MARKING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI’S DEATH   CRITERION ISSUES “THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE” ON DVD   SWEEPING THE TOP ANNUAL DVD MOVIE CENTRAL AWARDS   In the Annual Awards of DVDMovieCentral.com (a website that reviews DVDs) “The Double Life of Veronique” was the big winner, taking TOP PLACE in the following categories:

BEST OVERALL DVD

BEST FEATURES

BEST COMMENTARY TRACK

 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

 as well as 2nd place in the category:
BEST DVD BOOKLET

 

A mesmerizing poetic work composed in an eerie minor key. Its effect on the viewer is subtle but very real. The film takes us completely into its world, and in doing so, it leaves us with the impression that our own world, once we return to it, is far richer and more portentous than we had imagined.

– Hal Hinson, Washington Post, 1991 (full review)

 

It doesn't put the entire picture into a little box and hand it back to us, telling us everything that the story meant, but y we somehow walk away with a full sense of those things anyway. It's an experience you never forget, and it's why fans of the film have been so eager to finally see it released on DVD. […] The movie digs into its viewer and takes root, and it will draw you back again and again. The more you watch it, the more you will like it, and Criterion's new two-disc set opens up the artistic endeavor to reach new levels of understanding.

– Jamie S. Rich, DVD Talk, 2006 (full review)

 

Superlatives can only suggest how you will feel once Véronique works her magic on you. […] In Kieslowski's deft hands, themes of intuition, psychic bonds, double lives, sensual paradox, and whimsy become achingly real. The Double Life of Véronique is as riveting as it is inexplicable. […] It is not the release of the year but a once-in-a-lifetime movie-going experience.

– Rob Lineberger, DVD Verdict, 2006 (full review)

 

KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE,

1991, 97 MIN., COLOR,

Krzysztof Kieslowski's international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond, which Kieslowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak's shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner's haunting, operatic score, Kieslowski creates one of cinema's most purely metaphysical works. The Double Life of Veronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling. And the extras in this brilliantly executed two-disc set constitute a virtual graduate-level workshop on the art of a world-class filmmaker.

 

>>>CREDITS AND DVD FEATURES   >>> MORE ON THE FILM

>>>KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI            >>>RECOMMENDED BOOKS

For more information and reviews: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=359

THE MILESTONE CINEMATHEQUE presents
Jerzy Stuhr's wonderful comedy

THE BIG ANIMAL

DVD Premiere of THE BIG ANIMAL to be released for the 10th anniversary
of scriptwriter Krzysztof Kieslowski's death

“Remarkably sweet… You've never seen anything quite so hilarious - or magnificent!”
                                                                                                                    - Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
  “A marvelous film! Charming!"                                                                        - A.O. Scott, New York Times

THE BIG ANIMAL, SCRIPTED BY THE GREAT FILMMAKER KRZYSZTOF (Decalogue, Three Colors Trilogy) KIESLOWSKI and shot in shimmering black-and-white by Pawel Edelman (the Oscar®-nominated cinematographer for Roman Polanski's The Pianist), is an inspiring film celebrating the most human of themes: love, tolerance and sacrifice.

The film’s director (and longtime Kieslowski actor) Jerzy Stuhr stars as Zygmunt Sawicki, an ordinary bank clerk in a small Polish town, who awakens one morning to discover a camel outside his kitchen window. As he and his wife (Anna Dymna) grow increasingly fond of their remarkable pet, the animal evokes their neighbors' jealousy … and greed. Although the Sawickis are determined to protect their cherished friend, the townspeople and local bureaucrats seem bent on exploiting the great beast. The Big Animal is a charming fairy tale for grownups -- a wise and cautionary parable about tolerance that is at once funny, compassionate and heartwarming.

BONUS FEATURES:
1) Controlled Testimonies, an interview with Jerzy Stuhr (31 minutes)
2) Rendezvous, on the set of The Big Animal (5:40 minutes)
3) Theatrical trailer
4) Milestone press kit.
5) New English subtitles.

"Miraculously, a new Kieslowski story has arrived!"                             - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"A bona fide miracle! A walking, talking James Thurber fantasy cartoon."   
                                                                                                     - Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix

"I would see it again in a heartbeat."                                                 - Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

The New York Times

CRITIC'S CHOICE

New DVD's

By DAVE KEHR

Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films

The Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda earned his place in political history with his 1977 theatrical release "Man of Marble," a harsh critique of Soviet ideology that was an important public act of dissent in Communist Poland. But his place in film history probably rests with his first three features, "A Generation" (1955), "Kanal" (1957) and "Ashes and Diamonds" (1958), visions of Poland during and just after World War II that queasily recount the origins of the Polish Communist state.

The three films have now been digitally refurbished and released in a typically excellent box set from the Criterion Collection. It contains mountains of documentary material as well as excellent versions of the features with new and less prudish subtitles than the previous versions. The films chart not only Poland's development but also Mr. Wajda's, as he grows from the state-approved socialist realism of "A Generation" (an idealistic young apprentice joins the Communist-led resistance to the Nazi occupation), to the expressionistic despair of "Kanal" (the collapse of the Warsaw uprising, as retreating resistance fighters get lost in the dark, stinking labyrinths of Warsaw's sewer system), and finally to the modernist alienation of "Ashes and Diamonds" (in the anarchic aftermath of the war, a soulless assassin for a right-wing militant group suddenly discovers his  conscience).

As the emphasis of the films move from the collective to the individual, so does Mr. Wajda's visual evolve from heroic long shots to ironic close-ups. The first two films seem to have been shot almost entirely with a standard 50-millimeter lens, which yields stable perspectives and characters spatially integrated with the world around them. "Ashes" makes use of wide-angle 35-millimeter lenses, which, when used for close-ups, turn faces into subtly distended caricatures and make figures jut forth from the background - a transformation from naïve collectivism to aggressive individualism.

For the focus of his increasing individualism, Mr. Wajda was lucky to have the services of Zbigniew Cybulski, a charismatic young actor who often drew comparisons to James Dean. (Like Dean, he died young, though in a train accident rather than a car crash.) Today, though, Cybulski seems more like a young Warren Beatty well before the fact (Mr. Beatty made his debut in "Splendor in the Grass" in 1961), both physically and temperamentally, with a cool self-confidence that the neurotically self-destructive Dean could never muster. Cybulski remains a commanding, provocative presence who may well have gone on to be Eastern Europe's first superstar.

Electronic Arts Intermix and the Polish Cultural Institute present:

The Workshop of the Film Form (1970-1977):

Early Film Work from Poland

DVD and catalogue distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix

DVD and catalogue are published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), October 12-16, 2004, curated by Galen Joseph Hunter and Łukasz Ronduda

“Unlike the works I had been seeing in New York, which often looked like rough-cuts, the Workshop films [at Germany’s Dokumenta 6] had a professional quality. Still, the issues they addressed paralleled the concerns of the cutting-edge artists in the show. The Workshop films seemed at home with work by Anthony McCall, Ken Jacobs, and Michael Snow.” - Barbara London, from the exhibition catalogue.

CATALOGUE & DVD CONTENTS

DVD, distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix

1. The Market (Rynek) 1970, 4:21 min., Józef Robakowski
2. A Test (Test), 1971, 2:10 min., silent, Józef Robakowski
3. Window (Okno), 1972, 8:25 min., Ryszard Waśko
4 . 1,2,3 operator’s exercise (1,2,3 ćwiczenie operatorskie), 1972, 7:54 min., Paweł Kwiek
5. An Exercise (Ćwiczenie), 1972/1973, 4:20 min., Józef Robakowski
6. YYAA (YYAA), 1973, 3 min., Wojciech Bruszewski
7. I am going (Idę), 1973, 2:53 min., Józef Robakowski
8. Negation (Zaprzeczenie), 1973, 4 min., Ryszard Waśko
9. An Area (Obszar), 1973, 4:43 min., Kazimierz Bendkowski
10. A-B-C-D-E-F = 1-36, 1974, 6:10 min., Ryszard Waśko

CATALOGUE

Forward: Lori Zippay, Executive Director, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

             Monika Fabijańska, Deputy Director, Polish Cultural Institute, New York

Outline of Exhibition, Screening, DVD, and Acknowledgements: Gale Joseph              Hunter, Assistant Director, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

Essays: Introduction; Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Film and                Media, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

             Manifestos

             Artist’s statement; Józef Robakowski, artist and Workshop of the Film
             Form founder, Łódz

             The Workshop of the Film Form. Film realizations from the years 1970-1977; Łukasz Ronduda,
             curator of the “Archive of Polish Experimental Film” at the Center for Contemporary Art “Zamek
             Ujazdowski”, Warsaw

Bios / Films; Galen Joseph-Hunter, Łukasz Ronduda

Roman Polanski’s first feature is a brilliant psychological thriller that many critics still consider one of his greatest works. When a young hitchhiker joins a couple on a weekend yacht trip, psychological warfare breaks out as the two men compete for the woman’s attention. A storm forces the small crew below deck, and tension builds to a violent climax. With stinging dialogue and a mercilessly probing camera, Polanski creates a disturbing study of fear, sexuality, humiliation, and aggression. This remarkable directorial debut won Polanski worldwide acclaim, a place on the cover of Time, and his first Oscar nomination.

This double-disc set from the Criterion Collection, committed to restoring “the defining moments of cinema in the world’s best digital editions”, offers a new high-definition digital transfer derived from the original negative, with English subtitles translated by Polanski. The set includes interviews with Polanski and his co-screenwriter, Jerzy Skolimowski, and a collection of rare production and publicity stills. It also offers a virtually complete collection of Polanski’s early short films, including Two Men and a Wardrobe, Mammals, The Fat and the Lean, Murder, The Lamp, Teeth Smile, Break Up the Dance, and When Angels Fall.

For full details visit www.criterioncollection.com/asp/ .

THE FANTASTIC FILMS OF ZBIGNIEW RYBCZYNSKI
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON DVD AND VHS

Three recent DVD releases available individually or as a package offer most of the best, brilliant works of Zbig Rybczynski (pronounced “rib-CHIN-ski”), with his Academy Award winning TANGO included on DVD No.1, his own personal favorite THE FOURTH DIMENSION included on No.2, and with No.3 offering, among others, Rybczynski’s Emmy Award winning THE ORCHESTRA.
For information or purchase, visit http://www.filmsbyzbig.com .

>>>MORE

Andrzej Wajda

 

 

 

 

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Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda

A work of shocking extremes, Kanal depicts the dignity of ordinary people in the face of unspeakable horror. In dark underground pits, gorgeous women struggle in rivers of sludge. The darkness itself weighs down heavily - but is punctuated by flickering candles and torches that create unforgettable compositions, and by brutal bursts of light from the world above. Kanal begins on the 56th day of the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. A ragtag group of trained and untrained Resistance fighters hold the frontline. They try to live a relatively normal life, and even play the piano. They achieve many small victories, but must retreat into the sewers. But the darkness stretches on forever...

Andrzej Wajda

Everything for Sale (Wszystko na Sprzedaz ) - DVD 

Inspired by the tragic death of the great Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, this Andrzej Wajda film focuses on the behind-the-scenes lives of a director and his actors when they are disrupted by the mysterious murder of their leading man.

Andrzej Wajda

Landscape after battle (Krajobraz po bitwie ) - DVD

With its breathtaking cinematography, this Andrzej Wajda film is a romantic yet fatalistic fable of budding love and the war that would not end. The film tells the powerful love story between two Poles at the end of World War II and portrays the destructive effects of war on the human spirit.

Andrzej Wajda

Ashes and Diamonds (Popiol i diament) - DVD

Critics' Prize - Venice Film Festival
"Shattering!" - NY TIMES
"Leaves one alternately impressed and exasperated..." - NEWSWEEK
"One of the greatest films of all time!" - Peter Keough of the BOSTON PHOENIX
"[A] taut thriller!" - VARIETY
"Brilliantly conceived and directed!" - NY TIMES

Rural Poland, on the last day of World War II. The Nazis have surrendered, and the Red Army has criss-crossed the country. With the battle against the Nazis over, a new struggle emerges: the struggle against the Communists. A group of Polish patriots boldly set out to assassinate a mid-level Communist party functionary. Maciek, a James Dean in dark glasses, is the trigger-man. But when he spots a gorgeous blonde behind the bar, his priorities change...

Probably no Polish uprising ever looked as gloriously colossal as the one imagined in this long-forgotten 1927 epic of French silent cinema. Based on a novel by Henri Dupuy-Mazuel and directed by Raymond Bernard, The Chess Player turns the real-life Austrian inventor - Wolfgang von Kempelen - of a wildly celebrated 18th-century chess-playing “automaton” known as The Turk, into an obsessed eccentric living amongst his gadgetry on the outskirts of Vilnius. Though the real-life inventor made serious contributions, his Chess Player was a hoax, but a brilliantly executed and overwhelmingly popular one (delighting even the skeptics). In the film, following a complex, charmingly melodramatic plot involving a wounded Polish patriot during the First Partition, The Turk, with our patriot at the controls, is summoned to the Winter Palace by Catherine II for a chess match on which hinges the fate of Poland. Shot on location in Poland, France and Switzerland, The Chess Player combines gorgeous decor and thousands of extras from the Polish cavalry The film was restored from original 35mm nitrate elements by the legendary British film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, which has revived numerous classics of silent cinema. The Chess Player’s original score was conducted for this video edition by Carl Davis. Bonuses on the DVD include an interview with Raymond Bernard. A review can be found at www.popmatters.com