Agnieszka Holland Movies
Best recognized for her highly politicized contributions to Polish New Wave cinema, Agnieszka Holland ranks as one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers. Following her graduation from the Prague Film School in 1971, Holland served as Krzysztof Zanussi's assistant director on his 1973 film Illuminacja. Director Andrzej Wajda served as her mentor during this time, and the two collaborated on a number of scripts. Holland then directed stage plays and TV movies, later drawing upon her theatrical experience to create her 1978 feature Aktorzy Prowincjonalni, which was outwardly a chronicle of the tense backstage relations within a small town theater company but was actually a metaphor for Poland's political situation. The film won the FIPRESCI prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. Just before the enactment of Polish martial law in December 1981, Holland moved her operations to Paris. Her 1985 feature film Bittere Ernte/Angry Harvest, an examination of the relationship between a gentile farmer and the Jewish woman he conceals during World War II, was nominated for an Academy award for Best Foreign Language Film. Six years later, Holland earned even greater international acclaim and a score of awards, including a Golden Globe, for Europa, Europa (1991). The powerful true story of a young Jewish man who assumes the identity of a Nazi in order to survive the Holocaust, it provided an unforgettable look at human atrocities and the nature of identity. Holland followed it up with another tract on the nature of assumed identity with Olivier, Olivier (1992), which was not as well received. Her beautifully photographed version of The Secret Garden (1993) -- one of the director's numerous Hollywood forays -- fared better, as did her 1997 adaptation of Washington Square. Two years later, Holland directed The Third Miracle, a drama about religious faith and the nature of miracles. In addition to directing, Holland also occasionally works on screenplays; some of her most notable work has been on Wajda's Danton (1982) and Krzysztof Kieslowski's initial entry in his "Trois Coleurs" series, Blue (1993). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 2008
A former athlete seek a second chance in life through the game he abandoned years ago in this drama from Poland. Jacek (Marcin Dorocinski) used to be a talented soccer player who had earned a position on the national team. But when a serious injury put Jacek's career on hold, his life fell apart; he developed a serious drinking problem, his wife left him, and he was beaten up by toughs. Now homeless, Jacek spends his days panhandling in a rail station in Warsaw, where he becomes friends with a handful of other down-and-outers. One of Jacek's new comrades tells him about the Homeless World Cup, an international football tournament designed to give marginalized citizens a chance to prove their talent through sport. When his friends learn that Jacek was once a rising star on the soccer field, they convince him to coach the local homeless soccer team, and as this handful of alcoholics and addicts begin to respond to Jacek's leadership, he regains the self-respect and sense of purpose he lost when he had to quit the game. Directed by Kasia Adamik, Boisko Bezdomnych (aka The Offsiders) also stars Rafal Fudalej, Marek Kalita and Piotra Jagielski. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcin Dorocinski, Rafal Fudalej, (more)
- 2004
Stringer's frustrations with construction hassles are assuaged by Sen. Davis (Isiah Whitlock Jr.); Avon turns his attention to Omar; Brianna meets with McNulty; Prez's sleuthing provides concrete evidence for the detail; Cutty imagines a different career path. ~ Joe Friedrich, All Movie Guide
This gripping drama is based on the real-life story of Mikal Gilmore, a respected journalist whose brother Gary Gilmore was a felon convicted of murder. In 1977, after he was sentenced to death, Gary Gilmore generated international controversy when he demanded that his lawyers call off all attempts to appeal his sentence and requested that his execution be carried out as quickly as possible. As activists for and against the issue of capital punishment debated Gilmore's demand, his brothers Frank and Mikal stepped forward to request a stay of execution, in hopes of forestalling their brother's death despite his public requests. Based on the book of the same name by Mikal Gilmore, Shot in the Heart examines the close, if uneasy, bond between the Gilmore brothers, and the family history of abuse and violence that Mikal believed helped shape his brother into a killer. Shot in the Heart stars Giovanni Ribisi, Eric Bogosian, Lee Tergesen, Amy Madigan, and Sam Shepard; produced for the premium-cable service HBO, Shot in the Heart first aired on October 13, 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanni Ribisi, Elias Koteas, (more)
Faith, family, and devotion are all explored in Polish director Agnieszka Holland's intense family drama. Julie (Miranda Otto) and her twin children, Nick (Ryan Smith) and Nicole (Bianca Crudo), cut short a ski outing due to Nick suddenly taking ill. As they arrive back at home, Julie catches her husband, Henry (William Fichtner), with another woman and promptly moves to end their marriage. Meanwhile, Nick has another spell similar to the first one and doctors discover a tumor in his brain. Further complicating matters is Nick's allergy to the necessary chemotherapy drugs, which prompts Julie to abandon traditional medicine and seek out a Polish healer named Alexei Ormow (Lothaire Bluteau). As the healer begins making progress on the youngster, Alexei and Julie begin to fall in love with each other -- a development that greatly troubles Julie as she struggles to determine how to proceed in the best interests of her family. In 2002, Julie Walking Home (aka The Healer) was selected for inclusion in the Venice Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miranda Otto, William Fichtner, (more)
- 1999
A dybbuk, for those unfamiliar with the term, is actually a wandering evil spirit that has left a human body and is searching at length for a new host. The term and the concept originate in Kabala lore, and more specifically in a Chassidic folktale and a play by Szymon Anski. As an adaptation of Anski's play, this feature from the acclaimed Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) begins with a minor tragedy - the paternal betrayal of a nuptial promise between a bride-to-be and a yeshiva student - and expands into something far more sweeping and sinister: the yeshiva student vows that he will harness the power of the spiritual realm via Jewish mysticism and inhabit the young woman's body at any cost. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1994
The concluding chapter in filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, Red stars the luminous Irène Jacob as Valentine, a young student and fashion model who befriends a bitter former judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant, his character a proxy for Kieslowski himself). Their accidental meeting is just one of the many chance encounters woven through the narrative fabric of this feature, the most accomplished effort in Kieslowski's highly ambitious series. Like its predecessors, Red corresponds to a color of the French flag, as well as the color's symbolic attributes. The subject here is fraternity, and indeed, its central characters are all closely connected, their destinies locked on a collision course. The film's final scene even ties up the trilogy by bringing together the protagonists of the other features. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irène Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1990
The life of Polish pediatrician Janusz Korczak (Wojtek Pszoniak) is the subject of Andrzej Wajda'a docudrama. Also known as an author who wrote primarily for young readers, Korczak's name became legend as a result of the Jewish orphanage he established in Warsaw. When the invasion of the Nazis in 1939 forced him to move his students to the ghetto, he struggled on without provisions or adequate space, refusing to give in to Nazi pressures. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wojciech Pszoniak, Ewa Dalkowska, (more)
- 1988
Maria (Liv Ullmann) and her actress friend Raquel (Cipe Lincovsky) react differently when both of their children are missing and presumed dead at the hands of military terrorists. Raquel moves to Berlin, while Maria continues the search for her missing child. She continues her search after the oppressive military regime is ousted, still hoping her child is not among the many dead. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, Cipe Lincovsky, (more)
- 1988
This political drama is taken from the classic story from Feodor Dostoyevsky, but liberties have been taken and many secondary characters eliminated. The author's condemnation of a godless society and his disdain of those who follow blindly to popular political causes remains intact. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Isabelle Huppert, (more)
This West German film was first released in 1985 under the title Bittere Ernte. Armin-Mueller Stahl plays a Polish farmer living under the wartime Nazi occupation. Stahl isn't too offended at the prospect of answering to the Germans; in fact, he has profited by confiscating the property of his neighbor, a wealthy Jew. His conscience doesn't disturb him until a starving Jewish woman (Elisabeth Trissenaar) stumbles onto his property. At first Stahl shelters her, but his baser instincts surface; she is in no position to refuse when he ultimately rapes her. She even comes to fall in love with Stahl--and kills herself when another woman moves in with him. Stahl survives the war with health and wealth intact, only mildly disturbed by the misery he has caused. This Oscar-nominated film was to have been lensed in director Agnieszka Holland's native Poland; upon the imposition of martial law, production was switched to Sweden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar, (more)
- 1983
Based on a non-fiction bestseller of the same name by Rolf Hochhuth, Eine Liebe In Deutschland is about a tragic and forbidden love affair between Stanislaw, a Polish POW (Piotr Lysak) and Paulina (Hanna Schygulla) a fruit-and-vegetable vendor in a small town in Germany along the border with Switzerland. Their affair would have gone undetected except for the busybody women of the village, and when Stanislaw is picked up by a German stormtrooper (Armin Müller-Stahl) and brought in for a mock trial, he is given a chance to prove his racial purity and so perhaps escape execution. As for Paulina, she is ostracized by the villagers and imprisoned for consorting with someone who was not of the same high Aryan caste as herself. Depressing, yet politically relevant to Poland of the early 1980s, this film by acclaimed director Andrzej Wajda) is an effective and emotional statement on the nature of oppression. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Marie-Christine Barrault, (more)
- 1982
Originally titled Przesluchanie, the Polish The Interrogation is rough sledding for anyone looking for an "easy" film about political oppression. Cabaret entertainer Krystyna Jadna has a habit of dallying sexually with high-ranking military officers. As a result, she is imprisoned and subject to a vicious interrogation by the secret police, who are convinced that Jadna's brief affair with an army major has fomented an anti-government movement. For 158 grueling minutes, we are shown the lengths to which Jadna's questioners will go to extract their notion of the truth-and the lengths to which the woman will go to cling on to her remaining shreds of dignity. Filmed in 1982, The Interrogation was almost immediately banned in Poland. It was not given an international release until 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Krystyna Janda, Janusz Gajos, (more)
- 1981
Hot on the heels of her Cannes Film Festival success with Provincial Actors, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland put together the equally accomplished The Fever. Holland used the Andrzej Strug novel The Story of One Bomb as a springboard for an impassioned plea for freedom of expression and an indictment of government-advocated violence. As such, the film was banned almost immediately when martial law was imposed upon Poland in 1981. Slated for obscurity, the film attained worldwide attention when it was feted at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival, by which time Holland had moved to France. The Fever was originally released as Goraczka. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Barbara Grabowska, (more)
- 1981
Any film that graphically handles abortion in the country that gave birth to Pope John Paul II is bound to stir up a certain amount of controversy. In this story, the oldest of two sisters fell in love with a fellow medical student, became pregnant, had an abortion, and broke off with the would-be father. Many years go by, and her younger sister falls in love with a doctor, and becomes pregnant. Soon it is discovered that both sisters had gotten pregnant by the same man - and circumstances arise which may make an abortion necessary for the younger sister as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elzbieta Karkoszka, Jerzy Kryszak, (more)
- 1981
Irena (Maria Chwalibog) bears one burden each day as she delivers the mail and several others when she goes home to continuing penury after her divorce from an alcoholic husband. She also has the chore of caring for a dying relative, accomplished partly out of compassion and partly on the hope that she will inherit a little cash when the woman dies. Her son is the only bright spot in her existence, an existence they spend together in an unfurnished, rundown apartment with no running water and the noise of the trains traveling along the nearby track. Then one day she meets Jacek (Boguslaw Linda), an equally lonely bachelor, as she is delivering him his disability pension -- he is lame from a mining accident. It was hardly a planned occurrence. Irena faints as she hands the surprised Jacek his envelope, and the two kindred spirits have a shared understanding that grows when they continue to see each other. Irena becomes frustrated at times with her son, who has a tendency to get into trouble, and that situation gets worse instead of better. Then her boss tells her that her mail route may be taken away from her, and when her dying relative finally succumbs, Irena is not only left without an inheritance, but faced with a funeral bill. In desperation she steals the pensioners' money that she is supposed to deliver, puts her son in a boarding home, buys an old car to make a dash for West Berlin and gets ready to escape her home, her life, and her poverty. At this point, the story has shifted gears as it heads into a narrative warp that signals a surprise ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Chwalibog, Boguslaw Linda, (more)
- 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)
- 1979
Jerzy Michalowski is a journalist who has been licensed by the Polish State to travel abroad. He researches stories and at the same time represents the country in journalistic circles. When, on a foreign broadcast, he displays a much too-thorough knowledge of the actual state of affairs inside Poland, the authorities decide to punish him by inexorably withdrawing his privileges one by one, without any explanation. Each reduction in privileges brings this once-proud man's estate lower, and the intervals between them are great enough for him to think that his punishment has reached it's culmination...until the next. This unusual and politically significant Polish film follows director Andrzej Wajda's Men of Marble in indicting abuses of power by the state, and was made shortly before the military took control of the government. Wajda says "I worked on this film in a blind rage..." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Ewa Dalkowska, (more)
- 1977
In this comedy, a middle-aged couple, unable to have a child, desperately want to adopt one. Their solution is to find an unwed mother who wants a caring home for her child, and for the infertile wife to fake a pregnancy of her own, timed to match that of the unwed girl. The fat is in the fan when the girl gives birth but decides to keep her baby. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1977
These three films by young directors follow the adventures of two young aspiring film stars, Pawel and Anka. The first "Anka," (Daria Trafankowska) shows her as a slightly overweight girl, just graduating from school, making plans to attend her first screen tests. She has an exploitative affair with a boy during the summer holiday. The story of "Pawel" shows a stage-struck youth, just entering adulthood, who has a brief affair with a mature woman. He is outraged when she will not leave her husband and child for him. In "Anka and Pawel," the two meet at the film try-outs, and become finalists together. They also have a brief affair. However, when Anka uses her experiences with him as the basis for a requested improvisational scene, Pawel furiously flees and rides around the countryside sulking. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrzej Pieczynski
The postwar history of Poland is seen through the experiences of a succession of directors of a large industrial plant. The movie is based on a popular television mini-series, Managers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franciszek Pieczka, Mariusz Dmochowski, (more)
- 1973
Illuminacja follows the education of a young man from his entry into college to his final achievement of a doctorate. Paralleling his outer education, his inner education about life, family, sexuality and spiritual values is revealed. By the time he achieves his doctorate, he has been told that he has a life-shortening heart disease. However, because of his two-fold education, he is fulfilled in what he has done and is not much distressed. This Polish film, by the notable director Krzysztof Zanussi, won many awards at Italian film festivals. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
A priest finds his faith tested when he's assigned to investigate a possible case of divine intervention. Rev. Frank Shore (Ed Harris) is a Catholic priest who works as a postulator, a church official who investigates reports of holy miracles to determine their veracity. Some time back, one of Shore's investigations had ugly repercussions, and now he devotes his time to running a soup kitchen. But he's called back to service by Bishop Cahill (Charles Haid) when a number of Catholics begin calling for the canonization of the late Helen O'Regan, who is alleged to have performed miracles and whose statue is said to weep tears of blood. Shore begins digging into O'Regan's life and the miracles she is supposed to have performed; in his travels, he meets Maria (Caterina Scorsone), a teenage girl who was supposedly healed by O'Regan, and Roxane (Anne Heche), O'Regan's daughter, who was abandoned by her mother, wants nothing to do with her story, and has given up her belief in God. While investigating the miracle of O'Regan's statue, Shore witnesses the bleeding himself and tells the church that he believes the claims are legitimate. However, this view leads to angry reprisals from Archbishop Werner (Armin Mueller-Stahl); Shore's story is not given any greater credence when he become romantically involved with Roxanne. The Third Miracle was released only a few months after Stigmata, another story of Catholic priests investigating allegations of a modern-day miracle, not the sort of subject one might have expected to become a trend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Harris, Anne Heche, (more)
This historical drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland, focuses on the rocky relationship between the renowned 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a teenage wunderkind known for his rebelliousness against conventional society and his surrealistic writing. He disrupts the life of Verlaine (David Thewlis), a more conventional writer who is older and married to a dutiful young wife, Mathilde (Romane Bohringer). The drunken Verlaine is unkind to Mathilde, even though her father is providing him with a house and an income to live on while he pursues his writing. Rimbaud overwhelms Verlaine, mocking his conventionality, constantly disrupting his domestic life, and somehow attracting the maniacal love of the older man. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, (more)
- 1993
- R
The first chapter in Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, Blue stars Juliette Binoche as Julie, the lone survivor of an automobile crash that killed her husband, a famed composer, and their only child. Despondent, Julie attempts suicide, but she cannot bring herself to take her own life. Instead, she sets about starting over, purging all remnants of her former existence in an attempt to sever her ties to the past. A piece in the trio of films loosely inspired by the colors of the French flag and their corresponding symbolic qualities, the basic focus of Blue is liberty. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, (more)
