‘Countries’ Archives
Check the Gate
At the end of June, the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London, in collaboration with the Hungarian Cultural Centre, is hosting 'Check the Gate', a showcase of new Hungarian films. Thursday 26 June 6.30pm Kontroll (d. Nimród Antal, 2003, 105 mins) Maestro (d. Géza M. Tóth, 2005, 5 mins) Friday 27 June 4pm Just Sex and Nothing Else (Csak szex és [...]
Pawlikowski Online and in London
BFI Screenonline has just had its regular monthly update, and while this online encyclopaedia of British film and television history rarely has much of especial relevance to this blog's remit, it does now feature two pieces on Pawel Pawlikowski's early work, written by my friend and Andrzej Wajda co-interviewer Kamila Kuc. They cover From Moscow [...]
Wajda interview online
Although most of the current Sight & Sound is locked between the covers of the print version, the interview with Andrzej Wajda by yours truly and Kamila Kuc has just been published online. Coincidentally, I watched Wajda's Pan Tadeusz (1999) earlier today, which I enjoyed for the most part, even though I was acutely conscious that the [...]
The Saragossa Website
Wojciech Jerzy Has's mind-bending 1960s masterpiece The Saragossa Manuscript (Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie, 1965) now has its own dedicated website, courtesy of UK distributors Mr Bongo Films, and a quick glance suggests that there's a fair bit more content there than is the case with many similar promotional sites. I've only seen a [...]
The Polish Documentary Movement 1947-60
(This is the text of a presentation I gave at the BFI this afternoon, on the early history of the Polish documentary movement 1947-60 - I've deleted some scene-setting preamble that was only relevant to that particular audience, but otherwise this is pretty much verbatim.)One thing that becomes very clear very quickly when one starts to delve into [...]
Irony Man
It's dated yesterday, but I don't think it ever made it into the printed version of the Guardian, which is why I didn't spot it until now. Anyway, here's an excellent interview with Jiří Menzel as his latest film I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2007) finally gets a belated and brief British cinema run.
Catching up
Apologies for the apparent lack of activity over the past few days: I've spent them preparing the various multimedia elements of my talk Andrzej Wajda: An Introduction, which I'll be presenting at the BFI Southbank tonight at 6.15 - and, as ever, these things take much longer than expected!Polish Radio recently interviewed me about the Wajda [...]
Zdeněk Liška on Totally Radio
As I may have hinted on a few occasions in the past, I'm a bit of a fan of the Czech composer Zdeněk Liška (1922-1983) - which is why I was delighted to get an e-mail from Joe Walker, possibly Liška's most obsessive fan, informing me that he's recorded an hour-long celebration of the man and his work and uploaded it to the Totally Radio [...]
Polish Paths to Freedom
To my shame, I've only just spotted this - but the Imperial War Museum in London is partway through a film season entitled Polish Paths to Freedom, a series of free screenings of films depicting aspects of Polish history from the start of World War II to the present. Here's what's coming up in May: Thursday 1 - Friday 2 May 11.00am: One. [...]
Jiří Menzel in London
Last Sunday saw the Barbican's London premiere (and only the second UK screening) of Jiří Menzel's I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2007), his sixth adaptation of the work of the great Czech writer and eccentric Bohumil Hrabal following his contribution to the anthology Pearls of the Deep (Perličky na dně, [...]