‘Poland’ Archives
Katyń
Andrzej Wajda's new film Katyń has a website - in Polish only, but the trailer is comprehensible enough. Go to 'Kontakt/Dla prasy' and select your preferred format. This is pretty close to my most eagerly awaited film this year. Wadja's in his early eighties now, but since he's managed to muster the biggest budget ever given to a Polish film, [...]
Polish animation on DVD
This (downloadable Word document) hints at some very exciting news. Apparently the Polish government-backed PWA (Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne, or Polish Audiovisual Publishers), which has already released some highly acclaimed DVD surveys of classic Polish documentaries, is turning its curatorial attentions to Poland's rich animation [...]
Five Borowczyk Shorts
One of the occupational hazards of studying central and eastern European cinema is actually getting to see many of the films in the first place - especially when moving off the beaten track and exploring short and animated films. Things have significantly improved thanks to the DVD revolution, but rights and materials availability and [...]
Polanski Gallery
Here's a link to the BFI's Polanski Gallery, with text by yours truly, assembled for an NFT retrospective back in 2005 or thereabouts. I'm hoping to write more about Polanski's early work on Kinoblog, but this will have to do for now. (and here are direct links to the pages on the early Polish shorts, and his debut feature Knife in the Water)
Innocent Sorcerers
As part of my ongoing research into the extensive back catalogue of Andrzej Wajda, the grand old man of Polish cinema, I watched the Facets/Polart DVD of his 1960 film Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje) last night. It made for a fascinating contrast with his usual work. It was his fifth feature, but his first set in the (then) present, [...]