonel Wołodyjowski
The Depot of the Dead
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Post by valpomike on Jan 20, 2011 0:40:37 GMT 1
The Polish women in the depot of the dead, is hot, just like most Polish women. Who is she, and can you show more of her?
Mike
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Post by Bonobo on Jan 20, 2011 22:04:24 GMT 1
The Polish women in the depot of the dead, is hot, just like most Polish women. Who is she, and can you show more of her? Mike Mike, a big plus for you for watching the film. Her name is Teresa Iżewska, she died in 1982. Remember, the film was made in 1958.
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Post by valpomike on Jan 21, 2011 2:59:32 GMT 1
She was another Polish doll.
Mike
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