★★★★☆ Novelist turned filmmaker Tadeusz Konwicki excelled at crafting an atmosphere of the otherworldly on the screen. Though 1965's Jump may be more widely known and highly regarded, a similar milieu pervades The Last Day of Summer (1958), Konwici's first film behind the camera. Ostensibly a straightforward relationship drama far more in the social realist vein typical of Polish cinema at that time, it contains a lyrical quality that elevates an otherwise conventional allegory. It provides the lens through which to discover a poetry that from which a far less literal understanding of the film can transform it from littoral rhyme to deeply poignant ode.
- 5/26/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★☆☆ Surreality dons a cool sixties swagger in Polish novelist Tadeusz Konwicki's intriguing and vaguely baffling Jump (1965). Abandoning the social realism with which many of his cinematic compatriots approached the medium in the aftermath of the war - and with which he initially made his name in print - he creates an elliptical and illusory narrative. It's constructed around its star Zbigniew Cybulski, who is decked in a leather jacket and dark glasses, channeling James Dean as well as his own earlier role in Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds (1958). An amalgamation of fraudster and messiah, his absurdist sojourn in a small hamlet prods at the veneer of identities rebuilt from the rubble.
- 5/12/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Above: 1936 alternative one sheet for Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, USA, 1936), designer unknown, and Us one sheet for The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1980), designer: Saul Bass (1920-1996).As serendipity would have it, the two most popular posters of the past three months of Movie Poster of the Day were these two black and yellow faces, one a little-known 1930s poster by a journeyman designer at a budget print house, the other a very well known 1980s poster by the most recognizable name in movie poster design. Modern Times and Modern Horror. I’m hoping the love they received (over 500 likes and reblogs for each) were just as much about the items they were promoting: one my article on Leader Press, the other the Poster Boys podcast on Saul Bass by fellow movie poster aficionados (and ace designers) Sam Smith and Brandon Schaefer. Another Poster Boys related poster—Drew Struzan’s The Thing—also made the list.
- 4/10/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
"Tadeusz Konwicki, a prominent Polish writer and filmmaker whose works during the communist era lampooned the authoritarian Soviet-imposed system, has died," reports the AP. And Radio Poland notes that as a screenwriter, "he is noted for adapting Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz's novella Mother Joan of the Angels for Jerzy Kawalerowicz's cult 1961 film, which deals with possession in a 17th century nunnery. Among many other scripts, he also worked with Kawalerowicz on the epic adaptation of Boleslaw Prus's novel Pharoah. Konwicki likewise achieved success as a director with such films as Jump (Salto), the 1965 movie that became a favorite of Martin Scorsese. He also directed his own adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz's novel The Issa Valley, returning to the Lithuanian countryside of his youth." » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"Tadeusz Konwicki, a prominent Polish writer and filmmaker whose works during the communist era lampooned the authoritarian Soviet-imposed system, has died," reports the AP. And Radio Poland notes that as a screenwriter, "he is noted for adapting Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz's novella Mother Joan of the Angels for Jerzy Kawalerowicz's cult 1961 film, which deals with possession in a 17th century nunnery. Among many other scripts, he also worked with Kawalerowicz on the epic adaptation of Boleslaw Prus's novel Pharoah. Konwicki likewise achieved success as a director with such films as Jump (Salto), the 1965 movie that became a favorite of Martin Scorsese. He also directed his own adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner Czeslaw Milosz's novel The Issa Valley, returning to the Lithuanian countryside of his youth." » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Keyframe
Mother Joan of the Angels
Written by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Tadeusz Konwicki, and Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Poland, 1961
Tales of possession run deep through any religious or formerly religious society. They may act as a primitive explanation for madness, a cultural example of the physical manifestation of evil, or, on some occasions, a political tool. Though the horror of these events comes in accounts early enough to be placed in the Old Testament, there exists an intellectual horror of possession that pervades the modern world. Though not explicitly speaking of possession, René Descartes hypothesized an omnipotent “evil demon” thought experiment that may help with our idea of the “self”. The idea goes that this demon may be altering the physical world around us, such that our bodies, our environment, all our sensations, as well as the fundamentals of logic and mathematics may simply be an illusion. Whatever is left,...
Written by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Tadeusz Konwicki, and Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Poland, 1961
Tales of possession run deep through any religious or formerly religious society. They may act as a primitive explanation for madness, a cultural example of the physical manifestation of evil, or, on some occasions, a political tool. Though the horror of these events comes in accounts early enough to be placed in the Old Testament, there exists an intellectual horror of possession that pervades the modern world. Though not explicitly speaking of possession, René Descartes hypothesized an omnipotent “evil demon” thought experiment that may help with our idea of the “self”. The idea goes that this demon may be altering the physical world around us, such that our bodies, our environment, all our sensations, as well as the fundamentals of logic and mathematics may simply be an illusion. Whatever is left,...
- 10/24/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
For the fifth year running, we tally up the Other Year's Best -- the films that made it to DVD (or onto U.S. home video in any format) but not to theatrical, which generally meant they posed too much of a marketing challenge. As in, the films were either too odd, too original, too archival, too subtle, too something. DVDs still stand as our go-to B-movie-distribution stream of choice, although as I've barked every year, video debuts are still not eligible for any year-end toasts or trophies. Except ours.
10. "Parking" (Chung Mong-hong, Taiwan) At first blush a Taiwanese riff on "After Hours," this measured little odyssey is more realistic, evoking those all-night odysseys we've all had, when time evaporates and tiny logistical dilemmas drive us insane and eventually it's morning and something about our lives is different. Chung doesn't spring for laughs when you think he will -- he holds back,...
10. "Parking" (Chung Mong-hong, Taiwan) At first blush a Taiwanese riff on "After Hours," this measured little odyssey is more realistic, evoking those all-night odysseys we've all had, when time evaporates and tiny logistical dilemmas drive us insane and eventually it's morning and something about our lives is different. Chung doesn't spring for laughs when you think he will -- he holds back,...
- 12/9/2010
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
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