Past year's:

W NICH CALA NADZIEJA (THE LAST SPARK OF HOPE)

Recommended. Post-apocalyptic sci-fi shot in Silesia. Just one human protagonist: Ewa, superbly acted by Magdalena Wieczorek. The story's smartly written by Piotr Biedroń and the main twist is Robert Sheckley-like. Also, there's a robot, not AI as it's used nowadays. The finale's tongue-in-cheek too. A relatively simple story but gripping, especially from the twist onwards. Conversations refer you to a number of paradoxes of our contemporary reality. Decent, sci-fi-appropriate music and cinematography. Make-up is top-notch too. The final credits of this budget movie are not even long but slow and, apart from a very early brief mid-credit indicating someone might be out there trying to use the radio, nothing else happens. 

Past year's:

THE CANTERVILLE GHOST

Watchable. Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Toby Jones, Stephen Fry voice the original, nobodies dub the Polish version. At least the dialogues have received a top-notch translation by Bartek Fukiet. In spite of an ambitious music selection, "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" or "The Blue Danube" disappear, even "The Ride of the Valkyries" can be missed. The story is extended ridiculously. At least you get professional CGIs and some cultural tropes, e.g. someone's brother's name is Dorian or they fly in a car against a full moon backdrop. There's a post-credit.

EXTRANA FORMA DE VIDA (STRANGE WAY OF LIFE) AND INTERVIEW WITH PEDRO ALMODOVAR

Watchable. This 30-minute short opens with a fado song performed by Gaetano Veloso - a male singing in falsetto. The rest of the film is utterly gay. Overtalked.

The director, apart from giving a thorough explanation of this short, dwelled on westerns, noticing e.g. recent 3 ones made by women, but boasted of being the first (?!) to shoot a gay western. Has he not seen the Oscar-winning "Brokeback Mountain", for one? He perceives western as the American replacement for mythology so took great care to keep all its elements but tell his own story. Together with his earlier "The Human Voice", he's planning a triptych of shorts.

MOJE OZERNA (MY PLACE OZERNA)

Walked out. It drags. And it's depressing since both the woman who's emigrated to London and the granny in Ukraine feel useless and unsuccessful in life.

SKAD DOKAD (IN THE REARVIEW) ANOTHER Q&A

About 400 people were moved in the van, but they also organised a bigger bus, there are fewer evacuations now but they still go on. Lots of uncertainty accompanied them: are you on the right road? Protagonists have told about their experience in France, Maciek Hamela has been with the movie in the US and in Asia. Foreigners often don't get this neighbourliness. This aid spurt continues till now. In some cinemas viewers have organised fundraising. The film was first funded with their own means, then PISF (Polish Film Institute) joined in the production. 

RAPORT PILECKIEGO (THE PILECKI REPORT)

Watchable. Why have they made English subtitles if the plot isn't fully comprehensible unless you're proficient in Polish history? Bizarre cut seriously hinders understanding. The action moves to and fro in time and space, each having its own characters. I just couldn't make out those details. You do learn new facts about Auschwitz. But the rest is chaos. Evocatively shot at times, e.g when Mrs. Pilecka leaves the Security Office astounded or during his torture interrogation. The second half is hard-hitting, easier to understand in spite of continuing chaos in editing, and shows Pilecki's tragedy - his vital report from Auschwitz didn't bring any action thus his sacrifice failed to save lives.  

Reviewed from the distributor's screener, cinematic reception might differ. 

POWSTANIEC 1863 

Sebastian Fabijański plays the main role as Ksiądz Generał (priest general) Stanisław Brzóska. The biopic is scripted, directed and produced by Tadeusz Syka. When he was browsing historical pictures, he saw pictures with the priest from 2 years apart, in the later one his hands were shot through. When the war on Ukraine broke out he had to make the movie because Poles had had no aid at all, unlike Ukraine, so we had lost but we had won mentally. The movie was released on 12th January 2024, before the 160th anniversary of the uprising. The actors hadn't seen it before. Daniel Olbrychski hadn't been invited to Polish productions for a long time, he had played all over the world at the time. Ksawery Szlenkier in Tadeusz Syka's previous film played a priest who didn't take up arms so he was happy to reverse the role now. It's the first January Uprising movie in 30 years. Previous "Wierna rzeka" ("The Faithful River") was shot during the martial law. Olgierd Łukaszewicz (as Bishop Szymański) was cast as a link with the previous movie. No Russian uniforms could be found in all of Poland so they were sewn within 2 weeks. Tadeusz Syka has never gone to any film school but says there are many like him. The director commented on Sebastian Fabijański that with his hair shaved, in a vestment, he had resembled a priest "aż niektórzy na planie szli do niego do spowiedzi" ("so much that some people on set would go to a confession at his"). The production fulfilled the requirements of green filming: costumes were recycled, made over. 4200 Polish zlotys were received from Szkoła Podstawowa im. Stanisława Brzóski (a primary school bearing the priest's name) who had been baking and selling cakes for a week to fund the movie. A Ukrainian acted as the Russian major. The movie was promoted with a song based on Maria Konopnicka's poem. 

MAXXXINE

Recommended. I did some reading on Richard Ramirez before the movie - wrong approach, he's not even named in the flick. It''s a sequel to "X" but footage is shown so no need to have seen it earlier, but if you have, "MaXXXine" is more fun. I wish I could pause and analyse every little scene in the first act. There are plenty of Easter eggs. A Bette Davis quote opens the movie. Maxine puts out a cigarette on Theda Bara's star - the actress was a silent era sex symbol, she used to depict vamps - women who destroy men. A Wonder Woman cosplayer poses for pictures in the streets of Hollywood - the series was aired in 1975-1979. There's also a verbal reference to Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress, never in a movie, who became famous as "The Black Dahlia" after she was murdered and her naked body bisected. On the other hand, it's a fact Demi Moore and a few other actresses were in horrors at the early stage of the career. So was Kevin Bacon, who actually appears as the sleuth in "MaXXXine". The 80s star is underrated but a true gem. The movie's rich in context both externally and internally within the trilogy. The club scene hears "Welcome To The Pleasuredome": "Love your body even when it's old" in the lyrics is relevant to the story in "X". But the film plays also with current social changes, e.g. the issue of putting responsibility on the victim: "Maybe she should save herself. I did." - though this point is ambiguously depicted in the plot. But most of all it's a satire on Hollywood, where serious undertones mix with Hollywood-style fun: "Whatever it is in your life that's distracting you, squash it." - well, a serial killer is a bit of a distraction - and where everyone wants to be a movie star, even a police officer. With a consistent story. Smartly edited. There's a post-credit which confirms it's all about Tinseltown. 

THE WATCHERS

Watchable. A horror rooted in Irish folk tales. The human characters, especially Madeleine, are magnetic. The changelings are trite with their elongated, tree-like silhouettes and shrieks. Ishana Night Shyamalan's movie based on A. M. Shine's novel is truly original in terms of the story but insufficiently justified, especially the finale. The discovery should finish the film and leave you with that shock. 

LONGLEGS

Watchable. Much better than the trailer which indicated an ordinary horror. This one is more original and barely a horror, more of a supernatural crime thriller. Old tropes like a psychic, a doll, a satanic cult are combined in a brand new story. Atmospheric, even if on the slow side, it uses sound effects well which works in an Atmos-sound screening room at least. Nicolas Cage is amazing as Longlegs - one of his best performances, if not the best. The investigation is engaging. Towards the end, the agent's world goes upside down - a recent cinematographic way to show an upcoming twist of her position. 

WIECZOR KAWALERSKI

Watchable. The opening scene imitates the one from "Mayday". But you realise later the context is totally different. This supposed comedy isn't funny at all, blood-chilling rather at times. Well, the first 50 minutes are a bit incoherent in terms of plot, filled with silly conversations but feature beautifully shot lap dances. Then the action takes a criminal turn. So first you watch for the visuals, then for the suspense and twists of action. All the female actors, especially the three leads: Magdalena Perlińska, Kinga Jasik, Joanna Opozda are amazing, their male counterparts less so. Jan Wieczorkowski as Wolf ruins many scenes with his high-pitched, squeaky voice. And they're certainly no comedy actors. None of them. A good soundtrack but often played together with dialogues means you have to try to ignore either and many lines are barely audible. My little pet hate within the movie is that first you're told - correctly - that with a gun in your mouth you can only utter vowels. Later Wolf says that it's consonants. The whole film is engaging enough but not exactly fun.

WARSAW KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL - KOREANSKIE KINO LETNIE (KOREAN SUMMER CINEMA)

용의자 (THE SUSPECT) (2013)

Watchable. I was about 2 minutes late but the reason why I couldn't grasp the plot was rather action overload. It was only about 20 minutes in that they started explaining the story. But a huge number of characters from the start, with some more added later, makes is hard to  make out who is who and what's going on. Typically for Korean cinematography, there's some extreme brutality, as we see in the torture scene. The last half an hour is the best and offers the best out of quite a few humorous scenes in the movie where the agent escorting a prisoner informs the captured: "I'm going to buy some fags. Wait here."

아저씨 (THE MAN FROM NOWHERE) (2010)

Watchable. Similar to previous: the protagonist has lost his wife and daughter, the flick consists of action overload and some perverse brutality - no humour in this one, a few tear-jerking moments instead.

성난황소 (UNSTOPPABLE) (2018)

Watchable. Another brutal thriller, though here the wife is abducted, not killed, there's no child, nor is the protagonist an agent. This movie has a consistent storyline, while not 100% comprehensible to me, at least not overly complex. 이동석 (Ma Dong-seok) predictably brings some humour. But the one absolutely hilarious bit is the one during the end credits when you hear the TV news on the trawler which had been withheld by the Chinese. The remaining sequence is a wonderful finale.

A new weekend of Korean Summer Cinema is coming. 5-7 July will see spy movies - a genre in which Koreans excel so I'm really looking forward to it.