Polish Cinema

Tools    





I won't dance. Don't ask me...
7 emotions
dir. Marek Koterski



The main character of Koterski movies is always the same - Adaś Miauczyński. This time he goes to the shrink for therapy. His therapist helps himrealise, that he doesn't know his feelings and doesn't know, how to deal with them, becuse he wasn't taught when he was a child, how to manage with them by any adult. The film shows scenes from Miauczyński's childhood (adult actors play children) - relationships with parents and older brother, friendships with school collegues, first love and problems of all his adolescent friends, whose childhood isn't as halcyon as it should be.
This description sounds like a comedy, which it is indeed, but this kind of bitter - sweet movie, when a viewer feels like wanting to laugh and cry at the same time.


Additionally in the cast almost all the best Polish actors.






Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
I probably saw 20 Polish movies in September. I'd say 18 of them were great
Good job. All you have to do now is keep saying "KURWA" every second word, and become a xenophobic anti-LGBT conservative Catholic, and you will be considered a Pole by most.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Good job. All you have to do now is keep saying "KURWA" every second word, and become a xenophobic anti-LGBT conservative Catholic, and you will be considered a Pole by most.
Why do Poles love Zbigniew Cybulski? Is it because he died?



Why do Poles love Zbigniew Cybulski? Is it because he died?
I'm not Polish, but evidently Cybulski was a hugely popular and legendary actor-- the "James Dean" of Polish cinema, who tragically died in an accident at aged 39.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Cybulski



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Cliche being repeated over and over. I didn't even like James Dean and his 2.5 movies.
You didn't, but many people did. He (Cybulski) introduced lots of "cool" and "hip", and even though he wasn't the best, he was still a pretty good actor. Just like Daniel Olbrychski said, Cybulski was like a falling star, illuminating everything around him, but seen on the sky for way too short.



In Salto, 1965. He was great!

Best Polish movie: Wodzirej (1978)

__________________
A normal man? For me, a normal man is one who turns his head to see a beautiful woman's bottom. The point is not just to turn your head. There are five or six reasons. And he is glad to find people who are like him, his equals. That's why he likes crowded beaches, football, the bar downtown...



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
I liked
Ostatni dzień lata - 7.5/10 - I saw it before. It's short, but I love the movie with one setting, two characters, despite the lack of screenplay (which is usually a pre-requisite)
Petla - 7.5/10
Ostatni etap - 7.5/10
Ulica Graniczna - 7.5/10
Slnko v sieti (It says "Poland" but I'm sure it was Czech) - 7/10
Eroica - 7/10

(I saw a lot of good Hungarian and Czech movies in that stretch)



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
https://www.youtube.com/@cinema7649/videos

@MrMinio
"NIE MA RÓŻY BEZ OGNIA"


and "Sekret" look good right off the top, but there are no translations. Are these movies real good? If they are, I will find a way. Oh, and just in case you have subtitles laying around, maybe you can submit them to the YouTube video?



Long live Polish cinema. 80% of what I've watched has been good.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
"NIE MA RÓŻY BEZ OGNIA"


and "Sekret" look good right off the top, but there are no translations. Are these movies real good?
Dunno, haven't seen either, provided you mean Sekret from the 70s. I haven't seen any film called Sekret anyway.

Long live Polish cinema. 80% of what I've watched has been good.
Yeah, especially in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It started going downhill from there. Polish cinema is abhorrent nowadays.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Dunno, haven't seen either, provided you mean Sekret from the 70s. I haven't seen any film called Sekret anyway.

Yeah, especially in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It started going downhill from there. Polish cinema is abhorrent nowadays.

Yeah, of course it's from the 70s. Foreign movies seemed to be on the decline in the 70s (after having their best decade in the 60s), while American movies didn't peak until the 70s.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Yeah, of course it's from the 70s. Foreign movies seemed to be on the decline in the 70s (after having their best decade in the 60s), while American movies didn't peak until the 70s.
I think putting all "foreign movies" into just one category does them injustice. It was different for different countries. When you compare France, Poland, or Italy of the 60s to now you can truly see what a fall of national cinematic art means. But when you look at Japan, they maintained their steady output of masterpieces all the way up to nowadays.

I see American cinema as a continuum rather than a bunch of high and low points, though there's no doubt there's a dive in overall quality starting with the mid-70s through the 80s when films like Jaws and Star Wars paved way for the modern blockbuster and eventually killed New Hollywood (it survived to circa 1980). I'd argue that American cinema was doing really well all the way from the silent era to 1980, and going only so-so since then, with the sheer number of movies they put out every year being perhaps the only reason there are still great movies being made.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
I think putting all "foreign movies" into just one category does them injustice. It was different for different countries. When you compare France, Poland, or Italy of the 60s to now you can truly see what a fall of national cinematic art means. But when you look at Japan, they maintained their steady output of masterpieces all the way up to nowadays.
.

After some thought, yes, some good Japanese movies, but not too many great ones, certainly not Italian. Gosh. The last great Italian movie I saw was made in 1980 (la terrazza). Unfortunately, the only Italian movie most mention is the overrated "Cinema Paradiso".. Still some good English speaking movies, but I'll attribute a lot of that to the American ratio. But a country much smaller like England still had/have Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Finland with Aki Kaurismaki. I've seen some good Iranian movies, but mostly 1-2 directors like many others. Maybe a couple of German movies.



When I started driving, studying movies, I actually thought there was some hope in the late 90s after there were some fine movies. I also thought of the internet -- great movies being uploaded by "regular people" on YouTube.


The last newer movie that is worth mentioning is the Norwegian "Blind" (2013/4), but probably not a movie I'd watch again.... I find myself rambling because it's better than any movies I have around.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
After some thought, yes, some good Japanese movies, but not too many great ones, certainly not Italian. Gosh. The last great Italian movie I saw was made in 1980 (la terrazza). Unfortunately, the only Italian movie most mention is the overrated "Cinema Paradiso".. Still some good English speaking movies, but I'll attribute a lot of that to the American ratio. But a country much smaller like England still had/have Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Finland with Aki Kaurismaki. I've seen some good Iranian movies, but mostly 1-2 directors like many others. Maybe a couple of German movies.
Yeah, these days we're left with one, two, maybe three GREAT directors per country. Back in the 50s to 70s, we had a dozen of them. Think of Japan in the 60s and you will know what I'm talking about. As for Italy, Michelangelo Frammartino is great. And that's about it unless I'm missing a huge name, which I don't think I am. (Paolo Sorrentino is a hit or miss with me.)
When I started driving, studying movies, I actually thought there was some hope in the late 90s after there were some fine movies. I also thought of the internet -- great movies being uploaded by "regular people" on YouTube.
There's a lot to dig into if you know where to look. But finding movies to watch is as time-consuming as watching them. Until you actually create a reliable network of sources to keep you occupied for the rest of your life, that is.
The last newer movie that is worth mentioning is the Norwegian "Blind" (2013/4), but probably not a movie I'd watch again.... I find myself rambling because it's better than any movies I have around.
I haven't seen that one yet. There are plenty of new movies I love, but only some I'd put right next to the greatest films of yesterday.



I just discovered Jagoda Szelc a few days ago through her excellent Tower. A Bright Day. I would like to watch her other feature film, Monumets as soon as I can. I'm not sure how/where she fits into Polish film, but in terms of international cinema her style reminded me very strongly of Lars von Trier.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
In the last handful of years, whenever I'm in a rut movie-viewing wise, I seem to get out of it with Eastern European cinema, and there's always a Polish movie involved. Older movies. I know I listed some ones made in my lifetime down below, but I noticed by the IMDB date they were "stand-alone" movies, while the older ones were seen within a 48 hour time-span. Czech, too. I have an affinity to Hungary because I spent 2 weeks in Budapest (The Fifth Seal), and had a Romanian (The Punishment) friend I met in Australia who I lost contact with. And I notice when I do see those movies, I tend to "binge", which I can't do with English-speaking movies (or any others, actually) even if it's only an hour-long movie.
Do you know of any you could recommend.. Here are the ones I like, and I took quite a while ranking them, to get the best possible recommendations.. Especially if they're on YouTube with subtitles!


Knife In The Water, Man On the Tracks, The Last Day of Summer, Camera Buff, A Generation, Interrogation, The Noose, The Constant Factor, Passenger, Night Train, The Last Stage, Eroica, Zycie rodzinne, Border Street, A Short Film About Love.


Wesołych Świąt!