Polish Directors - Andrzej Wajda

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Polish Directors - Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda, A Portrait
Ewa Lachnit
The famed Polish filmmaker speaks candidly about his life and his relationship to his art. This son of a slain Polish cavalry officer fought in the Resistance before he studied painting in Cracow and filmmaking in Lodz. His films include Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal, Man of Marble and Danton. The film has been called an "unforgettable and deeply moving experience." Narrated in English. Poland, 1989, 76 mins.
Videocassette
$44.95  

Andrzej Wajda Retrospective Box Set Andrzej Wajda Six classic film's from Poland's foremost director and one of international cinema's most treasured auteurs. Includes Everything for Sale (1969), an homage to deceased Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski. Landscape After Battle (1970) reveals the destructive effects of war by way of a German stalag liberated by the American army. Promised Land (1974) follows three industrialists of differing backgrounds as they join to build a factory in Lodz. Man of Marble (1976) tells the story of a young film student who risks censure in order to study the true story of a national hero who was erased from public record. In Young Girls of Wilko (1979) a man returns to the town where he spent his youth only to find that the past is gone but that he left an impression before leaving. Finally, in Zemsta (2002), a pair of feuding 17th century families are forced to share a castle and come to terms with greed and romance. The DVD set is letterboxed and includes trailers, retrospective featurettes, music video, behind-the-scenes featurettes, English and Spanish subtitles, and more. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1969-2002. DVD $99.95

Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films A Generation/Kanal/Ashes and Diamonds Andrzej Wajda Three groundbreaking films that ushered in the "Polish School" movement and solidified the importance of their creator, arguably the most important figure in post-World War II Eastern European cinema. Includes A Generation (1955, 87 mins.), Wajda's debut film about a wayward Polish teen drawn into the underground anti-Nazi resistance movement. The film is a stirring coming-of-age story with broad implications. Kanal (1957, 96 mins.), a Special Jury Prize winner at Cannes, is a harrowing look at the final days of the Warsaw uprising as experienced by a band of Polish resistance fighters attempting to escape the Nazi onslaught through the Warsaw sewers. The third film in the trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds (1958, 105 mins.), follows a pair of men who, in the waning hours of World War II, are given orders to murder an incoming commissar. Ashes and Diamonds balances the personal with the national and is considered one of the most important Polish films of all time. All three films are in Polish with English subtitles. Ashes and Diamonds is presented in letterboxed format. This Criterion Collection Edition 3-DVD set includes audio commentary by film scholar Annette Insdorf on Ashes and Diamonds, interviews on each film with Andrzej Wajda, assistant director Janusz Morgenstern, and film critic Jerzy Plazewski, vintage newsreel on the making of Ashes and Diamonds, Ceramics from Ilza (Wajda's 1951 film school short), behind-the-scenes production photos, publicity stills, and posters for all three films, a gallery of Wajda's original drawings and paintings, new English subtitle translations, and new essays by film scholars and critics Ewa Mazierska, John Simon, and Paul Coates. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1955, 1957, 1958, 288 mins. DVD $99.95

Everything for Sale Andrzej Wajda Director Andrzej Wajda (Maids of Wilko) pays tribute to his late friend and collaborator, Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, in this behind-the-scenes look at a film set disrupted by the sudden death of their leading man, who died trying to jump onto a moving train - the same manner in which Cybulski died. Not letting grief derail their work, the cast and crew deal with the loss while completing the film without their star. DVD includes Spanish subtitles. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1968, 94 mins. DVD $37.95

Innocent Sorcerers Andrzej Wajda A neglected masterpiece by Andrzej Wajda, reflective of the best of 1960s Polish cinema. Wry and cynical in tone, the work is important for being "the first film in Eastern Europe to chronicle the disillusionment of the younger generation" (San Francisco Chronicle). A bachelor doctor, who is also a jazz musician, can't quite commit himself to his superficial girlfriend. He and his aimless friends find any kind of human contact or emotional commitment a troubling and ultimately uninviting prospect. With Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Cybulski, and a young Roman Polanski. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1960, 86 mins. DVD $44.95

Landscape After Battle Andrzej Wajda Polish director Andrzej Wajda tells a beautiful and fatalistic story of love found in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Based on the writings of Tadeusz Borowski, an Auschwitz survivor who committed suicide at the age of 29, the film follows two concentration camp survivors who have an affair while waiting repatriation after WWII. DVD includes Spanish subtitles. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1979, 101 mins. DVD $44.95

Lotna Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda, the son of a Polish cavalry officer killed in the Second World War by Germans, made this film as a tribute to the heroic horsemen who faced off against German tanks. It follows the trajectory of an off-white horse which passes among various military officials until it breaks a leg and is shot. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1959, 89 mins. DVD $44.95

Man of Marble Andrzej Wajda Thirteen years in the making, Wajda's film caused packed houses to rise and sing the Polish national anthem when it finally premiered in Poland in 1977. Denied entrance at Cannes by Polish authorities, it played nonetheless at a commercial theatre there and won the International Critics' Prize. Hailed as "a milestone in Polish cinema" by Variety, Man of Marble is the story of a young filmmaker trying to reconstruct a truthful picture of the Stalinist past, a past obscured by 20 years of shifting propaganda. Includes a tribute and an interview with director Andrzej Wajda. Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1977, 160 mins. DVD $37.95

Pan Tadeusz Andrzej Wajda Legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda proved himself as ambitious as ever at the age of 73 with this lavish period drama based on the 19th century epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz, considered by many to be one of the greatest works of Polish literature. Set in Lithuania during the Napoleonic era, the story concerns a feud between two families of Polish gentry living under Russian rule. A plot rich with heartbreak, violence, combat and vengeance unfolds as the Polish people wait to see if Napoleon's invasion of Russia will lead to the restoration of Polish statehood. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1999, 157 mins. DVD $44.95

Promised Land (aka Land of Promise) Andrzej Wajda Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Wladyslav Reymont, Andrzej Wajda's epic film examines the relationships among three industrialists who own a textile factory in Lodz at the turn of the century. The film is an epic about complex class structures; each man represents a different ethnic group: a Pole (Daniel Olbrychski), a German (Andrzej Seweryn) and a Jew (Wojciech Pszoniak). The drama builds to a climax when the overworked, underpaid workers threaten to revolt. Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The DVD is a Director's Cut, and includes a tribute and interview with director Andrzej Wajda. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1974, 178 mins. DVD $37.95

Samson Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda's profound psychological study of a man who accidentally kills a schoolmate in a brawl and is imprisoned. He is released with the onset of World War II, only to be locked up once more, but in the Warsaw Ghetto. Again he escapes and finds himself trapped, this time in a world of non-Jews where the threat of capture is ever-present. This powerful film makes extraordinary use of naturalistic symbols. The DVD is letterboxed and includes director's biography, scene selections, optional English subtitles, and original poster. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 1961, 119 mins. DVD $44.95

Siberian Lady Macbeth (Fury Is a Woman) Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda shot this extraordinary film in Yugoslavia, during a period of self-imposed political exile. Fury Is a Woman ranks with Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood as one of the most successful screen translations of Shakespeare ever made. "Not only has the director succeeded in catching the spirit of the time and the place; he has also managed to create the sense of timelessness inherent to the tragedy" (Richard Roud, Sight & Sound). With Olivera Markovic and Ljuba Tadic. In Serbo-Croation with English subtitles. Yugoslavia, 1961, 93 mins. DVD $44.95

Young Girls of Wilko (aka Maids of Wilko) Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda's adaptation of Jaroslav Iwaszkiewicz's memoirs is set in the late 1920's. Viktor Ruben (Daniel Olbrychski), a World War I veteran and operator of a small factory, reexamines his life following the death of a friend. Returning to his aunt and uncle's home, he is drawn into a mysterious web of sexual and romantic longing with five women from his past. "Wajda...has made an exquisite period piece which lays bare the futility of attempting to resurrect the past" (The Faber Companion to Foreign Films). With Anna Seniuk, Maja Komarowska, Krystyna Zachwatowicz and Christine Pascal. French and Polish with English subtitles. Poland/France, 1979, 118 mins. DVD $44.95

Zemsta (The Revenge) Andrzej Wajda Roman Polanski stars in this light comedy from legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda (Birch Wood), based on the stage play by Aleksandr Fredo. Zemsta tells the story of two feuding 17th century aristocratic families whose homes share a common courtyard. On top of the bickering, life becomes even more complicated when two opposing family members fall in love. In Polish with English subtitles. Poland, 2002, 100 mins. DVD $37.95