Jerzy Kamas Movies
- 1993
This Polish slice-of-life film, set in pre-WW II, offers a glimpse of life in a small resort where two social classes converge. On one hand there is the elite class of bourgeoisie tourists who come there to paint, write, and reflect upon their deserved fortune. On the other, there are the peasants who are at the mercy of the tourists. In one scene a tourist woman marches into a peasant home and begins talking art off the walls. In another, an aspiring artiste demands a peasant child pose barefoot in polluted water. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this look at one moment at the end of World War II in Poland, director Tadeusz Kijanski has set the time as September, 1944. The place is the right bank of the Vistula River just at the point where the German army is withdrawing from the city. The brutality of the Germans as they destroy the city and rape women is presented in all its horror. Then the Resistance fighters come along and a disabled war veteran tries to find a way to help their cause. Finally, Polish officers arrive on the scene, ready to welcome the Russians when they cross the Vistula. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henryk Talar, Ewa Borowik, (more)
- 1987
Roza (Ewa Wisniewska) is an embittered concert violinist who makes life miserable for her family and everyone else in this somber drama. Her troubles begin as a young woman who is enraged by a broken wedding engagement. Roza tries to live life vicariously through her daughter Marta (Joanna Szczpkowska), an aspiring vocalist. Roza also is traumatized by the early memories of the torment endured by her Russian-Polish family. The film begins with Roza on her deathbed, with her story told through flashbacks. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewa Wisniewska, Joanna Szczepkowska, (more)
- 1985
A backdrop of Polish politics is an indirect participant in this measured look at a young writer's obsession with his "idol." In the difficult 1950s, a prominent (fictitious) Polish writer, Piotr Korton, was forced into exile in West Germany in order to continue living and writing without danger of incarceration. After he dies, another young Polish writer gets the idea to do an essay on the man's life and work. Times are better in Poland and there is some leeway in writing about topics that were once censored. Once the young writer has embarked on his project, he develops such a rapport with the life and personality of Korton that his own identity is dangerously close to dissolution. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krzysztof Pieczynski, Jerzy Kamas, (more)
- 1983
In a poetic evocation of a land that produced creative talents like those of Marc Chagall, Lithuanian-born director Tadeusz Konwicki looks at his native country through a story based on a novel by fellow Lithuanian Czeslaw Milosz. The main protagonist -- aside from the haunting landscape and forests -- is young Tommy (Maciej Mazurkiewicz) who observes his valley beginning to deteriorate as social unrest grows in the 1920s. Tommy's fantasy life brings him in touch with "evil" forces and a doomed love affair, but the reality is that he lives on a wealthy estate near the Polish border and even though the war has ended, animosity has not. As dissention and antagonism grow, the shadows of a future war are already growing darker in the once-innocent valley. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Dymna, Maria Pakulnis, (more)
- 1981
When a Polish fishing vessel sets out for a long-distance run to the Canary Islands, a crab gets caught in the nets as they are reeled in -- a bad omen for the coming voyage. Sure enough, once at the Islands, the sailors are told they have to stay at sea for a few months longer -- and each sailor has his own reaction to that unhappy news. One fisherman in particular has been thinking of his wife Joanna and her insistence that he give up his sea-faring life and find a job on solid land, near home. He weighs the desires of Joanna and the bad omen of the crab, against the profession he inherited from his father before him and is unable to work out a decision. Once he does reach home port, Joanna is there with an ultimatum, and the young fisherman must finally choose whether or not to break with the past. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Nowicki, Liliana Glabczynska, (more)
- 1976
This film is an adaptation of Stefan Zeromski's story of a poor youth who becomes an physician with the help of a rich woman, but becomes identified with the working classes. This is presented in Polish with English subtitles. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Englert, Jerzy Kamas, (more)
- 1973
This grim drama, in Polish, chronicles the trials and slow deterioration in the life of a proud professor who is subjected to the indignities of modern medical care in a hospital. At first just brought in for a few tests, he discovers that his kidneys are failing and that he will have to remain in the hospital until transplant organs become available. In the beginning he is a man at the top of his form, called away for an unavoidable interruption. By the end, with his career in shambles and his pride ruptured by countless indignities, he loses control just as an ambulance containing the kidney he needs is arriving. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This ironic Polish film tells the story of a charming scoundrel. Marek is a high-school dropout and a bit of a hoodlum. Still, he is quite charming. He earns his money by taking pictures and is not above using some of them for blackmail. After he and his girlfriend witness a collision between a child on a sled and a hit-and-run driver, the opportunistic Marek comes up with a worthy scheme. To re-create the mishap to his advantage, he secures a doll to a similar sled and rigs it up to be hit by a car while he photographs the scene. Sure enough, the car drives away from the scene, and Marek has a blackmail photo. The payoff Marek wants is modest enough: he only wants to borrow the owner's car for a few days. It is with this car that Marek is served his ironically tragic comeuppance. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
