Sight & Sound‘s special issue, ‘Cinema of the New Europe’, was published this week. The coverdate is June 08, though the Andrzej Klimowski-designed cover makes it instantly recognisable from a fair distance.
As the title implies, it’s an Eastern European special edition, including the following articles:
- ‘Out of the Past’ by Shane Danielsen – how filmmakers in the region have flourished by adapting to changing political and economic realities;
- ‘Danube Blues’ by Demetrios Mathieu – recent developments in Hungarian cinema;
- An interview with Jiří Menzel by Sheila Johnston;
- An interview with Andrzej Wajda by yours truly and Kamila Kuc;
- ‘On the Road Again’ by Adina Bradeanu – how documentary makers are engaging with their countries’ communist pasts;
- ‘Eastern Promise’ by Nick Roddick – how the Romanian film industry is following up its sudden critical acclaim;
- ‘Home and Away’ by Richard Combs – a celebration of the work of Jerzy Skolimowski, focusing particularly on recent films;
- ‘The Outsider’ by me – a beginner’s guide to Skolimowski, biased towards his pre-1980s career
…plus the usual raft of news, features and reviews, including my take on Sergei Bodrov’s hugely entertaining surprise Oscar nominee Mongol.
Going by precedent, one or two of these pieces will probably appear on the magazine’s website in due course.
I bought this issue. I’m glad that an issue was devoted to Eastern European cinema, especially in light of the Wajda season currently showing at the NFT. Speaking of which, I saw Man of Marble on Saturday, which was just as good as I hoped. I really liked the soundtrack actually, which I haven’t been able to research. Far more contemporary for the time than I thought.
Given the migration of EU nationals from Eastern Europe to the UK, I hope that respective cinemas from these countries will gain more exposure in the UK, and the recent festivals/seasons in London definitely have suggested so.
There’s quite a bit of work in that field going on behind the scenes at the BFI, starting with a presentation on the pre-1960 Polish documentaries that I’m giving to the curatorial team at the BFI National Archive tomorrow afternoon.
I’m greatly looking forward to it, because it’s a virtually perfect audience – people who know a huge amount about British documentary, but next to nothing (or indeed nothing) about its Polish equivalent. So there may well be spin-offs from that.
I’m also working on two other BFI-backed Eastern European projects, both due for unveiling in 2009, but I’m afraid I can’t give details until they’ve been formally announced.