Death from the very beginning – a rat decomposing in the water, a cat hanging from a railing as giggling children run off. In Krzysztof Kieslowski’s expansion of the Decalogue: Five segment (“Thou shalt not kill”), the commandment bounds individual and governmental killing into one object of anguished contemplation.
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Tag Archives: polish
Walkower / Walkover (1965) Jerzy Skolimowski, Aleksandra Zawieruszanka, Krzysztof Chamiec, Drama, Sport
Jerzy Skolimowski’s second feature (and first full-length narrative) cemented his status as a one-man Polish New Wave, with the rhythms of his films influenced as much by jazz and (his own) poetry as by more conventional storytelling. Skolimowski himself plays a dropout-turned-amateur boxer who’s distracted from his bouts when Teresa (Aleksandra Zawieruszanka), an old university friend, re-enters his life.
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Dekalog / The Decalogue (1989-1990) Krzysztof Kieslowski, Artur Barcis, Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Olaf Lubaszenko, Drama
The Ten Commandments, exact and uncompromising, literally cast in stone, continues to provide a source of moral conflict in contemporary society. In the ten part epic masterpiece, Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieslowski examines the dilemma of fundamental sin in the lives of ordinary Warsaw citizens.
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Ostatni dzien lata / The Last Day of Summer (1958) Tadeusz Konwicki, Irena Laskowska, Jan Machulski, Drama, Romance
There is something vaguely mythical to the manner in which Konwicki introduces his characters, both to us and to each other, lapped as much by the ethereal eeriness of the score as by the seaside winds that send their hair aflutter. When they tend to speak to each other in whispers, it seems almost out of respect for the otherworldly aura of their locale, as though it is to their eyes as improbably beautiful as Konwicki’s camera renders it to us. They—referred to in the credits only as “He” and “She”, mysterious and mythical in themselves—do not whisper much; there’s a clear silent heritage at work here, conferring meaning to the motion of faces and the movement of the camera along this spectral shore.
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Na srebrnym globie / On the Silver Globe (1988) Andrzej Zulawski, Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Grazyna Dylag, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A small group of cosmic explorers, including a woman, leaves Earth to find freedom and start a new civilization. They do not realize that within themselves they carry the end of their own dream. They eventually die one by one, while their children revert to a primitive native culture, creating new myths and a new god. Some time later, a space bureaucrat, running from a broken heart, arrives and finds the colonizer’s descendants enslaved by bird-monsters called Cherns. Society is divided into numerous classes, and everyone is waiting for the arrival of a messiah. The newcomer is considered a suitable candidate, and for some time he lives as a god. In the end he is crucified by his people.
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Austeria / The Inn (1982) Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Franciszek Pieczka, Wojciech Pszoniak, Jan Szurmiej, Drama, War
Austeria takes place during the opening days of World War I, in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. Tag (Franciszek Pieczka) is a Jewish innkeeper whose inn (austeria means inn in the local Polish dialect) is located near the border with Russia. War has broken out and local civilians are fleeing the advancing Russian Army, and several groups of refugees have taken shelter in Tag’s inn for the night. A group of Hassidic jews from the neighboring village arrive, followed by an Austrian baroness on and a Hungarian hussar cut off from his unit…
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Umarla klasa / Dead Class (1977) Andrzej Wajda, Tadeusz Kantor, Maria Kantor, Zofia Kalinska, Documentary, Drama
The Dead Class (1975), by Tadeusz Kantor and the Cricot 2 company, is considered one of the most innovative and influential works of twentieth-century theatre. The breakthrough first version of the production – performed to great critical acclaim, but only rarely seen live by audiences outside Poland – was documented on film in 1976 by the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda.
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Bariera / Barrier (1966) Jerzy Skolimowski, Joanna Szczerbic, Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Drama, Comedy
A rebellious student wants to get total independence and overcome all the barriers in his life: of money, age, status, cults and conventions. However, he meets a girl with completely different ideals.
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Osobisty pamietnik grzesznika przez niego samego spisany / Memoirs of a Sinner (1986) Wojciech Has, Piotr Bajor, Maciej Kozlowski, Janusz Michalowski, Drama
The 18th century tale of a youngster whose memories, recounted after death, are a long series of wrong moral choices ending up with his killing his evil alter-ego, that is committing suicide.
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Speed / Lotna (1959) Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Pichelski, Adam Pawlikowski, Jerzy Moes, Drama, War
Poland, during the World War. Lotna is a magnificent specimen of Arabian horse, the pride of her owner, too old to actually ride her but to whom she remains faithful nevertheless. The Polish cavalry army is also proud of their land, and loyal to rules, and custom. The German army is leading an overwhelming speed attack with tanks, an almost unheard of weapon, and bringing a way of life to an end. It’s the last battle between Lotna (speed horse) and Blitzkriega (speed war).
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