Polish Movie Thread

Does anyone have any good Polish film recommendations besides the ones from major directors (Kieślowski, Zanussi)? I finally found a torrent of this one with English subs after some searching.

Jan Lomnickis films. Good thread.

The Saragossa Manuscript is one of my favourite films.

The Dekalog's new Criterion release is pretty cool because it has interviews with some of the directors and actors for the different episodes, but I don't know how much of that is new.
Martin Scorsese released a collection of 20 remastered Polish movies that I think included The Saragossa Manuscript a few years ago. It seems like it's impossible to find anywhere for less than $500.

I found it on a public tracker a couple years ago. I'm not sure if its still around out there.

Artificial eye releases are always more pleasing than criterion

Are there any good current Polish movies? I was surprised to see that Agnieszka Holland made a new movie this year called "Pokot", or Spoor in English, but it seems weird (environmentalist horror thriller drama) and I can't find subs anywhere.

Triumph of the Will

I really can't say I keep up with the Polish film scene. Last one I know of that was fairly well regarded was Ida.

How I Started World War 2
The Cruise
Sexmission
Basically the three most meme'd movies in Polish culture.
Last two are criticizing the communist regime, but somehow got through intense censorship by being bizarre and having hidden meanings.

Is Seksmisja the one where women take over the world or something?

Yes. A Cold War film made when the Poles were still Communists, parodying the Communists.

Half the great movies from that time seem to be not-so-subtle jabs at the Communists, so the regime in Poland must have been either really stupid or accepting of the movies as long as they didn't go too far.

Dzień Świra
Kingsajz
Hydrozagadka
Psy

O-bi, O-ba
zdejm kapelusz

I think this might be the most Polish film poster I've ever seen.

the dancing hawk
how far away, how near
szamanka
mother joan of angels
birth certificate

very good sci-fi comedy.

>Last two are criticizing the communist regime, but somehow got through intense censorship by

- not really criticizing the Communist regime, but making vague satires of authority that people could apply to whichever kind of regime they thought it fitted.

Or to put it another way, we have two options. Either Communism wasn't at all oppressive, or these films aren't really satires of Communism, but are just seen that way now because that's how liberal Western audiences are being sold them. We have it on good authority from the Poles that the regime *was* that oppressive, so obviously these films aren't doing what's now being claimed for them.

It's rather like how every critically acclaimed film made during the Nazi Occupation of France has to be passed off as somehow "subversive" by critics and DVD companies, and when you look at them they're usually anything but. These were regimes that would put a bullet in the head of subversives, the idea that filmmakers with families to feed would risk their lives getting sassy in their movies is sheltered liberal pretention stemming from a desire to pretend that artists remain Simon-pure whatever the regime they work under. If the filmmakers were saying naughty things about the regime, it's okay to be entertained by their work. Me, I find it simpler to just recall Auden's comment that "poetry makes nothing happen", and get on with enjoying the films for what they are.

*pretension

No, you're just really provincial and unable to see anything that doesn't reinforce your existing political biases.

Czech Cinema >>>>> Polish Cinema

Damn straight.

Not anymore.. Hungary is king of european cinema

If we're talking contemporary then Romania makes the best Eastern-Europe-kino

If we're talking contemporary, there is no worthwhile cinema being made in Europe, is there?

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What are you talking about? Most if not all Polish comedies from that time satirize at least some aspects of life in communist Poland. It was all a game, so all satire of the time is very vague so that the censors can't stop it, but the people understand what is being satirised.

I'm talking about the reality.

>It was all a game

It wasn't though, was it?

The people are dog food, the idea that they could see meanings that eluded the censors is pure liberal middle-class fantasy.

Oh look, the only Polish film that isn't a chore with the exception of poor Munk's films. With him dead and Polanski abroad, they had nothing but dirges.

Where are you from? Because I feel you don't understand the reality of those times.

ashes

Were you alive at the time, or, like most young Poles, are you one of those abortions who prays thanksgiving to God for the gift of Coca-Cola and Arnie movies? The idea that "the people" were picking up on clever little messages in Polish movies is middle-class horseshit. The people are dog food, born to serve another's purpose.

Same here, can someone please tell me of movies at least partially similar to that one?

Oh, you're Russian.

The fact that you still won't say where you're from proves that there are no facts in what you say, and that you're really just inserting your own opinions on the common man's lack of creative thinking or perception to fit a false narrative on how the deeper messages of Polish movies were understood at the time.

No, I'm British. You see how provincial you are, fighting your parents' bullshit battles?

Where I'm from wouldn't matter if the claims weren't fabricated. Facts you have to be from the right country to "understand" are parochial lies. It's not a false narrative, your own country's abandonment of Communism constituted a tacit acceptance that the common man is not the source or yardstick of value, and every politically engaged Pole I've ever met has been a libertarian.

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Fucking hell, there's a cure for insomnia.

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INLAND EMPIRE, I know it doesn't count, but it kinda counts.

You're just an ignoramus, throwing a tantrum, hiding behind big words like they mean something. You're claiming to have better knowledge of another country's history than the people who live there. You don't.

A ruler who doesn't let people have laughs at his expense is not a good ruler. There were more and less restrictive times in commie Poland, read a book or something, I don't know.

The middle class will never understand how working people actually think, and for as long as they romanticize them, they will be disappointed. You're buying a lie both about how much of a shit employees of a state film industry gave about the abuses of Communism, and about how much working people understand or care about privileged people's little chuckles at the expense of the regime.

Exactly, it was approved laughter, so in other words, it meant nothing. They never really bit the hand that fed them, and nor would they have been expected to. Bourgeois people deceive themselves.

If you can't use the language, come back to this English-speaking site when you can.

>Dekalog's new Criterion release
I read on various forums that they butchered it in many aspects, including frame rate. It was originally shot on PAL 25 fps, but Criterion released it under NTSC 23.976 fps. Shame, because otherwise it's a good transfer. They do this with other films, like Antichrist, which many people noticed.

They also fuck with contrast, heightening it routinely. They're not at all ideal.

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Wojciech Has - Saragossa Manuscript, Hourglass Sanatorium
Kawalerowicz - Egypt, Mother Joan of Angels, Night Train
Wajda - Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal
Zulawski - Possession, Diabel, L'amour braque, The Most Important Thing Love, On The Silve Globe
Polanski - Basically anything - Repulsion, Knife in The Water, The Tenant, Rosemary's Baby

Other good eastern european directors:

Jancsó
Kusturica
Makavejev
Królikiewicz and Jerzy Skolimowski (Polish but Idk any of his movies)
Shepitko
Forman
Klimov
Vláčil
Chytilová

polish movies are shit

>Zulawski
Haha, no.

>Wajda
Haha, no.

If you try and watch Polish films but don't want to watch depressing war movies and expressions of pointless grousing about old scores, you're left with only a handful of titles.

>major directors... Zanussi)?

I spotted the deliberate mistake, do I win delicious chocolate?

Wołyń
The Last Family

Wolyn is so fucking good.