Well, I’ve seen Katyn, but it’s a pale shadow of Wajda’s best stuff – its importance is more historical (and cathartic) than cinematic.
As for Polish cinema generally, the more I delve into it the clearer it becomes that if you only stick to the big feature-film auteurs – the names you mention plus Andrzej Munk, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Kawalerowicz and so on – you miss out on some of the richest films that the country has to offer: it can challenge pretty much any other country when it comes to the quality of its documentaries and animated films. Try sampling work by Maciej Drygas, Witold Giersz, Kazimierz Karabasz, Jerzy Kucia, Jan Lenica, Marcel Lozinski, Marek Piwowski, Zbigniew Rybczynski or Wojciech Wiszniewski to see what I mean.
I suspect one reason why Polish cinema has had a low profile of late is that – to be brutally honest – it’s currently much weaker in the area where it’s easiest to get an international profile. I’ve seen quite a few Polish features made in the last fifteen years, and while several have been pretty good (I can certainly recommend Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt and Wojciech Smarzowski’s The Wedding), none was so extraordinary as to break out of its Polish ghetto and achieve international acclaim in its own right. There’s plenty of talent there (Maciej Drygas’ A Day in People’s Poland is one of the best new films I’ve seen in the last few years), but it’s generally working in areas other than fiction features.
wojciech has’ great literary adaptation, the saragossa manuscript, is a lot of fun. and hour glass sanitorium (premised on bruno schulz’z novella, sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass) just had a dvd pal release from mr. bongo films, also directed by has. elements of the fantastic and the surreal amongst the two
i’m interested in polish cinema, but more so in their documentary cinema. i’m curious about the history of the form there.
i’ve finally seen wajda’s “ashes and diamonds” the other week. i didn’t care for it much. it felt slow and unexpressive, cinematically speaking. i just didn’t find much passion or energy in the film. but i’ll watch it again, because i dont always completely trust my first opinion of a film. some films grow on you.
i’m interested in polish cinema, but more so in their documentary cinema. i’m curious about the history of the form there.
Polish documentaries are absolutely extraordinary – hand on heart, the only other country I can think of with such a strong non-fiction tradition that it not only rivals but arguably surpasses its fiction output is my native Britain.
They were virtually off-limits to English speakers outside very occasional festival screenings and extras on Kieslowski DVDs until recently, but Polish Audiovisual Publishers’ (PWA) ongoing two and three-disc series ‘Polska szkola dokumentu’ (‘Polish School of the Documentary’) is doing sterling work filling in the gaps. I’ve bought everything they’ve released, and the quality threshold is ridiculously high – and I’ve discovered several major filmmakers about whom I knew next to nothing before.
I think part of the reason Polish documentaries are so good is that they’re the product of several happy coincidences: unlike a lot of cinema behind the Iron Curtain, Polish filmmakers had a surprising amount of freedom – they couldn’t openly denounce Communism, but they could certainly mount some pretty probing investigations into various social and cultural issues. And the fact that they had to be quite careful about how they delivered their messages meant that the films are often much richer in terms of their film language than an equivalent Western director might come up with – as someone (possibly Milos Forman) put it: “we had to teach people how to read between the lines, and then we had to write between those lines”). There are also strong links between generations – Kazimierz Karabasz, one of the greatest 1950s and 1960s documentarists, taught Krzysztof Kieslowski and Marcel Lozinski at film school, and they in turn are major influences on their younger colleagues.
Talking of Lozinski, I really urge Kieslowski fans to investigate his stuff – the two were very similar indeed until the early 1980s, whereupon Kieslowski switched to fiction features and Lozinski stayed with documentary, which is why he’s infinitely less famous despite being arguably just as talented. There are three English-friendly DVD releases (all region-free PAL): PWA’s survey is by far the best for beginners, as it cherry-picks the best of his output from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, though I also recommend the feature-length How To Do It (a study of how contemporary politicians are groomed to reveal as little as possible about their true feelings) and the lovely 14-minute short Poste Restante, his latest film.
Andrzej Wajda’s Kanal is one of my favorite films of all time. Bar-none. Hands down. Bet the farm, hardcore filmmaking. The same can be said about everything else he’s done.
A recommendation to anyone interested in Polish and East-European film: check out the Second Run website and, if you haven’t secured one already, buy an all-region player (excellent buys on DVD Beaver). The Second Run line is beautifully curated and relatively inexpensive— I’ve purchased most of them from Amazon.UK.
Bet the farm, hardcore filmmaking. The same can be said about everything else he’s done.
I seriously doubt anyone who’s actually seen everything he’s done can sustain that argument for too long. Even Wajda would agree that when he’s off-form, the results can be quite painful.
I’m with R.S. Brown. ASHES AND DIAMONDS is one of the untouchable classics, as is KANAL.
I’ll also throw in a whoop for MAN OF IRON and DANTON.
I would love to see KATYN but can’t get it. When will it be available?
“Bet the farm, hardcore” is adjectival judgement, not as “argument”, but like opine. “Off-form” is adverbial circumstance, not as “painful”, but like condition.
I would love to see KATYN but can’t get it. When will it be available?
It’s available now if you can handle PAL video and don’t mind importing from Poland. In fact, the Blu-Ray may well be region-free and therefore compatible with any player worldwide, but there’s no way of checking on my system. Both releases have English subtitles.
And if anyone’s tempted to order DVDs from Poland, I thoroughly recommend the new Agnieszka Holland box from Telewisja Polska. I’ve just watched all four features (Screen Test, Provincial Actors, Fever, A Woman Alone), and they’re all terrific – and shamefully little known outside Poland, considering the relatively easy accessibility of other 1970s/early 1980s examples of the so-called “cinema of moral anxiety”, of which these are some of the major classics.
thanks for the great info on polish docs. if you care to, maybe you could tell us a little about what you feel to be the strongest one? what’s the greatest polish doc, for you. i’m curious to know about the film, stylistically, and a little about the director.
I recently watched Wajda’a ‘War Trilogy’ properly for the first time. Oddly I thought that, despite Zbigniev Cybulski, ‘Ashes and Diamonds’ (1958) was the least interesting of the three films and that ‘Kanal’ (1956) was the most compelling. The latter is dominated by the actor Teresa Izewska who gives as good a performance as I’ve seen on film. I note that this exceptional performer died young in 1982; does anyone know what happened to her.
thanks for the great info on polish docs. if you care to, maybe you could tell us a little about what you feel to be the strongest one? what’s the greatest polish doc, for you. i’m curious to know about the film, stylistically, and a little about the director.
Sorry, I don’t play the “greatest film” game, especially not when it comes to a 60-year chunk of film history and a huge range of styles and subjects. The idea that one single film towers over everything else is frankly absurd – as you’ll quickly realise if you try to define the greatest English-language documentary with any authority.
That said, both Krzysztof Kieslowski and Marcel Lozinski singled out Kazimierz Karabasz’ The Musicians (1960) when asked to name their favourite – though it should be noted that Karabasz was their teacher at the Lodz Film School, as well as the single biggest influence on their own work, so there may well have been an element of polemic there. But it’s a good one to start with as it’s on YouTube with English subtitles – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0ItodKFSfKM
thanks for the link. interesting film. it almost fits within the school of observational documentary filmmaking. but the camerawork and editing is more playful and expressive.
Kieslowski
Kieslowski
Kieslowski
and a dose of Wadja for good measure
Polish film-makers (as well as Hungarian, Yugoslavian, Serbian films) have been and continue to be sadly overlooked in the US cinema market. Bela Tarr is corrent when he states: “I think censorship is always there. Then it was the censorship of the state and now it’s the censorship of the market.”
Here are few Polish film makers I admirer:
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Krzysztof Kiwslowski
Jerzy Skolimowski
Andrzej Wajda
Krzysztof Zanussi
I wonder how many wonderful films by other Polish film-makers I haven’t seen . . .
eastern european cinema has always been considered a sort of “third cinema”, which means it hasnt been studied or celebrated as much.
Did you hear about the Polish actress trying to make it in Hollywood?—She fucked the writer.
where did I hear that?
I pretty much don’t know shit about Polish cinema, but from what’s been written, it seems I can add something useful.
Three of my faorite filmmakers started working in Poland, and their (polish) films are well worth checking out:
the already mentioned Jerzy Skolimowski (try his “Rysopis” from 1964)
Andrzej Zulawski (all of his films can be found on the net),
and Walerian Borowczyk (“Story of a Sin” is probably the best Polish film I’ve seen so far).
hell, she’d be doing good to fuck the writer in hollywood. writers get PAID (and eventually direct)! anyway, there are girls in hollywood who’d fuck the caterer if it would get them on an important movie set.
The Saragossa Manuscript is amazing.
I can’t say I’m a fan of the Polish brothers. Having said that, their new film Manure sounds intriguing.
I agree with Francisco.
REPRESENT!
So, anything new?
As I’ve already stated, I know little about Polish cinema.
From recent polish cinema, I wasn’t as impressed as with the classics. Some interesting stuff (“Hi Tessa” by Robert Glinski) and some I didn’t appreciate, like Lech Majewski’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. I’ve also seen some Jerzy Stuhr and young filmmakers who didn’t impress me, though.
Anyone with a knowledge in Polish cinema, who would like to write down some things?
Too bad Michael Brooke doesn’t seem to visit the Forum anymore…
The greatest Polish film I´ve seen so far has been “Przesluchanie” by Ryszard Bugajski, a disturbing and heartbreaking film about a woman´s destiny after being imprisoned during the Stalinist Polish regime. The film was banned for seven years by the authorities and could finally be released in 1989. Another excellent Polish films is Zulawski´s otherworldly and surreal science fiction film “The Silver Globe” which could unfortunately never be completed. The adaptation of one of Poland´s best writers Bruno Schulz called “The Hour-Glass Sanatorium” is a brilliant achievment by Wojciech Has and manages to combine memories and dreamlike reflections of reality. And “Mother Joan of the Angels” deserves to get mentioned, a profound and beautifully filmed account on religion and human weakness. Those who really want get to know Polish life and the peak of Polish cinema should watch Kieslowski´s “Dekalog” which is most likely the most important and meaningful TV-series ever made.
Go to this website it’s very useful for anyone to get a glimpse of Polish cinema for the first time it’s called Polish cinema – 100 years.
http://www.100latpolskiegofilmu.pl/en/movies/s-5
Hi Sano, this also might help, it’s a GreenCine primer on Polish Cinema and discusses the notable movies and directors from the genre: https://www.greencine.com/central/guide/polishcinema
Dorota Kedzierzawska – Wrony. I remember liking it a lot. I am curious about her other movies.
If you like polish movies you should watch some of Marek Koterski and Marcin Koszalka (he make documentary films. My favourite is "Takiego pieknego syna urodzilam (2000) "-you must watch it!
Here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0467666/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1411830/
Cheers:)
Chebo
Could you share your thoughts about polish cinema and which movies from Poland you like? I think that besides Kieslowski and Wajda and Polanski there is no much knowledgment these days about movies past and present from this country, and even movies like Katyn from Wajda that was nominated last year for the Oscar for best foreign film (and I personally think it was much better than the overrated winner The Counterfeiters) don´t seem to be seen by any people.