DEMON. (2015) A POLISH HORROR FILM REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

ARROW ACADEMY PRESENTS: THE STORY OF SIN. (1975) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

DVD Review - Man Of Marble (Czlowiek z marmuru, 1977)

DVD Review - Iluminacja (1973)

Genre:
Drama
Distributor:
Second Run
Rating:
15
DVD Release Date:
27th January 2014 (UK)
Director:
Krzysztof Zanussi
Cast:
Stanislaw Latallo, Malgorzata Pritulak, Monika Dzienisiewicz-Olbrychska
Buy: Illumination (Iluminacja) [DVD]Iluminacja is a Polish film from 1973; Krzysztof Zanussi directed it and it won all three main prizes at the 1973 Locarno International Film Festival and got a special award t 1974 Gdynia Film Festival. It has been added to Second Run’s catalogue and they specialize in Czech and Polish films.

The film is about a young physicist Franciszek Retman(Played by Stanislaw Latallo) and it’s about his self-discovery though his time at University and beyond. It mixes both fiction filmmakers and documentary filmmaking and at times morphs into an essay film. It’s both a very good coming of age film about a man who starts off as idealistic wantabe physicist to a broken man who realizes there is more to life than just science. He experiences love, loss, betrayal and eventually has a existential crisis as you do.

The film was one of the most pleasant surprises from Second Run in a while. I have to admit a film about a physicist which was described as a essay film really didn’t appeal to me but it’s much more accessible than the plot synopsis suggests. The film should connect with anyone who has been a 20 something that questions their place in the universe. It’s worth checking out and it should raise some interesting questions about your place in the universe and the meaning of it.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Innocent Sorcerers DVD Review

★★★1/2☆

is the first non-War film Andrzej Wajda did coming soon after his much-celebrated War Trilogy in the 1950s and the much lesser known Lotna (which is also a war film). It was a radical departure from his previous WW2 films, it was then contemporary film about young people in Warsaw.

The film tells the story of a young mod (in the original sense, young person who listens to Modern Jazz) called Andrzej (played by

Tadeusz Łomnicki) who is a physician who is a bit of playboy. He plays drums in a jazz band on the side. He is getting fed up of his film sexual successes. He meets a lovely young girl and they spend the night at his place talking, it has obvious sexual tension though out the night.  The film was supposedly more the brainchild of the screenwriter Jerzy Skolimowski much more so they Wajda. It’s very much a part of the overall 60s new wave of cinema, every country pretty much had their own and Poland certainly had it’s with most famously Roman Polanski (who has a bit part), Wajda and others.

It’s a “room film” where 2 people talk for 84 minutes about life. It’s a perfectly good “room” film; I just wish something slightly more dramatic happends. They play a stripping game and have a very long mundane conversation over the night. The stripping scene is very played but the most exciting scenes are of Andrzej hanging around with his band mates and friends talking crap. You can understand why he enamoured with the girl but besides the brilliant tension of the stripping scene, it’s rather bland. The performances are good, it’s well shot but I kinda left me cold. It also features a small role from Zbigniew Cybulski who was the star of his film Ashes & Diamonds and was the Polish James Dean. I did like it but compared to something like the masterful aforementioned Ashes & Diamonds it’s much a lesser work. It’s an interesting film to watch it comparison to other countries’ attempt at doing a very similar thing but The French did it a lot better. It has been beautifully restored by Second Run, it’s available separately or part of the Polish Cinema Classics boxset.

Ian Schultz

Rating:12
DVD Re-Release date:10th September 2012(UK)
Directed by: Andrzej Wajda
Cast:Tadeusz Lomnicki, Krystyna Stypulkowska, Wanda Koczeska, Roman Polanski

Review: IN DARKNESS

New Clip From Oscar Nominated IN DARKNESS

GFF 2012: UK Trailer For Agnieszka Holland's Oscar Nominated IN DARKNESS

UK Trailer For THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH

DVD Review: ESSENTIAL KILLING

3 New Clips For ESSENTIAL KILLING Out On DVD & BLU-RAY July 11th

Essential Killing starring Vincent Gallo out on DVD & Blu-ray on July 11

ROBERT MITCHUM IS DEAD...Watch Trailer For Raindance Festival Hit

Watch The Visually Stunning Dystopian Short THE 3RD LETTER

"Something For The Weekend Sir?" Watch Trailer for Polish Comedy WEEKEND

Watch The First Trailer For The Epic 3D Polish War Movie - BATTLE OF WARSAW 1920

sourceTwitch
For years we've seen the Chinese grace our screens with epic battle movies bu no one has ever came that close to matching the history or in this case an actual movie. But throw in an experienced director Jerzy Hoffman with a oscar winning cinematographer Slawomir Idziak (BlackHawk Down) along with the help of 3,500 extras what do you get? BATTLE OF WARSAW 1920 (3D)!!!
Yes that sad word in brackets has finally slipped into Cinehouse UK the dredded 3d thats plagued my other site The Peoples Movies and what we see from the trailer there will be plenty of explosions, action to give the 3d camera  a chance to prove everyone wrong that 3d movies are good. The movie has received a very healthy budget and what we see from the trailer it has used it well but what I want to know is why do movies seem to make political leaders such as Lenin & Stallin look like characters from a TinTin movie? maybe we should ask Steven Speilberg that one!!!
BATTLE OF WARSAW 1920 3D is scheduled for release in Poland in September 2011.

Sublime Trailer For Animated PATHS OF HATE

source Twitch
When comes to animation here in the west we seem to be very one dimensional and play things safe by really only following the big studios like Walt Disney and Dreamworks. Like Hollywood and Independent movie time after time theres proof that going outside mainstream things can be better qaulity and thus people should check out the smaller companies like  Platige Image  from Poland who from the evidence of the trailer are a re studio people should check out as there simply a talented bunch. PATHS OF HATE is a prime example of how underated the studio is, withs it sublime visual style which has been created so beautifully the whole look at times looks realistic.

"Paths of Hate" is a dynamic tale about hatered which is the indispensable element of human nature. Damian Nenow has created a film that matches Visual attractiveness of American action cinema and European reflexive character of author cinema. The audience is being drawn into the middle of a fight, of an unknown origins. The finale of it is a bitter author's comment.

trailer after the break...

Trailer For Polish Arthouse Crime Thiller CHRZEST (The Christening)

source Twitch
This movie is soon to make its international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival CHRZEST (The Christening) by Marcin Wrona. 
Due to the artish style to this movie will make sure this movie will pick up a few accolades along the road when it does its rounds of the film festivals and I agree with this source of this trailer it does have a mixture of the movies Brothers mixed with History of violence. The whole movie looks to have click well together the cinematography, the intergation of the scenes into action into drama, so if your looking for a slighty different spin on the crime thriller movie, this could be the one to check out.

Michal has what he always dreamed of: a beautiful wife named Magda, a newborn son, his own firm. He chooses an old friend, Janek, to be the godfather of his child. This is just the beginning of Michal's plan, who asks his friend to take an interest in his wife... At the beginning the plan works out, but it becomes increasingly difficult for Michal to come to terms with it. Michal knows his deeply hidden past will inevitably come back to him, and Janek will have to make a decision, of which he will never forget the consequences.

Trailer after the break...

Vincent Gallo Joins The Taliban in ESSENTIAL KILLING

source Vulture

Vincent Gallo seems to have a trail of controversay folling him, he does pick the movies which will get the highbrow gossip mongering, follow your heart I say. Well this one will have the middle class rightwing America choking on their frappechinos with Jerzy Skolimowski's ESSENTIAL KILLING.

This one think Rambo First Blood minus the macho testoserone and the mai character been a Talaban member!

The Essence of Killing follows the story of a Taliban member (Gallo) who lives in Afghanistan, kills three American soldiers and then is taken captive by the Americans. He is transferred to Europe for interrogation but manages to escape from his captors and becomes an escaped convict on a continent he does not know.

Is this Poland's version of Eternal Sunshine?? WJONA POLSKO-RUSKA trailers

source QuietEarth
The source of this trailer describes this movie WJONA POLSKO-RUSKA (Snow White and The Russian Red) as Poland's version of Eternal Sunshine of The Mind, Im unsure. First impressions from the poster I think more like an Trainspotting esque movie but as they say never judge a book by its cover, so you have to say the basis of the story is where the Eternal Sunshine links come from.

This movie tells the story of Silny a hardline nationalist who is anti semtic, racist and a homophobe whose girlfriend leaves him but he soon meets up with satanist Angela. the duo hang around drug dependant nobodies in a environment which can only be described as nihilistic.

The movies story comes from 18 year old writer

Dorota Maslowska who has caused a big stir with his novel simply due to the content and the movies leading character's stance of life. Anyway watch the trailers and you can decide for yourselfs.