Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1991 film, set in Warsaw in 1939, stars Crispin Glover as well as Iain Glen who as a 30-year-old suddenly starts being treated by those around him–his former professor, a nymphet, a female cousin–as if he had regressed back to childhood. Closer to a curiosity than to a success–the English dialogue and the period Polish setting make for an odd mesh at times–but a curiosity by Skolimowski certainly isn’t like anyone else’s.Read More »
A small town hospital worker who witnessed a brutal rape becomes obsessed with the victim after she lands a job as a nurse at the same hospital where he works, but how far will he go before he finally loses control? Leon Okrasa was there when a young woman named Anna was viciously violated. He works at a hospital in Poland, and when Anna is hired in as a nurse Leon soon finds his fixation taking over every aspect of his life. One night, after climbing into Anna’s apartment though an open window, Leon sits on the edge of her bed, watching silently as she sleeps. What happens next only Leon can say.Read More »
Quote:
Nowak (Irons) leads a small team of Polish building contractors, hired by a wealthy Pole to illegally refurbish his London home. They slip into England under false pretenses and squat in the house as they work on it–but shortly after they arrive, the military take over Poland and declare martial law (this real event happened in December of 1981). Only Nowak speaks English, so only he knows this has happened; fearing that if the others find out, they’ll stop working, he decides not to tell them. As he starts stealing and scamming to stretch their rapidly vanishing money, Nowak grows increasingly paranoid and mentally fragile. Moonlighting is a political allegory and a psychological portrait, but thanks to Irons’ sympathetic performance, the movie is also rivetingly suspenseful.Read More »
A student abandons his way of life and wanders, suitcase in hand, seeking a place in life, literally and metaphorically. Two attitudes clash in this character – resignation and a readiness to adjust to life according to the generally accepted pattern (“little stabilization”), and the remnants of youthful rebellion, refusal to accept a boring life centred around making money. (Awards: 1966 – Bergamo, International Art Film Festival – Grand Prix; 1968 – Valladolid, IFF – Jury Special Prize).Read More »
Based on satirical short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a vain, egotistical Etienne Gerard, a French brigadier serving during the Napoleonic Wars. He thinks he’s the best soldier and lover that ever lived and intends to prove it.Read More »
A day in the life of student Andrzej who, between the morning and late afternoon, gives up on his studies, breaks up with his partner, and decides to join the army. Before his departure, Andrzej tries to straighten out his life, and encounters Barbara, who he sees as the woman he always waited for.Read More »
PLOT: HANDS UP! is a Polish drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It is the fourth of a series of semi-autobiographical films in which Skolimowski himself plays his alter ego, Andrzej Leszczyc. The film was originally made in 1967 in monochrome. In a twenty minute section (filmed in colour) added by Skolimowski in 1981 he explains how the original was withheld by Polish censors of the time, and that this was a principal cause of his leaving his country; however following liberalisation in Poland, he was invited to resuscitate it. The introduction includes, apart from some fictional apocalyptic passages, shots of Beirut ruined by the civil wars of the 1970s, where Skolimowski is working as an actor on Volker Schloendorff’s German film CIRCLE OF DECEIT, and also shots of London featuring demonstrations in favour of Solidarnosc, Speaker’s Corner, and an exhibition of Skolimowski’s own paintings. These sections include cameo roles by Bruno Ganz, David Essex, Mike Sarne and others. Some of the music in this introduction is from the 1970 choral work « Kosmogonia » by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.Read More »
The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.Read More »
In 1840, a young Russian aristocrat, Dimitri Sanin, is returning home after a long tour of Europe. In Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful pastry shop girl, Gemma Rosselli, who soon starts sharing his feelings. They decide to get married and, in order to finance the wedding, Dimitri goes back to Russia to sell his family estate. Unfortunately he falls prey to a seductress, Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who pretends to be willing to buy his land to come nearer him. Now Sanin is in a fix: should he choose the pure Gemma or the evil but irresistible Maria?Read More »