Cinema of Moral Anxiety
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- DirectorJan LomnickiStarsBarbara SoltysikJan EnglertJerzy KamasThe main character has quit school, makes a living by taking pictures. He seduces a nurse who treated his head wound which he earned in a fight. They witness a hit-and-run driver killing a little girl on a sled. He builds up an elaborate trap by putting a doll dressed as a child down the hill in the path of a car. The man hits it and thinking that he hit a child - runs. Marek takes pictures of him and tries to blackmail him to use his car for a week. He wants to use the car to win back the nurse, who could not cope with his humors. When they are both in a car a child runs in front of it and makes him crash the car killing the nurse.
- DirectorJanusz MorgensternStarsJadwiga Jankowska-CieslakAndrzej MalecWladyslaw KowalskiThe young couple love each other. The boy is in constant work which will fit him, and in the end becomes a petty thief who cannot pay his debts anymore and decides to steal from homes where he pays scheduled visits to lonely housewifes. The girl works a nurse but is too sensitive in extreme cases. Running parallel to their story is a metaphor involving a castaway on a junkyard, who tries every means possible to get rid of the dog which becomes attached to him. In the end he attaches sticks of dynamite to the dog, but he breaks loose and the explosion wipes them both.
- DirectorKrzysztof ZanussiStarsMaja KomorowskaPiotr FronczewskiMarek PiwowskiA middle-aged woman realizes she wants more out of life and has to choose between her husband and child or her new lover.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsJuliusz MachulskiIrena LorentowiczWlodzimierz BorunskiA young man joins a theatre company in the costume department and discovers the inherent internal politics and social divisions.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsFranciszek PieczkaMariusz DmochowskiJerzy StuhrWhen a political decision is made as to the location of a new large chemical factory, Stefan Bednarz is put in charge of it. This honest communist party man has to confront the local community opposing the construction.
- DirectorKrzysztof ZanussiStarsPiotr GarlickiZbigniew ZapasiewiczChristine PaulA group of students are spending the summer vacation at a university camp studying the science of linguistics. One of the camp directors, Jaroslaw, is a young professor who prefers the straightforward, intimate approach to students. He is opposed in his liberal views by Jakub, who likes to manipulate people. There is a confrontation from the beginning when Jaroslaw allows to attend the seminar a student who presents the views not according to the official line. In the end, a jury prize is given to mediocre paper, while the suspected school of thought still draws a recommendation. Finally the deputy rector arrives for the closing ceremonies, and since he disfavors the line of thought awarded by the recommendation the tensions rise. They climax when student in question bites the rector in the ear while receiving recommendation. The confrontation results in a scandal and the police is called in.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsKrystyna JandaJerzy RadziwilowiczTadeusz LomnickiA young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
- DirectorJerzy DomaradzkiAgnieszka HollandPawel KedzierskiStarsDaria TrafankowskaAndrzej PieczynskiMiroslawa MarchelukA film about a film being made by a group of young directors. Story is divided into three parts. The first follows Anka, a girl from a working- class family. She finishes school, plans to attend screen tests, and has her first love affair during the summer holidays. Her experience with a boy who wants to pass her to his buddy leaves an emotional scar. In the second segment the film follows Pawel, who leaves the children's home and wants to become a theatre actor. He joins a provincial amateur production where he has an affair with a married woman, the wife of his employer. In the final piece the two are found at the screen tests. They make to the final list and have an affair together. During the last screen test they are asked to improvise a scene, and Anka repeats exchanged between them the night before. That angers Pawel and he leaves.
- DirectorJanusz ZaorskiStarsPiotr FronczewskiGustaw HoloubekMarek BargielowskiA man is on the ledge in a high building, ready to jump. There are efforts to get him back in. The gaping passers by are there, an irate police inspector, and people who's work is disturbed as well as other who are mistakenly called in as jumper's parents or his fiancée. A retired psychology professor who is in conflict with a brilliant ex- student is also trying to help. The old man is the only one who can get to the man on the ledge and finally talks him in after confessing a suicide attempt of his own.
- DirectorFeliks FalkStarsJerzy StuhrSlawa KwasniewskaWiktor SadeckiAn ironic look at a climber who decides to do anything, including throwing mud at his best friend, to get a job he thinks will launch him into a better career.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsZbigniew ZapasiewiczEwa DalkowskaAndrzej SewerynA famous Polish journalist presents a problem for the powers-that-be when he displays his full political skill and knowledge on a television show featuring questions and answers on a world conference by a panel of journalists. His enemies take away his privileges when he is away. The shock of being "unwanted" parallels a deeper disappointment in his private life: his wife has an affair with a jealous young rival, and after 15 years of marriage and two daughters wants a divorce. She offers no explanations as he tries to untie these problems himself. All the moves he makes are the wrong ones. He takes on drinking heavily with students eager to attend his seminar after discovering the class has been canceled. The journalist, once suave and commanding is reduced to silence.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsJerzy StuhrMalgorzata ZabkowskaEwa PokasAn ordinary factory worker buys a camera on the occasion of the birth of his child. The authorities order him to make documentaries about the factory's success. But his endeavor to be truthful leads him to opposition against censorship.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsHalina LabonarskaTadeusz HukIwona BiernackaThe film is set in a small town near Warsaw, to which a young and coming director comes to produce a classic play (Wyspianski "Wyzwolenie") with a modern vein. Everyone in the production gets his usual stereotypical role, but the aging idol of the ensemble senses opportunity to give the performance of his life. For young director everything is already set. The leading man, however, is not giving up and is trying to restore the role according to his view. His wife listens to his fears, complaints and frustrations, while resigning herself to a fading career in a puppet theatre.
- DirectorPiotr AndrejewStarsTomasz LengrenBoleslaw SmelaJanusz SykuteraA young factory worker takes up on boxing as a way to find himself and advance his chances for the future. But the difficulties of sorting himself out in the crooked boxing environment hold him back in the beginning, until he arrives for tournament in Chicago, where he can prove himself. In the end, he wins over his Yank opponent, an amateur below his ranking, and is back in the factory.
- DirectorFeliks FalkStarsJerzy StuhrKrzysztof ZaleskiTomasz ZieciowskiJerzy Stuhr plays a high school teacher with a sensitive outlook on life and a soft spot for students who like art and literature as passionately as he does. His adversary is a possessed sports instructor, gaining growing control over the students and authorities. His methods are questionable and his influence dangerous, but the handball team's prospects look good and the school needs success...
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsJohn GielgudKrystyna JandaAndrzej SewerynA violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the U.S., ties up with the world-renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out, he was once in love with the violinist's mother. The conductor, a slightly unstable hypochondriac, returns to Poland to lead the provincial orchestra. He also tries to revive an old love affair using the violinist as a surrogate of her mother. Her husband is resentful of the conductor for personal and professional reasons.
- DirectorKrzysztof ZanussiStarsTadeusz BradeckiZofia MrozowskaMalgorzata ZajaczkowskaA young man is facing death of his mother. A petty corruption at his job leads to him being framed and robbed of his only desire to climb mountains in Himalayas, as his father did and where he died.
- DirectorTomasz ZygadloStarsRoman WilhelmiAnna SeniukIwona BielskaJan has his own night radio program where people can simply call and talk about own troubles. The station management does not share his compassion for lonely souls and think the program is useless. Jan has a wife with a drinking problem and a girlfriend on the side who deos not understand him either. He becomes more and more irritated and eventually loses control of himself and ends up in a mental clinic.
- DirectorBarbara SassStarsDorota StalinskaWladyslaw KowalskiZdzislaw WardejnEwa is so desperate to become a well-known journalist that she can sacrifice anything and anyone to achieve her goal.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsJerzy RadziwilowiczKrystyna JandaMarian OpaniaA few years after the events of Man of Marble (1977), a journalist investigates Mateusz Birkut's son Maciek Tomczyk, now an activist leading a shipyard strike.
- DirectorPiotr AndrejewStarsMarek BarbasiewiczWlodzimierz BorunskiMariusz DmochowskiThe year is 1998 and the world is in an ecological cataclysm: there is shortage of water, environment is polluted and being outside brings high risks. The main character is a tv technician, Jan, an individualist, who is harassed by the conformists. Jan loves Ewa, a ballet student, who in turn is in a liaison with Allan, a successful and powerful man. His love not being returned Jan tries to commit suicide by electrocuting himself in the bathtub, but is saved by aliens.
- DirectorJanusz ZaorskiStarsAdam FerencyGustaw HoloubekMiroslaw KonarowskiA rebellious architecture student is sent to jail where he reminisces the last years of his uncompromising life.
- DirectorWojciech MarczewskiStarsTomasz HudziecTeresa MarczewskaMarek KondratA boy comes of age under an oppressive, cruel socialist government and watches as it slowly but surely distorts his family, his school and even his own thoughts.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsGrazyna SzapolowskaMaria PakulnisAleksander BardiniThe wife of the recently deceased lawyer tries to cope with grief after his loss and to keep his last case going in court.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsBoguslaw LindaTadeusz LomnickiZbigniew ZapasiewiczWitek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.