Jerzy Kawalerowicz

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Faraon AKA Pharaoh (1966) (HD)

    1961-1970AdventureEpicJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

    Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s long gestated film adaptation of Bolesław Prus’ historical novel PHARAOH is an ambitious endeavor, dazzles in its epic scale and formalist gravitas with an exclusive Polish cast, which leads to one prescribed proviso: for purists, it is beggar belief to watch a movie about ancient Egyptians where everyone sports Polish through and through; but other than that, the film is a marvel orchestrated with vigor, mettle and pathos.Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Cien AKA Shadow (1956)

    1951-1960ActionDramaJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

    A man has been found dead after having been hurled from a train. As security agents, police and a medical examiner piece together his identity, three accounts emerge: one set during World War II, one in the immediate aftermath of the war, and one in contemporary Poland.Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Prawdziwy koniec wielkiej wojny AKA Real End of the Great War (1957)

    1951-1960DramaJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

    Polish filmmaker Jerzy Kawalerowicz, who helped define the Polish School of the 1950s and 1960s with Andrzej Wajda, offers a melancholy meditation on the impact of WWII and the Holocaust.Roza and Juliusz marry just before the outbreak of WWII in Poland. When Juliusz is deported to a concentration camp, Roza fears the worst. Convinced he will never return, she falls in love with another man and starts a new life. When Juliusz returns after the war, Roza reluctantly tries to care for him but her life has changed and his scars are too deep. (-Polart)Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Matka Joanna od aniolów AKA Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)

    1961-1970ArthouseClassicsJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

    In the seventeenth century, Father Suryn arrives in Ludyn, a village on what was then the eastern border of Poland, to perform exorcisms on the Ursuline nuns who are allegedly possessed by the devil. While trying to drive evil spirits out of the body of the prioress, Mother Joan, Father Suryn starts experiencing uncomfortably secular and sensual feelings towards her.Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Pociag AKA Night Train (1959)

    1951-1960DramaJerzy KawalerowiczMysteryPoland

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    Quote:
    Two strangers, Jerzy (Leon Niemczyk) and Marta (Lucyna Winnicka), accidentally end up holding tickets for the same sleeping chamber on an overnight train to the Baltic Sea coast. While handsome, well dressed and rather laconic, Jerzy seems ill at ease, while Marta is not talkative and would prefer to be alone. Staszek (Zbigniew Cybulski) is a student and Marta’s spurned lover, and will not leave her alone. When the police enter the train in search of a murderer on the lam, rumors fly and everything seems to point toward one of the main characters as the culprit. [spoiler removed from quote]Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Austeria AKA The Inn (1982)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

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    Quote:
    Austeria takes place during the opening days of World War I, in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. Tag (Franciszek Pieczka) is a Jewish innkeeper whose inn (austeria means inn in the local Polish dialect) is located near the border with Russia. War has broken out and local civilians are fleeing the advancing Russian Army, and several groups of refugees have taken shelter in Tag’s inn for the night. A group of Hassidic jews from the neighboring village arrive, followed by an Austrian baroness on and a Hungarian hussar cut off from his unit…Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Faraon (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseEpicJerzy KawalerowiczPoland

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    The Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City’s retrospective – History Lessons: The Films of Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 30 January to 12 February 2004, screened the major work of this Polish director whose career spanned 50+ years. The programme offered, amidst the veteran’s varied output, a very special, culture vulture/archaeologist’s dream: Pharaoh (aka: Faraon), co-scripted by Kawalerowicz with Tadeusz Konwicki, and based on a novel by Boleslaw Prus. The best cinematic recreation of circa 1100 BC Late New Kingdom Dynastic Egypt ever, photographed on location at authentic sites and environs, the production design, costumes and props were all meticulously researched.Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Pociag AKA Night Train (1959)

    1951-1960DramaJerzy KawalerowiczMysteryPoland

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Two strangers, Jerzy (Leon Niemczyk) and Marta (Lucyna Winnicka), accidentally end up holding tickets for the same sleeping chamber on an overnight train to the Baltic Sea coast. While handsome, well dressed and rather laconic, Jerzy seems ill at ease, while Marta is not talkative and would prefer to be alone. Staszek (Zbigniew Cybulski) is a student and Marta’s spurned lover, and will not leave her alone. When the police enter the train in search of a murderer on the lam, rumors fly and everything seems to point toward one of the main characters as the culprit. [spoiler removed from quote]Read More »

  • Jerzy Kawalerowicz – Maddalena (1971)

    1971-1980DramaItalyJerzy Kawalerowicz

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    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    The film Maddalena tells the story of a woman who is desperate to find real love in a real steady relationship on the one hand; and a priest who is doubting his ability to cope with celibacy on the other hand. When Maddalena decides the priest is the man that she wants, an atmosphere of erotic tension and self-questioning about true Faith fill up the air. The film is long forgotten (thus the five), but the score for the film, parts of which were used in other films, is considered by some as one of Morricone’s finest, and quite rightly so. The already mentioned title part ‘Come Maddalena’, which mixes jazzy drumming with a modest church organ, the lyrical voices of Edda dell’Orso and a scatting choir, is probably one of the most evocative and thrilling parts of film music I have ever heard. Long before the world had ever heard of lounge music and chill-out, maestro Morricone must have sent the shivers down many a spine… as he has done so many times before and after.Read More »

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