Tadeusz Huk Movies
- 1980
Talented Polish director Agnieszka Holland who would be better known in later years because of her films like Europa, Europa (1991) or some of her American works like Washington Square (1997), hits the mark early and again with this ostensible story about provincial actors in Poland. In reality, the comedy-drama can be read as a commentary on the contemporary Polish scene in politics and society. The story begins as a savvy director arrives in a small town to put on a stage play. His leading man is filled with insecurities and goes beyond the confines of his lead role to expand his part, restore his cut lines, and generally outdo himself while taking on some of everyone else's job, including the director's. No one wants to lose him because of his drawing power, and the director is caught in a bind. At the same time, the lead actor's wife is slowly losing her chances at success, being relegated to a much lesser position in the troupe. This fine comedy won the Fipresci award at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Halina Labonarska, Tadeusz Huk, (more)
In this political satire from Poland, Jerzy Stuhr plays Filip, a factory worker who, after the birth of his first child, buys an 8mm movie camera to record his daughter's first few years on film. Before long, Filip is happily obsessed with his new hobby, and he graduates from simply capturing his daughter's activities to photographing practically everything around him. His movie mania attracts the attentions of his boss, who gives him a new task: making films that will give outsiders a clearer picture of how things work at their factory. However, Filip's ceaseless photography begins to drive his wife (Malgorzata Zabkowska) crazy, and she threatens to leave him, while his boss is not at all happy with Filip's films. They're quite good, earning television broadcast time and winning awards, but their messages don't conform with his party's political and economic agenda, and Filip is warned to soften the tone of his work or he'll lose his job. This dark comedy from director Krzysztof Kieslowski was released in the United States under the title Camera Buff. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerzy Stuhr
In 1982, legendary Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda fled his homeland and relocated in France to direct this powerful story about the ethical boundaries of power and leadership, which had many parallels to Poland's volatile political situation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Danton (Gérard Depardieu) and Robespierre (Wojciech Pszoniak) were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies. Wajda remained in France until 1989, when the collapse of Communist rule made it possible for him to return to his homeland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, (more)
Set near the end of the Bosnian conflict, director Wladyslaw Pasikowski's high-octane war drama follows the journey of a respected military man who risks it all in order to rescue a brigade of trapped soldiers. As the fighting draws to a close, Major Kellner (Boguslaw Linda) leads a peacekeeping force into Bosnia. Accused of defying orders for his role in rescuing a Polish mercenary from a lynching, Major Keller is already under investigation when he ignores orders and attempts to rescue a group of Polish soldiers on the front. In hopes of finding out what makes the legendary military man tick, Major Kellner's ambitious replacement tags along for the ride. Polish action icons Zbigniew Zamachowski and Olaf Lubaszenko co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Tadeusz Huk, (more)
- 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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadeusz Huk, Katarzyna Bargielowska, (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)
One question that arose when Poland changed from its communist form of government to a more open model was what to do with its thousands of secret policemen. Clearly, some of them couldn't be integrated into the regular police force, and some of them could. In this police thriller, Olo (Marek Kondrat) is a former secret policeman who has joined an illegal drug cartel, and he soon comes into conflict with one of the men newly integrated into the regular police force. Despite his being a "regular" policeman, Franz (Boguslaw Linda) refuses to play by the book, and uses many of his old techniques and contacts to track down whoever is killing so many of his new colleagues. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Cezary Pazura, (more)
Based on a true story, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List stars Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in Poland who sees an opportunity to make money from the Nazis' rise to power. He starts a company to make cookware and utensils, using flattery and bribes to win military contracts, and brings in accountant and financier Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory. By staffing his plant with Jews who've been herded into Krakow's ghetto by Nazi troops, Schindler has a dependable unpaid labor force. For Stern, a job in a war-related plant could mean survival for himself and the other Jews working for Schindler. However, in 1942, all of Krakow's Jews are assigned to the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, overseen by Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), an embittered alcoholic who occasionally shoots prisoners from his balcony. Schindler arranges to continue using Polish Jews in his plant, but, as he sees what is happening to his employees, he begins to develop a conscience. He realizes that his factory (now refitted to manufacture ammunition) is the only thing preventing his staff from being shipped to the death camps. Soon Schindler demands more workers and starts bribing Nazi leaders to keep Jews on his employee lists and out of the camps. By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune -- and saved 1,100 people from likely death. Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and a long-coveted Best Director for Spielberg, and it quickly gained praise as one of the finest American movies about the Holocaust. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, (more)
- 1971
This highly influential award-winning film, set during the time of the Nazi occupation of Poland, is rich with multilayered apocalyptic imagery and symbolism. Even though the film won an award for best debut in Poland, distribution was halted there by the authorities, and the director was viewed with suspicion. His next film, Diabel was kept from release for 12 years, until 1988. The film begins as a young man narrowly escapes the massacre in which his family is annihilated. He makes his way into town where he is nearly captured, but another man wearing clothes similar to his own is taken in his stead. After taking refuge in the home of a pregnant young woman who closely resembles his dead wife, he helps her with the birth of her child. While working in a typhus center, as someone who is repeatedly infected with the disease in order to produce vaccines for others, he experiences many hallucinations and does some bizarre things while seeking to come to grips with his traumatic life and the guilt he feels for being alive when all who knew him are dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leszek Teleszynski, Malgorzata Braunek, (more)
- 1981
In 1905 a partitioned Poland was striving for independence from the Russians, Germans, and Austrians, and terrorist, guerrilla squads conducted selective assassinations to further the nationalist cause. A young man in one of these groups, hardly a killer by instinct or inclination, murders a Russian spy and is brought to police headquarters for questioning. When he is suddenly released after a session with a duplicitous judge, he goes back to his underground organization to report on the judge's conduct. Instead of acting on his information, the group sends him out to kill a Polish writer who they say has sold out to the Russians. The young man tracks the writer all the way to Italy, after observing his court trial in Cracow and being pretty much convinced that the writer was innocent of the charges brought against him. When faced with the moment of truth when he must kill the writer, he cannot do it. Once again, he has to return to his organization and bring them information that they will not want to hear. This time, however, his disobedience to their orders weighs heavily against him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michal Bajor, Krystyna Janda, (more)
