“An Eastern European Ridley Scott… the cultural commentary of Szulkin’s oeuvre is universalist… their future is our now.” – Ela Bittencourt
“The Polish ‘cinema of anxiety’ soars from this globe within the work of Piotr Szulkin… the movies thrive on imaginative eyesight and sociological absurdity.” – Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal
Film at Lincoln Center is happy to announce Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin, a retrospective celebrating one of Poland’s many filmmakers that are revolutionary September 6-8.
A manager, screenwriter, novelist, theatrical manager, and painter, Piotr Szulkin frequently encountered censorship from the Polish Communist regime regarding the belated ’70s and very early ’80s for their unabashedly governmental works. Szulkin’s profoundly imaginative movies can be looked at as existential stories, absurdist parables, or premonitions about contemporary society’s hostility additionally the evils of totalitarianism. Drawing from 20th-century philosophy and Polish medieval literary works through speculative fiction, noir, and grotesque allegories, Szulkin masterfully wielded the shoestring budgets afforded him to generate shockingly iconoclastic technology fiction movies. Called “the undiscovered Fritz Lang of 1980s Mitteleuropa” (Michal Oleszczyk, RogerEbert.com), Szulkin made movies that have been seldom seen outside of their indigenous Poland but which continue steadily to resonate with chilling truths about humankind, drawing eerily prescient parallels to the present global climate that is political.
One of several biggest retrospectives of their strive up to now, Sci-Fi Visionary: Piotr Szulkin provides an array of new electronic restorations and brought in movie images. The show showcases each of Szulkin’s features, including their audacious cult classic Golem , frequently considered a precursor to Blade Runner ; The War associated with the Worlds: Next Century, a reimagining associated with the H.G. Wells novel plus an indictment of mass media’s impact on civilians; O-Bi, O-Ba: the termination of Civilization , which follows the rest of the survivors of the nuclear apocalypse because they await a mythical Ark to truly save them from their serious situation; Szulkin’s exploration of female sexuality into the increasingly delirious and erotic Femina ; the dadaist Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes , which follows a prisoner aboard a penitentiary spaceship as he is delivered for a objective up to a authorities state hell earth; and Szulkin’s last movie, King Ubu , on the basis of the 19th-century Albert Jarry play, a brutal commentary on modern Poland into the aftermath associated with the Communism Szulkin criticized throughout their job. Furthermore, the retrospective will emphasize Szulkin’s quick movie work, such as the folklore-inspired morality play Dziewce z ciortem and also the documentary Working Women .
Presented in collaboration aided by the Polish Cultural Institute ny.
Arranged by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson.
Tickets carry on sale Thursday, August 15 and are also $15; $12 for pupils, seniors (62+), and people with disabilities; and ten dollars for movie at Lincoln Center people. Save because of the purchase of three seats or maybe more.
Acknowledgments: Polish Cultural Institute Nyc; Daniel Bird
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS All screenings occur during the Walter Reade Theater (165 western 65th Street) unless otherwise noted.
Femina Poland, 1991, 35mm, 84m Polish with English subtitles After her husband leaves for a prolonged company trip and her mom dies, a coolly detached, bourgeois housewife (Hanna Dunowska) embarks on an outre carnal odyssey looking for intimate satisfaction, leading her into increasingly deranged, sinister realms as memories from fever-dream seductions to her childhood mingle. Equal components coming-of-age nightmare, softcore satire, and surrealist cantata, Szulkin’s delirious erotic fantasia unfurls in a nonstop rush of indelibly uncanny images—from a free-floating apparition of a lusty Joseph Stalin to a set of shockingly randy puppets—as it savages faith, their state, additionally the concept of the family that is nuclear.
Preceded by: brand brand New electronic renovation Working Women / Kobiety pracujace Poland, 1978, 6m U.S. Premiere Stylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted framework https://mail-order-bride.net/asian-brides rate, this very very very early documentary miniature from Szulkin illustrates six sequences of solitary, repetitious work. Saturday, September 7, 4:30pm Sunday, September 8, 8:00pm
Ga, Ga: Glory to Heroes / Ga, Ga – Chwala bohaterom Poland, 1986, 35mm, 84m Polish with English subtitles Resistance is futile in Szulkin’s stunningly nihilistic dystopian satire. In the next where life on the planet happens to be therefore wonderful that only prisoners are utilized for the high-risk company of room research, poker-faced intergalactic inmate Scope (Daniel Olbrychski) is delivered on an apparently condemned objective to an uncharted earth. Upon their arrival, he discovers some sort of curiously like a dilapidated, postapocalyptic Earth, where he could be welcomed by the population as a “hero,” an ignominious honor, he quickly learns, that is included with a many fate that is barbaric. Using the film’s properly nonsensical name from the babble of their infant child, Szulkin provides a bleakly acerbic commentary in the absurdity of life in a authorities state. Friday, September 6, 4:30pm Saturday, September 7, 8:30pm
Brand New restoration that is digital Poland, 1980, 92m Polish with English subtitles in a few dystopian future, scientists try to produce a unique, pliable race of people. an apparently ordinary item regarding the work, the genetically engineered Pernat (Marek Walczewski) is susceptible to round-the-clock monitoring as he goes about their life amidst drab Soviet bloc architecture. Szulkin’s feature that is bold, styled in sepia tones and dramatic lighting, happens to be known as a precursor to Blade Runner , but its name additionally appears back again to a more ancient misconception of creation and morality.
Preceded by: brand brand New restoration that is digital Gal as well as the Fiend / Dziewce z ciortem Poland, 1976, 14m Polish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Szulkin stages a morality play about a sinful woman’s encounter utilizing the devil, set into the Polish ballad of the identical title and imbued with folkloric imagery. Friday, September 6, 6:30pm Saturday, September 7, 2:00pm
New digital renovation King Ubu / Ubu krol Poland, 2003, 90m Polish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere According to Alfred Jarry’s late 19th-century, proto-Dada political satire Ubu Roi , Szulkin’s final movie is definitely a crazy, carnivalesque commentary on post-Communist Poland by which drunken degenerate Ubu (Jan Peszek) seizes control of the monarchy in a supposedly “democratic” takeover (their signature policy: universal free alcohol) and then institute his or her own absurdist, tragicomic reign of terror. Upgrading Jarry’s iconoclastic eyesight with a brand new dosage of dark, post-Soviet cynicism, King Ubu is an incendiary summative statement from an musician whom devoted their career to lobbing grenades in the equipment of totalitarian corruption that is political. Sunday, September 8, 6:00pm
Brand brand New restoration that is digital, O-Ba: The End of Civilization / O-bi, O-ba – Koniec cywilizacji Poland, 1985, 88m Polish with English subtitles What stays of mankind post–nuclear apocalypse is restricted to a squalid underground bunker where survivors toil desperately to uphold the final vestiges of civilization. These are typically spurred on by their fervent belief in a fabled Ark that may deliver them from their residing hell—a misconception propagated by the powers that be, and distribute, in component, by the increasingly disillusioned smooth (Jerzy Stuhr) while he tries to push away total collapse. Employed in an expressionistically grimy, grey- and blue-toned palette, Szulkin crafts a shattering existential parable concerning the false claims of politics and faith that plays down like a Sisyphean journey into madness. Saturday, September 7, 6:30pm Sunday, September 8, 4:00pm
Brand New electronic restoration The War regarding the Worlds: Next Century / Wojna swiatow – nastepne stulecie Poland, 1981, 96m Polish with English subtitles focused on both H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, Szulkin’s followup to Golem begins with all the Christmastime takeover of Poland by a band of hyperintelligent, bloodthirsty martians (played by silver-painted dwarfs in puffer jackets) who enlist hapless tv newscaster Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi) while the sound of these 1984 propaganda machine that is-esque. However when Iron dares to set off message, he makes an enemy even more than the aliens: the state it self. Released in the same way Poland was being plunged into martial legislation and straight away banned, The War associated with Worlds: Next Century is just a disturbingly prescient allegory of energy, control, and media manipulation in a post-truth globe. Friday, September 6, 9:00pm Sunday, September 8, 2:00pm
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