|
HERE ARE MY REVIEWS OF THE FILMS THAT PLAYED AT THE OCTOBER 2004 POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
THE THREE FEATURES PLAYED AT THE MIDTOWN CINEMA
THE SHORT FILMS PLAYED AT THE SUSQUEHANNA ART MUSEUM
|
BIG ANIMAL (2000, Jerzy Stuhr) - [66]
It's as if Kiewslowski himself is speaking from beyond the grave - although this Polish film, Directed by long time Kiewslowski Actor, Jerzy Stuhr, and taken from a seventies-era Kiewslowski manuscript, may be more intuned with the Czech New Wave in its starkly black&white style and surreal images of its title character. That title character, by the way, would be a giant wooly two-humped camel left behind in a small Polish town, by a travelling circus. Adopted by a lonely couple, the camel (who is never named - even after having a name-the-camel contest in the town's elementary school), at first is a curiositied thrill for all the townsfolk, but quickly turns to what is called, in this still-Sovietized bureaucratic setting, unnecessary. "What does one need a camel for?" is warily wondered by the town's auditors and bureaucrats. There isn't even a tax for camels in the over-obsessed regulation books - this scene is one of the best, comically, as the civil servant and camel owner debate what they should list the animal as on the tax ledgers. "Under 'C' there is only chicken and cow - no camel!" "What about a horse?" "But it's not a horse now, is it?" After finding themselves ostracized by the community - and after they're camel is stolen, the couple (at first seeming bored with each other - but now brought together by their love for the big animal), leave town and find solace at the Warsaw Zoo. In the end we watch as the couple are nuzzled by the camels at the zoo. Both surreal and sadly sweet, Big Animal shows the natural beauty of the Polish Cinema - usually unseen in the West.
|
PRYMAS (2000, Theresa Kotlarczyk) - [60]
Illuminated with the golds and yellows and burnt oranges of the Catholic Church, Prymas (or: The Primate), is a study in sublime psychological torture upon its Priestly characters. Played out with a hint of Film Noir (the opening scenes are stunning angular shadowed moments that Welles would be proud of), and more than a hint of the ugly bureaucracy of Stalinist Eastern Europe, Prymas reminds one of Koestler's Darkness at Noon, which in turn takes us back to Kafka and Camus. Tirelessly fervant in its Iron Curtain fated hope, Prymas is anything but a hopeless film - melancholy yes, sad maybe - but at its core is the Priest - and the hope he never relinquishes.
|
WITH FIRE AND SWORD (1999, Jerzy Hoffman) - [28]
Polish Filmmaker Jerzy Hoffman's obvious intent here, was to take every cliche of the medievil time period - and toss them all into this film. Big breasted serving wenches, iron flaggonned male bonding toasts - there is even one shot of some poor bastard locked up in the stocks. With a cast that looks to be some sort of mixture of The Road Warrior and a Disney theme park ride (I think one scene was lifted directly from The Pirates of The Carribbean ride in Disney World), Hoffman has created a thudding, plodding stereotype of a film, written in the heavy handed amatuerishness of a romance novelist and acted with the subtle nuances of a porno movie. The head of the Mongol Army looks like the bastard son of John Wayne when he tried to play Ghengis Kahn. With Fire & Sword is a big bloody Renaissance Faire nightmare, tucked in to a not-so-quick three hours. At one point I was just praying for either the Poles or the Cossacks to win their damned war, so I could get the hell out of there.
|
AN EVENING OF SHORT FILMS BY KRZYSZTOF KIEWSLOWSKI
I spent an hour at The Susquehanna Art Museum watching six short films by the blaise master of moody European Art Cinema, Krzysztof Kiewslowski. Tramway, Kiewslowski's student film is a silent ode to Cinema. The Office is his rightfully-jaded documentary/comedy look at Stalin-Era bureaucracy - which can also be found being mocked in his Big Animal (reviewed above). Concert of Requests is more Godard or Truffaut than Kieslowski - but works either way. A Night Porter's Point of View is a look at a typical "company comrade" - and, I am sure, is again a mocking take on Communism. Talking Heads shows person after person talking about themselves, as we progress backwards in time, with an older and older crowd (their birth years posted at the bottom of the screen). And finally, The Face, is a quick experimental piece that doesn't really gel, like the other five films do.
|
|
