Andrzej Zulawski

mini-retro this weekend at the Film Comment series in NYC

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-andrzej-zulawski-1940-2016

http://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/film-comment-selects/#films

looking over assorted opinions including Milton posts, i think if i have to pick only one of Third Part Of The Night, The Devil & On The Silver Globe this weekend it'll be The Devil.

Kino Lorber announced a summer release of Cosmosthe other day.

Definitely the Devil first. Silver Globe is an endurance test, but really something unique. If it'd been finished you can only imagine.

I've seen the usual ones (possession, Devil, Third Part and Silver Globe), though I think I only have Third Part and possession on DVD. Might see if I can make anyone watch them with me over the next few days.

“To please the majority is the requirement of the Planet Cinema,” he once said, responding to criticisms of “Possession.” “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t make a concession to viewers, these victims of life, who think that a film is made only for their enjoyment, and who know nothing about their own existence.”

<3

^ could be kiiiind of an asshole, huh

it's been a rough few months on the obit page for beloved European filmmakers i'm not crazy about.

It's cool. There's enough of us who give a shit.

oh i give a shit, just not going Full Jesus on him.

Anyone who goes "Full Jesus" on anyone needs to get out more. No problem admiring someone for their life's work, though, whether they're alive or dead. Sorry - a few drinks tonight so not coherent but I don't see the need to constantly reiterate you don't like/"get"/care about something or someone. Say it once and we get it. Then move on to something you *do* enjoy.

even Spielberg? who is among Hillary Clinton's alltime top 10 donors btw. ;)

you have to wonder what in the world Zulawski & Marceau's relationship was like

I somehow missed that they had been a couple until the NYT obit, and that he wrote 4 books about her after their breakup. Guess he and Arthur Miller are having a few cold ones right now.

was in the men's room line behind composer Andrzej Korzynski today. (didn't know he had worked with Wajda as well)

Good overview (I've not seen a film of his for the reason of lameness) - his last view has an UK distrib. http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/andrzej-zulawski-1940-2016?utm_content=buffer7a97a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterbfi&utm_campaign=buffer

there's a screening of possession tonight a 15 minute walk from my place some friends organized... but there's also a freezing rainstorm going on outside. hmmm

i ended up going, and enjoyed it very much, particularly the first half. the heinrich scenes crack me up. can someone explain the ending to me though? did at the ppl the job he quits in the first scene implant the devil in his wife so that she could feed that flesh monster and clone him? what's up with the pink socks guy?

His last is about to open in NY, and i suspect my personal reaction would fall closer to "utterly exhausting."

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/cosmos

weird movie but there's a lightness in the performances and general approach that kept it from being exhausting.

he was really pushing it with formlessness / plotlessness this time around, and I just didn't like the pretensions of most of the main male characters. unlike so many of his other films, all the screaming felt like acting. a beautiful eye for the portuguese scenery, and some strange unraveling saved for the last 10 minutes; the editing & sound mixing is enjoyably wrong, and victoria guerra definitely fits as the lead actress in a zulawski film; wish the film was more about her than genet's character.

maybe some of my criticism was self-consciousness over the idea that this will be many people's second zulawski film, but in the q&a with his son iggy afterwards it was clear there was a community of deep fans in the audience. it feels like he was just getting started again, but it comes to us as a summary.

Getting a Region 2 BluRay release later this year:

http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=854

A screening of 'On the Silver Globe' tomorrow. Looks intriguing:

https://www.ica.art/whats-on/kinoteka-and-ica-present-silver-globe-qa

I'm 5 films in and Possession is still the place to start, but On The Silver Globe would be mentioned in the same breath as Sweet Movie, Stalker & Holy Mountain if it's budget hadn't been sabotaged

If you're around Milton what version of this did you see?

Sorry just went through this thread and you went through a couple of versions.

You should def go, xyzzzz

Yeah, looks great.

Such a bizarre experience with the narration of the un-made script.

Less makavejev, more Game of Thrones (ok I have not seen more than 5 secs of this) though. Some amazing, manic stuff here.

Retro in Deptford:

http://deptfordcinema.org/new-events/?view=list&category=Andrzej%20Zulawski

His film of Boris Godounov is on mubi right now. is it worth watching?

It's remarkable from what I can remember. Watch!

It's not great but it's Godounov.

(Sorry. Sorry about that.)

lol

But the pun is still correct, it's a good opera, and he doesn't fuck it up. Definitely worth watching.

After seeing Possession in maybe 2006 or 2007 I tried to track down everything and I wasn't enthused by most of them and gave up. Possession, Cosmos, Devil and On The Silver Globe were the ones I liked more. But I just watched Boris Godounov and I'm really impressed, the bluray looks amazing, like it was filmed yesterday.

Fingers crossed for La Femme Publique

Keep thinking of that old drunk guy singing in the woods, he sounded so good

I've seen L’amour braque and Cosmos, and I doubt that 60 consecutive seconds went by in either movie without me getting irritated or fed up. I'm a fan of Godard's 80s and 90s work, but these felt like someone trying to emulate them at a triple speed pace, with everyone overacting gratuitously. I'll admit he seems to have perfect control over what he's trying to do; so far, I've just hated what he's trying to do.
Possession was in the All-Time Film poll, so I mean to see that, but my hopes aren't high. Is there a worthy "Zulawski for people who don't like Zulawski"?

If frantic pace & gratuitous overacting irk you then Possession is probably not going to be the one to change your mind.

I enjoy it as over-the-top grand guignol popcorn spectacle, like Fury Road but with humans instead of cars (I think I induced some eyerolls by calling it "dumb fun" on the all time poll thread), but I find it impossible to take seriously. Various factors seem to have caused it to become the consensus Zulawski, but if youve put your time in with Braque and Cosmos idk if Possession will change your mind.

with everyone overacting gratuitously

haha hahahaaahaha

I haven’t seen those two but I think Possession might work for you, it’s definitely got a pretty solid core inside all the chaos. I felt like a novice for my inability to get through On the Silver Globe, but Christ, those scenes of people incoherently ranting on a beach seemed to last forever.

with everyone overacting gratuitously

haha hahahaaahaha

I guess it's not gratuitous if you regard it as the point of his work...?

...and I guess I mean overacting in comparison to the more-or-less deadpan acting in something like Detective.

Fingers crossed for La Femme Publique

La Femme Publique is a highlight of his filmography IMO- shot by Sacha Vierny (Resnais, Greenaway et al), absolutely gorgeous and works phenomenally well with the kind of dynamic camera movement and blocking Zulawski favors

Wonder why after Possession's growing popularity and solidified canon position, it hasn't made his films much easier to find

I'm not sure how the rights are worked out, honestly? IDK if the recurrent interest in his work started with screening series or restorations (I forget who did the previous Possession repertory screenings 10~ish years ago that were my gateway in), but the home video releases have primarily been through Mondo Vision, which is a tiny, uncommunicative company that works at an absolutely glacial pace, to the extent that nobody's really sure if their "Polish Trilogy" release (Third Part of the Night, The Devil and on the Silver Globe) is even still happening. A lot of that work has been Daniel Bird's passion project and involved a lot of cooperation from Zulawski, so his death certainly set them back, but we haven't really heard a peep since the release of La Note Bleue and since then other companies have started putting out US blu-rays of titles that were SD only from Mondo Vision (L'Amour Braque from Kino, L'Important C'est D'aimer from Film Movement).

Yeah, I think Possession is a far easier commercial proposition than the rest of Zulawski's films - two name stars, tentacle monsters, reputation as a video nasty in the UK. The excellent Second Run released Third Part of the Night on region 2 DVD, but they haven't rushed to bring out a blu-ray upgrade, and they've never released any other Zulawski films. Arrow, who have relatively deep pockets as far as these things go, did bring out Cosmos on blu-ray, but again they've not released anything else by Zulawski.