Alright I'm going to keep going with this
Many of these clips won't play as embedded but can be watched directly on youtube...
Aleksander Ford's
Knights of The Teutonic Order aka
Krzyżacy (1960)
A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her “three trophies” from the Teutonic Knights.The medieval ages come alive in a wide angle lens and glorious Kodak Eastmancolor [NOTE: I watched this film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the result is stunning]. Black Cross a.k.a Knights of the Teutonic Order while being one of the most popular and successful Polish films ever made still remains underrated and under seen in other parts of the globe. Yet its magnitude in scope and delivery of all facets of cinema appears to be on par if not superior than most the American/Hollywood grand classics of that era. Truly superb filmmaking and an epic vision of a period piece brought to life.
While being noted as one of the biggest blockbuster/box office successes of Poland, it is much more than just a sword and sandal kind of epic (or in this case sword and shield). It is a film directly centering on the historical importance that Poland played (along with a Lithuania union) on turning the tides of power against the Teutonic order during the Battle of Grunwald and thus beginning about the end of the centuries of Crusades. I'm personally not so much of a history scholar to know of how accurate the film's representation of said events were but regardless I think the film sticks close enough to the truth to speak its importance while perhaps maybe dramatizing other portions for high cinematic value. I mean it's no secret anymore that the Knights of the Teutonic Order and other such legions crusading during the middle ages for the Catholic church conquered and plundered their way through the message of god.
In that sense, the grandiose viewpoint of the story could be factual while the smaller scale segments between certain character's relationships, loves, conflicts and tribulations could be felt more personal and involved than just a mere history lesson. This is in my opinion where director Aleksander Ford achieves his greatest feat in combining cinematic characters within a large historical portrait and the degree of importance is leveled equally upon both. While this of course impresses me and is what makes the film so great in comparison to other historical epics, it also doesn't hurt to praise the immense technicality behind this film from costume designs to the choreographed battles. Ford directs everything to a near pitch perfect form.
Second Run put this out on DVD in the UK almost 15 years ago, and it was distributed restored in Milestone's more recent 'Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema Vol. 3' blu-ray box set, but that was $150 even when still available, and is now OOP.
Frank Beyer's
Star-Crossed Lovers (1962) aka
Königskinder. Recently restored by DEFA
Magdalena and Michael have loved each other since they were children. But when the Nazis come to power, Michael rebels against the regime and is sentenced to fifteen years in a concentration camp. Magdalena, meanwhile, goes underground with the help of a friend and later immigrates to the Soviet Union. Michael, who has joined the Red Army, discovers on the way to Moscow that Magdalena is staying there. But when his plane lands, she is already on her way back to Germany. Michael hopes that one day, he and Magdalena will be reunited.Star-crossed lovers - and more importantly comrades, in a movie the restorer described as "every shot is amazing". The craft is just that, with the East German director clearly taking Russian and Polish style and running with it. Once or twice I would have like a little less dutch and a little more right-angle - but amazing is fair.
Eduardo de Gregorio's
Corps perdus (1980), based on stills, his co-writing credits on Jacques Rivette's films, a post-mortem
write-up by Jonathan Rosenbaum (quoted below), and his multiple collaborations with Bulle Ogier, who for my money is one of greatest actresses who ever lived.
From another point of view, these houses in de Gregorio’s films function in much the same way as manuscripts, paintings, and films — as time machines that are also thresholds into alternate realities, which in Borgesian terms might be described as alternate fictions. For it’s important to recognize that what we call “reality” in de Gregorio’s universe is most often a matter of dialectical fictions: two scheming sexpots (Bulle Ogier and Marie France Pisier — whether they’re competing in Céline et Julie’s film-within-a-film or working in tandem in Sérail); the separate interests of art and commerce (in Sérail, Aspern, and Corps perdus); juxtapositions of the Anglo-American 19th century (via references to Collins, James, Poe, Stevenson, et al.) with the continental European or South American 20th — indeed, nearly always two or more separate national cultures interfacing and interacting across separate time frames and historical periods.
Basically a filmmaker of the fantastique — even when he’s rummaging around in a reasonable facsimile of real history in Aspern and an even more persuasive (if chilling) version of real history and politics in La mémoire courte —- de Gregorio also participated in generating the other-worldly fantasies of Rivette’s Céline and Julie, Duelle, Noroît, and Merry-Go-Round (as well as the history of Jean-Louis Comolli’s 1975 La Cecilia), only the first of which is playing in this retrospective. All of these share with most of de Gregorio’s own features a universe where women, many of them divas, are often the ones in control. What they don’t share are the conniving and cynical men who try to deceive and outwit them — i.e., the heroes of Sérail, Aspern, and Corps perdus, played respectively by Corin Redgrave, Jean Sorel, and Tchéky Karyo.
Kazimierz Kutz's
Nobody’s Calling aka
Nikt nie wola (1960)In 1960 Kazimierz Kutz’ second film NIKT NIE WOLA / NOBODY’S CALLING, based on a Jozef Hen novel that was never published in Poland, described the fate of Poles on the Eastern Front. Kutz used the film to explore new formal solutions, collaborating closely with cinematographer Jerzy Wojcik to reveal the psychological landscape of a pair of lovers who are strongly affected by wartime events. The camera recorded the couple’s inner experiences, contrasting their muted intimacy against the surrounding scenery of a ruined town. The film did not win over critics at the time of its release. It was not until later that critics recognized Kutz’s effort to experiment with aesthetics in a manner akin to that pursued by filmmakers of the new wave. NOBODY’S CALLING came to be compared with Michelangelo Antonioni’s THE ADVENTURE, which was produced around the same time."Nikt nie woła" is a brilliant amalgam of existential exhaustion and nihilistic wandering of love. Director's sharp flaming is powerfully heterogenerous, capturing grey ruins, depression, devastatation stylistically and sinisterly. A sequence about lovers on a bed is like an oneiric apocalypse. Doomed magnificence at its finest. And RIP Kazimierz Kutz, one of the most majestic Polish directors.
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Mother Joan of Angels aka
Matka Joanna od Aniołów (1961), also shot by Jerzy Wojcick
A priest is sent to a small parish in the Polish countryside which is believed to be under demonic possession and there he finds his own temptations awaiting.Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival and predating Russell's extraordinarily versatile masterpiece of religious fundamentalisms insanity by ten years, Jerzy Kawalerowicz's tremendously potent masterpiece featuring the aesthetics of Dreyer's Day of Wrath (1943), a deeply religious Catholic priest with the piety and trembling faith of Bergman's protagonist in Winter Light (1963) and embellished with naturalistic and minimalist foreshadowings of the majestic cinematographic and visual tints of Vlácil's Valley of the Bees (1968) is a powerful hypothetical sequel set in 17th Century Poland taking place right after the events of Russell's The Devils (1971) in which a priest, visiting a nearby inn, is confronted with the task of getting rid of the collective demonic possessions that has taken over the nuns at the convent in spite of the failure of four previous priests that attempted the same endeavor. This film, however, resorts this time to a novella written by Polish poet Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz.
Much more psychologically focused on the humanity of the characters and never shying away from its controversial religious topics of demonic activity, love impulses and blasphemy, Mother Joan of the Angels, directed by a Polish master responsible for films such as Night Train (1959), is filmed with sublime beauty and humanism featuring a horror sequence in the middle of the film unlike anything filmed at the time. Extraordinarily recommended and filmed with splendor, it is one of the best five films of 1961 and an unforgettable celluloid experience.
While Ken Russell's adaptation is still dementedly brilliant, it is a shame that his over the top and blasphemous rendition of the same source material (or rather prequel of events) overshadows this potent Polish horror film. Imagine the aesthetic of Bergman in filtering out the bleak hopelessness of the human soul filmed in exquisite and vivid monochrome reminiscent of the visionaries of the Czech New Wave (Vlacil in particular). This culmination of minimalistic but sublime cinematography accompanied with naturalistic tones and themes on righteousness and evil are what make Mother Joan of the Angels stellar beyond belief.
Grzegorz Królikiewicz's
The Dancing Hawk aka
Tanczacy jastrzab (1977), shot by Zbigniew Rybczynski, who was also the DP of
Angst (1983)
Impossibly produced under Poland’s heavily censored Cold War film industry, Grzegorz Królikiewicz’s career-defining post-expressionistic masterpiece Tańczący Jastrząb (“The Dancing Hawk”) trails the life story of runty opportunist Michal Toporny as he rises from the dirt floor of a rural farm to the top of the communist industrial complex. As his career develops and mindless ambition devours his entire being, Toporny quietly sells out the family and community that produced him, simultaneously a chilling allegory and hilarious satire of Polish society on the brink of collapse.
Wojciech Jerzy Has'
How to Be Loved aka
Jak być kochaną (1963)
An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator.and these other two by him
Wojciech Jerzy Has'
Goodbye to the Past aka
Rozstanie (1961)
An actress visits her hometown to attend the funeral of her grandfather. She realizes that the places and people from her past differ from her cherished memories.Wojciech Jerzy Has'
The Noose aka
Pętla (1958)
A day in the life of an alcoholic. With the help of his girlfriend Krysia, Kuba attempts to regain control of his life. But when his girlfriend is at work and Kuba home alone, resisting temptation becomes hard.
Bertrand Mandico's short films
Notre-Dame des Hormones (2015) and
Depressive Cop (2017)
Two aging actresses take a long weekend in the countryside to practice their latest roles, but become side-tracked when they fall into a violent love triangle with a purring oozing organ discovered in the woods.
On a Scottish island, a depressed cop investigates a girl's disappearance. The distraught mother accuses the island's inhabitants for her daughter's disappearance. Mother and daughter are in fact the same person.
Ivana Massetti's
Domino (1988) because...look at it
A girl in the video industry travels with a jeweled turtle and makes Billie Holliday videos. Though having relations with some of her friends, she is looking for love. She begins getting calls from a stranger who tells her not to worry, that he'll watch over her. But when she wants to meet him he does not show up.
It's
on youtube, unsubbed, in Italian
In making this post, I'm learning some of these are more available than I thought...
Chen Kun-Hou's
Growing Up (1983) is currently streaming on
Amazon Prime, and is also available in an English-subtitled but pricey blu-ray box set
Taiwan New Wave Cinema
A coming of age tale, following the rebellious youth of Shieng, a teen struggling through the ups and downs of life with his mother and her new, older husband. Co-written by highly acclaimed director Hou Hsiao-hisen ("The Assassin"), "Growing Up" remains an iconic work in the New Taiwan Cinema movement.Reminds of later films by Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang in its time-period of the 50's, its focus on youth and its key theme of conflict between the residents and the Chinese immigrants. A truly nostalgic movie, with work by many collaborators of those great directors. It won the Taiwan Oscar for Best film and Best director.
Gustaf Molander's
Eva (1948), written by Ingmar Bergman, which is streaming on The Criterion Channel
Haunted by childhood tragedy, a young trumpeter returns home on leave from the navy to visit his family and friends, and subsequently becomes involved with a young woman from a neighbouring farm. However, their long-distance courtship is threatened by his twin obsessions of sex and death, but eventually marriage and children follow anyway. Molander's affecting rollercoaster of a film dares to both ask and answer the age old question “what's it all about?” And whilst it's seldom subtle, its daring of script, bravery of performance, and directness of presentation ensure that it's a work of quite some power.
Many stills from it
here
Ulrike Ottinger's
Madame X: An Absolute Ruler aka
Madame X: Eine Absolute Herrscherin (1977)
In this lesbian pirate movie, a motley crew of women escape patriarchal tyranny to follow Madame X (Tabea Blumenschein) aboard her ship, the Orlando. However they soon find themselves exchanging one kind of servitude for another as their leader demands complete devotion.Ulrike Ottinger has a larger body of work than almost any other lesbian filmmaker, and her rarely seen first feature contains most of the elements that make her work so unique and ahead of its time. In this extravagantly aestheticized, postmodern pirate film she appropriates the male genre for feminist allegory. Madame X — the cruel, uncrowned ruler of the China seas — promises "gold, love, and adventure" to all women who'll leave their humdrum lives behind. Gathered aboard her ship, Orlando, are a range of types: a frumpy housewife, a glamorous diva, a psychologist, a very German outdoorswoman, a bush pilot, an artist (played by Yvonne Rainer), and a "native" beauty. Their utopia devolves into betrayal and self-destruction—leading to eventual transformation—as the power games of the outside world are ritualized among the women. Tabea Blumenschein, who designed the film's outrageous costumes, appears in a dual role as the pirate queen and the ship's lovely, leather clad figurehead. Refusing conventional storytelling and realism for a rich, non-synchronous soundtrack, the film invites its audience along for an unprecedented journey that celebrates the marginal." — Patricia White, Swarthmore College
While a
DVD is available to order from Women Make Movies, a DCP of it screened at the Quad Cinema in NY last year, so maybe an upgrade is in order
Ulrike Ottinger's
Ticket of No Return 1979)
Ottinger’s collision of Hollywood flamboyance and a particularly dour documentary aesthetic suits this Janus-faced tale of two female lushes from two very different walks of life, alike in many ways, but incapable of recognizing their bond. One is a known bag lady barfly; the other a socialite oddball who stays aloof from her surroundings, quietly but intently suiciding with booze. Their paired stories play out in a Berlin peopled by punks and New German Cinema icons, including Nina Hagen, Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma, and Eddie Constantine.Also on DVD from
Women Make Movies
Fred Zinnemann's
A Hatful of Rain (1957) which was also restored at some point. Scorsese has brought this movie up as having made a great impact on him again and again. Currently available to rent and buy in HD on
Amazon
Based on the stage play by Michael V. Gazzo, this noir-stained drama provides a searing look at the emotional carnage of a drug addicted ex-G.I. (Don Murray) along with his family and friends. Perhaps the harshest and most realistic perspective of a grim topic that holds up better than any other film of its type.