Graphic depictions of traumatic violence (eye-gouging with a spoon) and sexual depravity (don’t ask) had a good percentage of the audience sprinting for the exits when The Painted Bird premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. Now available on demand, this WWII drama may have you running for cover in the privacy of your own home. In adapting Polish author Jerzy Kosiński’s bestseller, Czech writer-director Václav Marhoul spares nothing in showing the atrocities witnessed by a lost, abused and abandoned Jewish boy named Joska (Petr Kotlár), as...
- 7/15/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
An epic pastoral horror pitting human savagery against the impossible calm of nature, Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul’s adaptation of Polish author Jerzy Kosiński’s rattling World War II novel “The Painted Bird” is as bold a play for visceral cinema mastery as we’ve seen of late.
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to the kind of emotional reactions that can cement a troubling work’s need-to-see reputation, this black-and-white, nearly three-hour saga of a boy navigating the cruelties and caprices of ravaged rural Eastern Europe is not the wallowing miserablist parade you might fear, yet not quite the Holocaust-themed masterpiece it wishes to be. But it’s always starkly compelling as a reminder of why war survival stories are essential to our understanding of innocence and beastliness.
Kosiński’s 1965 book was a litmus test of sorts, first for the unvarnished brutality within its pages. Later it was discovered...
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to the kind of emotional reactions that can cement a troubling work’s need-to-see reputation, this black-and-white, nearly three-hour saga of a boy navigating the cruelties and caprices of ravaged rural Eastern Europe is not the wallowing miserablist parade you might fear, yet not quite the Holocaust-themed masterpiece it wishes to be. But it’s always starkly compelling as a reminder of why war survival stories are essential to our understanding of innocence and beastliness.
Kosiński’s 1965 book was a litmus test of sorts, first for the unvarnished brutality within its pages. Later it was discovered...
- 9/7/2019
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.