‘Countries’ Archives
Agnieszka Holland: Europe/America
From 10 December 2008 to 5 January 2009, MoMA in New York is mounting what I think is the most extensive Agnieszka Holland retrospective ever attempted - though the title 'Agnieszka Holland: Europe/America' arguably doesn't go far enough, given that her career included stints in communist and capitalist Europe prior to crossing the Atlantic. The [...]
Seclusion Near a Forest
Na samotě u lesa Czechoslovakia, 1976, colour, 93 minsFirst of all, some much-needed context. Seclusion Near a Forest (also known as A Cottage by the Wood, though the former title is closer to the original) was the second film that Jiří Menzel made after a five-year ban following the reception of Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, 1969), [...]
Tarr in Turin
Since 1988's Damnation (Kárhozat) inaugurated his mature style, Béla Tarr's films have been distinguished at least as much by Kubrick-like gaps between their release as by their intrinsic artistic qualities, with just Sátántangó (1994), Werckmeister Harmonies (Werckmeister harmóniák, 2000) and The Man From London (A Londoni férfi, 2007) [...]
Darkness visible?
This looks promising - Juraj Herz, director of the supremely culty The Cremator (Spalovač Mrtvol, 1968), is finally returning to his favourite genre with a new horror film called Darkness (Tma), scheduled for completion next year. Here's a short interview that Herz gave to Czech newspaper Mláda fronta DNES, though he doesn't seem to be giving [...]
Short Animated World
I've just discovered the Short Animated World blog, dedicated to chronicling all 100 entries on the recent Annecy Film Festival/Studio Magazine/Variety poll of thirty animation historians to establish the best animated films of all time. There's no original critical material, but each entry offers links and - in most cases - a streaming copy of [...]
Andrzej Wajda showreel
Courtesy of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, here's a two-and-a-half minute showreel of Andrzej Wajda's films, originally made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to accompany the presentation of his lifetime achievement Oscar in 2000.
Sopot 1957
Poland, 1957, black and white, 16 minsBetween 1954 and 1956, Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skórzewski issued a series of hard-hitting cinematic challenges to a Polish documentary movement that was only just beginning to emerge from the crushing impact of World War II and the more consciously stifling period of Stalinism that followed. Films like Are [...]
Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák in London
On the weekend of 7-9 November, London's Riverside Studios Cinema (probably the most consistently supportive of all British venues when it comes to central and eastern European cinema) is hosting a season of ten films featuring one or both of the father-and-son team of Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák, who will also be appearing in person. The full [...]
Night Train
Pociąg Poland, 1959, black and white, 93 minsBy the time Jerzy Kawalerowicz made his sixth feature in 1959, overnight trains had long been established as an ideal setting for scenarios of intrigue and suspense: Alfred Hitchcock in particular had very much made the genre his own. But although a fair amount of Night Train (also known as Baltic [...]
From Powiśle…
Z Powiśla... Poland, 1958, black and white, 10 minsAfter making short films at the Łódź Film School (among them Day In Day Out/Jak co dzień..., 1955) and collaborating with Władysław Ślesicki on Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc, 1956) and People from an Empty Zone (Ludzie z pustego obszaru, 1957), Kazimierz [...]