Ignacy Machowski Movies
- 1989
The English title of the Polish Gwiazda Piolun is The Star Wormwood. You'd never know it from that name, but this is a glowing tribute to a theatrical giant. The subject is Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, one of the leading lights of the Polish avant-garde theater movement. The film chronicles the last days in the life of the amazing "Witcaky." Much of Gwiazda Piolun has been adapted by Wladislaw Terlecki from Witkiewicz' own works. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tadeusz Huk, Katarzyna Bargielowska, (more)
- 1980
This historical drama by Wojciech Solarz is set in the 17th century. King Jan III Sobieski's father-in-law has a bad habit of sneaking out of the palace to play cards and enjoy his cups of wine. Since Vienna is not politically secure, this habit is dangerous to the realm in case of a kidnapping. The queen's father would be a powerful pawn to hold ransom, and three foreign governments are keeping a lookout for him. Fortunately, a skillful knight, the Chevalier de Charentes (Jan Englert) is at hand to protect the card-playing, wine-drinking royal from weakening Austria's position on the political chessboard. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jan Englert, Ignacy Machowski, (more)
- 1980
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, but this matters not at all to their tradition-bound families. At the last minute, the bride balks. Only slightly nonplused, the groom's father, a status-seeking doctor, decides to go ahead with the expensive reception anyway. Polish director Krzysz Zanussi uses this scenario to stick it to capitalist corruption, and to society's destruction of the individual spirit. Leslie Caron, the one recognizable member of the cast, is outstanding as a wealthy, over-the-hill ballerina who happens to be a kleptomaniac. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leslie Caron, Maja Komorowska, (more)
- 1961
This heavy-handed wartime drama scripted by Andrzej Szczyplerski moves along with ponderous deliberation as it spins a tale of injustice. Fram (Adam Hanuszkiewicz) is in a German POW camp where brutal, cold-hearted Gestapo officers like Weber (Henryk Bak) or Von Steinhagen (Gustaw Holoubek) terrorize and execute their Polish prisoners. One day Fram sees a way to escape the camp and he takes it, heading out to find his fellow resistance fighters. Unknown to him, that is just what the Gestapo wanted him to do -- they follow him in order to identify the partisans. Meanwhile, they execute all the other prisoners in the camp. After the war, only Fram and his wife know the truth, everyone else believes he was a collaborator. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Gustaw Holoubek, (more)
Originally titled Pociag, this Polish Hitchcock homage stars Lucyna Winnicka and Leon Niemczyk. A mysterious young man (Niemczyk), claiming to be a doctor, boards the night train. Overcrowded conditions compels the new passenger to share a sleeping car with a secretive young woman (Winnicka). Neither of these reluctant companions is prone to small talk--and both seem to be hiding something. In fact, both seem to be running away from something. Once we've digested all this, it is revealed that the police are searching for a murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Originally released in East Germany as Der Schweigende Stern ("The Silent Star") and in Poland as Milczaca gwiazda, First Spaceship on Venus was partially intended as an anti-nuclear tract. In 1985, a strange, extraterrestrial spool is discovered, leading to a manned expedition to Venus. The multinational crew includes American Brinkman (Gunther Simon), African Talua (Juliusz Ongewe), and Japanese Sumiko Ogimura (Yoko Tani). After several special-effects setpieces (and reams of dogmatic dialogue later), the crew lands on Venus, only to discover that the planet's population was wiped out by a nuclear error. Armed with this knowledge, the expedition returns to earth with a warning for all mankind. The film was based on a novel by noted Eastern Bloc sci-fi novelist Stanislaw Lem. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, (more)
This is the last film in the trilogy that began Andrzej Wajda's career as a director. Preceding this wartime drama are Pokolenie (1955) and Kanal (1957). Once again, Wajda presents a strong anti-war statement, this time in the personae of two men who are given orders on the last day of World War II in Poland to murder a leading communist. The orders come from the part of the resistance that opposes the new communist regime. One of Wajda's favorite performers and a friend, Zbigniew Cybulski, plays the man who eventually pulls the trigger and kills the communist leader -- and the results are not what he expected. In 1959, Popiol I Diament won in competition at the British Academy Awards and at the Venice Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Cybulski, Eva Krzyewska, (more)
This comedy-drama from director Andrzej Munk tells two stories of life in Poland during World War II. In "Scherzo Alla Pollaca," a man trying to worm his way out of military service goes underground,and begins working the black market to support his family. He unwittingly becomes involved with the Polish Resistance, and in time he becomes a brave and valued member of the rebel forces, whose will to survive proves to be a greater asset than many soldiers' ideal of self-sacrifice. The second segment, "Ostinato Lugubre," is set in a Polish concentration camp; one inmate decides that he can no longer stand to be confined and makes a brave if foolhardy attempt to escape. While no one is sure if the man actually made it out, his absence troubles the guards and provides a sense of hope and inspiration for the other prisoners. Eroica was the winner of the FIPRESCI Award at the 1959 Mar Del Plata Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edward Dziewonski, Barbara Polomska, (more)
- 1956
Celebrated Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Mother Joan of the Angels, Night Train) helmed this conspiracy thriller. Exhibiting tremendous influence by Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, it begins with the fact of a dead man's homicide, and then jumps back in time to present three possible versions of the events leading up to his murder. This film ran headfirst into a substantial amount of political difficulty because of its dire and merciless depiction of Polish officials as universally corrupt and untrustworthy. Nevertheless, it did pick up a nod for the Golden Palm at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, losing to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle's Le Monde du Silence. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
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