Truth or Dare: the films of Andrzej Wajda

Lincoln Center Film Society

October 17 – November 13, 2008

Andrzej Wajda and „Polish Television Theater”

Anthology film archives

October 24-28, 2008

New York, October 7, 2008 – The Lincoln Center Film Society, Anthology Film Archives, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York join forces to present the work of one of the world’s master film directors, Andrzej Wajda, winner of the 2000 Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

Truth or Dare: The Films of Andrzej Wajda presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, will be far and away the most complete retrospective of Wajda’s work ever mounted in the United States – encompassing all his feature films and two documentaries in which the director comments on his own work and the history of Polish cinema. The retrospective, at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater from October 17 to November 13, is presented in association with the Polish National Film Archive and the Polish Film Institute in Warsaw.

Andrzej Wajda will introduce some of his films in person during the opening weekend of this historic overview at the Walter Reade Theater: on Friday, October 17, at 7:30 PM – The Promised Land; on Saturday, October 18, at 6:30 PM, together with actress Elzbieta Czyzewska – Everything for Sale; on Sunday, October 19 at 4:50 PM – Ashes and Diamonds; and at 7:30 PM – his most recent film – Katyn. Film notes follow on pages 1-2, and calendar of screenings on pages 4-6.

The concurrent series Andrzej Wajda and „Polish Television Theater”, presented by Anthology Film Archives and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, in association with Polish Television, offers six of Wajda’s masterpieces for Polish Television Theater. These works – many of them adaptations of Wajda’s earlier theatrical productions, and all among the most important contributions to the genre – are being shown in the U.S. for the first time, October 24 through 28 at Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue at 2nd Street. The TV adaptations, to be screened twice each, are on DVD and in Polish with English subtitles. Television Theater notes follow on pages2-3, and calendar of screenings on page 6.

ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND FILM

Andrzej Wajda has developed a unique language of images that not only could outwit the Communist censors, but in the course of a over half a century has proved that a national cinema can speak to outsiders. No one filmmaker has been so consistently and deeply engaged in capturing the history of his country – politically, socially and psychologically. For Poland, this master of cinema – and theater, as well – is a national treasure.

Film lovers honor him as one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of film, one whose artistry has repeatedly brought the world’s attention to European cinema. By striving to show both the loftiest heights and the darkest depths of the European soul, he has inspired all of us to re-examine the strength of our common humanity. Wajda belongs to Poland, but his films are part of the cultural treasure of all mankind.

– Steven Spielberg

THE FILM RETROSPECTIVE AT LINCOLN CENTER encompasses all of Wajda’s feature films, including his most recent, an Oscar nominee as best foreign language film – Katyn (2007). In this both monumental and deeply personal film, Wajda comes to terms with an event that became a profound and lasting trauma both for himself and for the nation, when his father and thousands of other Polish officers were murdered by the Soviet Army in the 1940 Katyn forest massacre – an event denied by the Soviets and the Allies for decades, so that under post-war Communist rule Poles were forbidden to speak openly about the atrocity. The powerful film Wajda finally made at age 80 is another landmark in an extraordinary career that began right after film school in Lodz in the early 1950s with his “war trilogy”, A Generation, Kanal, and Ashes and Diamonds, which immediately established Wajda as a major international artist and launched a filmography that constitutes a national cinema in the healthiest sense of the word, and one of the great legacies of world cinema.

Wajda explored a variety of themes and styles, inspired by the French New Wave in his Innocent Sorcerers (1960), with a jazz score by Krzysztof Komeda, and featuring Roman Polanski in one of the episodes; returning to post-war psychological trauma in a story about a Jewish boy, Samson (1961); tackling both historical epics like Ashes (1965) and personal works like Everything for Sale (1969), rumination on the tragic death of his favorite actor Zbigniew Cybulski.

The ‘70s were a fertile time for Wajda‘s artistic activity. He made over ten films, many acclaimed as masterpieces: Landscape After Battle (1970), The Promised Land (1975, nominated for an Academy Award), adaptations of literary classics like The Birch Wood (1970), The Wedding (1973), The Maids of Wilko (1979), an incisive contemporary study of moral ambiguity Rough Treatment (1978, aka Without Anesthesia), and finally, the “Solidarity diptych”: Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981), with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa appearing as himself in the latter film, which won the Golden Palm in Cannes. In 1983 he directed Danton, with Geard Depardieu in the title role, a film set in 1794 during the Reign of Terror, in which Wajda shows how easily revolution can begin to “eat its own children” (César for Best Director, BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film, London Critics Circle Director of the Year Award).

After the Communist regime’s negotiated collapse in 1989 (which brought Wajda, a long-time supporter of Solidarity, one term in the newly constituted Senate), Wajda continued to explore moral, political, and historical issues, but was now able to address some of them more directly than before, like the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the final days of war in The Ring with a Crowned Eagle (1993), and the Holocaust, in his 1990 masterpiece Korczak, and in Holy Week (1996). Before undertaking Katyn, Wajda realized two adaptations of Polish classics: the 1999 Oscar-nominated Pan Tadeusz and in 2002 the delightfully and uncharacteristically comic Revenge, starring Roman Polanski. This past August Andrzej Wajda started shooting his next film, based on a novel by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Sweet Flag.

In addition to the Honorary Oscar in 2000, Wajda has been honored throughout the world for his achievements in film, including the Career Golden Lion in Venice (1998), and Golden Bear in Berlin (2006). He used his 1987 Kyoto Prize, the “Japanese Oscar, to found the Center of Japanese Art and Technology “Manggha” in Krakow in 1994. He has launched a new film school to nurture emerging talent (www.wajdaschool.pl).

“The Wajda Question”, an article by Adam Michnik on the director, is featured in the 35th Anniversary Issue of the literary journal Salmagundi, Fall 2000 – Winter 2001 (Number 128-129), pages 135-179.

ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND THEATER

Remarkably, Andrzej Wajda is also one of the great theater directors in his country, with 36 years of directing classic and contemporary plays at Krakow’s Stary Teatr (Old Theater), and with productions throughout Europe and beyond, including residencies at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven. He had already in the 1950s started working in theatre, where he staged many works which he also adapted for film, like The Danton Affair, or Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed and Crime and Punishment.

ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND “POLISH TELEVISION THEATER” AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES affords a glimpse into the filmmaker’s mastery of theater direction. Unique on the world scene, the durable series Polish Television Theater (Teatr Telewizji), has attracted the crème de la crème of artists from both theater and film. This venerable institution, operating under the auspices of Polish state public television, maintains the structure of a repertory theater – with one important difference being the undreamt-of size of its audience: a million viewers at each performance. It has been producing and broadcasting theatrical performances since 1953 – more than 4,000 to date. The six selections from Wajda’s TV theater productions, which constitute an aspect of his career that is nearly unknown abroad, are being shown in the US for the first time.

The six performances selected here bring together some of Poland’s most celebrated actors at the peak of their careers, and often in legendary roles, and span half a century and reveal the breadth of Wajda’s interests. His adaptations from the classics include: Shakespeare’s HAMLET (1991), which explores the boundaries between theatricality and reality (the audience is seated as if in a dressing room), with Wajda’s approach absolutely unique at that time, especially in his casting of Teresa Budzisz–Krzyzanowska in the title role whose unforgettable performance as the first actress in Polish theater to play Hamlet soon became legendary; by contrast, a more classical adaptation of MACBETH (1969), which gathered together some of the most prominent Polish actors at the apogee of their careers; and Dostoyevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1987), a masterpiece performance in which Jerzy Radziwillowicz and Jerzy Stuhr (known to American audiences for his roles in films by Kieslowski), provide profound insight into the notion of guilt and acceptance. Wajda delivers a polemic on Polish national myths both in Iwaszkiewicz’s JUNE NIGHT (2001), which explores the difficulty of choosing between the demands of duty and those of the heart at a time when national myths of sacrifice and devotion to the nation dominated women’s lives, and in Kaden-Bandrowski’s BIGDA’S COMING! (1999), one of Wajda’s most celebrated TV-theater productions, which describes the mechanisms of power in an inter-war Poland that had just regained its independence, but is ultimately about any popular resentment of power and privilege. In Brandys’s INTERVIEW WITH BALLMEYER (1962), Wajda’s analysis of the evil of war, an American journalist interviews a Nazi General accused of a massacre of the entire population of a Greek island.

The goal of all these dramatizations, as writer and critic Maciej Karpinski observes, is to awaken in the viewer the need to reflect on both the present and the past, the world and one’s own country, universality and individual existence.

Following the New York program, the films of Andrzej Wajda will tour the United States and Canada. For booking information, please call the Polish Cultural Institute at 212.239.7300.

A calendar of screenings follows. For complete information, including film descriptions and a Wajda biography, visit www.PolishCulture-NYC.org

To request an image or further information or schedule an interview with Andrzej Wajda, contact: Sheila Skaff, tel. 212.239.7300 ext. 3005, [email protected]. Gabriele Caroti, [email protected], or Stephanie Gray, [email protected].

LISTINGS:

WHAT:             Truth or Dare: The Films of Andrzej Wajda

WHEN:              October 17 – November 13, 2008. Calendar of screenings follows.

WHERE:            Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023

DIRECTIONS:    by subway: 1 to 66th Street-Lincoln Center Station. By bus: M5, M7, M10, M11, M66 and M104 all stop near Lincoln Center.

TICKETS:          $11, $8 seniors, $7 Film Society members, students & children. Automated schedule line 212.875.5600; Box Office 212.875.5601; online at www.filmlinc.com ($1.25 service charge per ticket ordered online). Series Pass: $40 public/$30 Film Society members. Admits 1 person to 5 titles in the series. Available only at the box office (cash only transactions).

MORE INFORMATION: www.PolishCulture-NYC.org, www.filmlinc.com

WHAT:             Andrzej Wajda and “Polish Television Theater”

WHEN:              October 24 – 28, 2008. Calendar of screenings follows.

WHERE:            Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue at 2nd Street, New York, NY 10003

DIRECTIONS:    by subway: F, V to 2nd Ave-Lower East Side Station, 6 to Bleecker Street Station‎

TICKETS:          $8, $6 students, seniors & children, $5 AFA Members, tel. 212.505.5181

MORE INFORMATION: www.PolishCulture-NYC.org, www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

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CALENDAR OF SCREENINGS

/Short film descriptions: www.PolishCulture-NYC.org, www.filmlinc.com, www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/

TRUTH OR DARE: THE FILMS OF ANDRZEJ WAJDA, FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER

Friday, October 17

1:00 PM            A Generation / Pokolenie (Poland, 1955) 83 min.

2:45 PM            Ashes and Diamonds / Popiol i diament (Poland, 1958) 102 min.

4:45 PM            The Maids of Wilko / Panny z Wilka (Poland/France, 1979) 121 min.

7:30 PM            The Promised Land / Ziemia obiecana (Poland, 1975) 168 min.

                        INTRODUCED BY ANDRZEJ WAJDA

Saturday, October 18

6:30 PM            Everything for Sale / Wszystko na sprzedaz (Poland, 1969) 97 min.

                        INTRODUCED BY ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND ELZBIETA CZYZEWSKA

9:00 PM            Landscape After Battle / Krajobraz po bitwie (Poland, 1970) 106 min.

Sunday, October 19

1:00 PM            A Generation / Pokolenie (Poland, 1955) 83 min.

2:50 PM            Kanal (Poland, 1957) 98 min.

4:50 PM            Ashes and Diamonds / Popiol i diament (Poland, 1958) 102 min.

                        INTRODUCED BY ANDRZEJ WAJDA

7:30 PM            Katyn (Poland, 2007) 121 min.

                        INTRODUCED BY ANDRZEJ WAJDA

Monday, October 20

2:00 PM            Kanal (Poland, 1957) 98 min.

8:00 PM            Lotna (Poland, 1959) 92 min.

Tuesday, October 21

2:00 PM            Lotna (Poland, 1959) 92 min.

4:00 PM            Innocent Sorcerers / Niewinni czarodzieje (Poland, 1960) 83 min.

Wednesday, October 22

2:00 PM            Samson (Poland, 1961) 117 min.

4:15 PM            Siberian Lady Macbeth / Powiatowa Lady Makbet, aka Sibirska Ledi Magbet (Yugoslavia/Poland, 1962) 98 min.

Thursday, October 23

6:30 PM            Innocent Sorcerers / Niewinni czarodzieje (Poland, 1960) 83 min.

8:15 PM            Samson (Poland, 1961) 117 min.

Friday. October 24

1:00 PM            Everything for Sale / Wszystko na sprzedaz (Poland, 1969) 97 min.

Saturday, October 25

6:30 PM            The Birch Wood / Brzezina (Poland, 1970) 95 min.

8:30 PM            Ashes / Popioly (Poland, 1965) 168 min.

Sunday, October 26

1:30 PM            The Birch Wood / Brzezina (Poland, 1970) 95 min.

3:30 PM            Hunting Flies / Polowanie na muchy (Poland, 1969) 108 min.

5:45 PM            Pilate and Others / Pilat i inni, aka Pilatus und andere (West Germany, 1972) 90 min.

7:40 PM            Siberian Lady Macbeth / Powiatowa Lady Makbet, aka Sibirska Ledi Magbet (Yugoslavia/Poland, 1962) 98 min.

9:40 PM            Landscape After Battle / Krajobraz po bitwie (Poland, 1970) 106 min.

Monday, October 27

1:00 PM            Ashes / Popioly (Poland, 1965) 168 min.

4:15 PM            Hunting Flies / Polowanie na muchy (Poland, 1969) 108 min.

6:30 PM            The Wedding / Wesele (Poland, 1973) 106 min.

8:45 PM            Roly Poly / Przekladaniec (Poland, 1968) 30 mins.

 

Tuesday, October 28

2:30 PM            Roly Poly / Przekladaniec (Poland, 1968) 30 mins.

4:45 PM            Pilate and Others / Pilat i inni, aka Pilatus und andere (West Germany, 1972) 90 min.

8:45 PM            The Shadow Line / Smuga cienia (Poland/UK, 1976) 103 min.

Wednesday, October 29

2:00 PM            The Shadow Line / Smuga cienia (Poland/UK, 1976) 103 min.

4:15 PM            The Wedding / Wesele (Poland, 1973) 106 min.

Friday, October 31

1:00 PM            The Conductor, aka Orchestra Conductor / Dyrygent (Poland, 1980) 102 min.

3:00 PM            Man of Marble / Czlowiek z marmuru (Poland, 1977) 165 min.

6:15 PM            The Maids of Wilko / Panny z Wilka (Poland/France, 1979) 121 min.

Saturday, November 1

7:00 PM            The Promised Land / Ziemia obiecana (Poland, 1975) 168 min.

Sunday, November 2

7:00 PM            Man of Marble / Czlowiek z marmuru (Poland, 1977) 165 min.

Monday, November 3

12:30 PM           Rough Treatment, aka Without Anesthesia / Bez znieczulenia (Poland/France, 1978) 117 min.

3:00 PM            Man of Iron / Czlowiek z zelaza (Poland, 1981) 156 min.

9:00 PM            Rough Treatment, aka Without Anesthesia / Bez znieczulenia (Poland/France, 1978) 117 min.

Tuesday, November 4

1:00 PM            The Promised Land / Ziemia obiecana (Poland, 1975) 168 min.

8:45 PM            The Conductor, aka Orchestra Conductor / Dyrygent (Poland, 1980) 102 min.

Wednesday, November 5

1:30 PM            The Possessed / Biesy, aka Les Possédés (France, 1988) 116 min.

3:45 PM            Chronicle of Love Affairs / Kronika wypadkow milosnych (Poland, 1986) 121 min.

6:15 PM            Danton (France/Poland/West Germany, 1983) 130 min.

8:45 PM            Man of Iron / Czlowiek z zelaza (Poland, 1981) 156 min.

Thursday, November 6

2:00 PM            A Love in Germany / Milosc w Niemczech, aka Eine Liebe in Deutschland (West Germany/France, 1983) 102 min.

4:00 PM            Danton (France/Poland/West Germany, 1983) 130 min.

6:30 PM            The Possessed / Biesy, aka Les Possédés (France, 1988) 116 min.

8:50 PM            Chronicle of Love Affairs / Kronika wypadkow milosnych (Poland, 1986) 121 min.

Friday, November 7

1:00 PM            Korczak (UK/Germany/Poland, 1990) 113 min.

6:45 PM            The Ring with a Crowned Eagle / Pierscionek z orlem w koronie (Poland, 1993) 110 min.

9:00 PM            Nastassya / Nastassja (Japan/Poland, 1994) 104 min.

Saturday, November 8

5:30 PM            A Love in Germany / Milosc w Niemczech, aka Eine Liebe in Deutschland (West Germany/France, 1983) 102 min.

7:45 PM            Pan Tadeusz (France/Poland, 1999) 157 min.

Sunday, November 9

1:30 PM            Korczak (UK/Germany/Poland, 1990) 113 min.

3:45 PM            Holy Week / Wielki tydzien (France/Germany/Poland, 1995) 102 min.

Monday, November 10

2:00 PM            The Ring with a Crowned Eagle / Pierscionek z orlem w koronie (Poland, 1993) 110 min.

4:15 PM            Nastassya / Nastassja (Japan/Poland, 1994) 104 min.

6:20 PM            Miss Nobody / Panna Nikt (Poland, 1996) 106 min.

8:30 PM            The Lesson of Polish Cinema / Lekcja polskiego kina (Poland, 2002) 71 min. screened with Credit and Debit–Andrzej Wajda Remembers / Kredyt i debet. Andrzej Wajda o sobie (Poland, 1999) 50 min.

Tuesday, November 11

1:00 PM            Pan Tadeusz (France/Poland, 1999) 157 min.

Wednesday, November 12

2:00 PM            Miss Nobody / Panna Nikt (Poland, 1996) 106 min.

4:15 PM            The Revenge / Zemsta (Poland, 2002) 100 min.

6:15 PM            Korczak (UK/Germany/Poland, 1990) 113 min.

8:30 PM            The Revenge / Zemsta (Poland, 2002) 100 min.

Thursday, November 13

1:00 PM            Holy Week / Wielki tydzien (France/Germany/Poland, 1995) 102 min.

9:00 PM            The Lesson of Polish Cinema / Lekcja polskiego kina (Poland, 2002) 71 min. screened with Credit and Debit–Andrzej Wajda Remembers / Kredyt i debet. Andrzej Wajda o sobie (Poland, 1999) 50 min.

ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND “POLISH TELEVISION THEATER”, ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

Friday, October 24

6:45 PM           CRIME AND PUNISHMENT / ZBRODNIA I KARA

                        1987, 127 min. Based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. With Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Jerzy Stuhr.

9:15 PM           MACBETH / MAKBET

                        1969, 106 min. Based on the play by William Shakespeare.

Saturday, October 25

4:30 PM           INTERVIEW WITH BALLMEYER / WYWIAD Z BALLMEYEREM

                        1962, 50 min. Based on the story by Kazimierz Brandys.

6:00 PM           HAMLET

                        1991, 154 min. Based on the play by William Shakespeare. With Teresa Budzisz–Krzyzanowska.

9:15 PM           BIGDA’S COMING! / BIGDA IDZIE!

                        1999, 95 min. Based on Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski’s novel, Mateusz Bigda.

Sunday, October 26

4:00 PM           CRIME AND PUNISHMENT / ZBRODNIA I KARA

                        1987, 127 min. Based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. With Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Jerzy Stuhr.

6:30 PM           MACBETH / MAKBET

                        1969, 106 min. Based on the play by William Shakespeare.

8:45 PM           JUNE NIGHT / NOC CZERWCOWA

                        2001, 69 min. Based on the novel by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.

Monday, October 27

7:30 PM           BIGDA’S COMING! / BIGDA IDZIE!

                        1999, 95 min. Based on Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski’s novel, Mateusz Bigda.

9:30 PM           INTERVIEW WITH BALLMEYER / WYWIAD Z BALLMEYEREM

                        1962, 50 min. Based on the story by Kazimierz Brandys.

Tuesday, October 28

6:30 PM           JUNE NIGHT / NOC CZERWCOWA

                        2001, 69 min. Based on the novel by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.

8:00 PM           HAMLET

                        1991, 154 min. Based on the play by William Shakespeare. With Teresa Budzisz–Krzyzanowska.

The POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE, established in New York in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and promoting cultural ties between the United States and Poland, both through American exposure to Poland‘s cultural achievements, and through exposure of Polish artists and scholars to American trends, institutions, and professional counterparts.

The Institute takes an active collaborative role in the organization, promotion, and actual production of a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, and the fine arts. Its events range in scope from the 160-seat Joe’s Pub to the 2,700-seat Avery Fisher Hall. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Art at St. Ann’s Warehouse (TR Warszawa’s recent production of Macbeth), La MaMa, E.T.C., Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, PEN World Voices Festival, and many more.

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER, America’s pre-eminent film presentation organization, was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience.

As an independent constituent of the world’s foremost performing arts center, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents a 363-day season that includes premieres of new films from an international roster of established and emerging directors; major retrospectives; in-depth symposia and high profile events. The Film Society is one of those rare institutions whose stature is matched by its popularity, each year welcoming an aggregate audience of more than 200,000 film aficionados, filmmakers and industry leaders of every nationality, age, economic and ethnic group. The organization has been a pioneer among film institutions and one of the film world’s most respected and influential arbiters of cinematic trends and discoveries. Over the last four decades there is scarcely a major director who has not been introduced to American audiences by the Film Society.

The Film Society is best known for two world-class international festivals – the New York Film Festival (the most famous and prestigious in the country), and New Directors/New Films (celebrating new cinematic artists). It runs a state-of-the-art year-round cinema, the Walter Reade Theater (capacity: 268), and publishes the country’s most respected cinematic journal, Film Comment. Each year the organization presents its annual Gala Tribute honoring legendary stars and industry leaders of our generation at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. At various times of the year the Film Society partners with Hollywood studios to present premieres and special live appearances.

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ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES:

Founded in 1970, Anthology’s mission is to exhibit, preserve, collect documentation about, and promote public and scholarly understanding of independent, classic, and avant-garde cinema. Anthology screens more than 900 film and video programs per year, publishes books and catalogs annually, and has preserved more than 700 films to date.