Never forget

two dialoques

- Dad, do you remember how old the universe is?

- 7 milliard years.

- Twice that. 13 milliard, 700 million.

- That much?

- Yes.

- Than it’s better to stay home.

- I agree.

 ----------------------

- Son?

- Yes, Dad?

- Do you realize how good it is that there is life?

- I do, Dad.

When quality destroys

She’s Funny That Way, 

directed by Peter Bodanovich

It would be too easy to utter smart ass remarks about a movie that doesn’t work.  I try to stay away from such comments. However at times in a lame flick fascinating things happen.

I admit, I watched this movie while distracted. Had to take a few calls and return a few text messages so I was out of the cinema hall a few times. Every time I was back in front of the screen the movie felt weird. I though I just wasn’t focused enough since it was the Maestro Bogdanovich directing.

As the film progressed the excuses for my subjective “not getting it” were getting weaker and weaker, but I was telling myself “come on, this is just a light, screwball New York comedy, relax and enjoy. After all you are a big fan of mistaken identities plots and that is sort of that”.

Then at the end of the film came a few black and white shots from an old movie. It was supposed to justify and reveal the origin of a running gag.

From the first second of seeing this quote I felt awakened, energized and intrigued. The framing, the lighting the lenses, the composition, the intensity of the actors were right on. (In the Bogdanovich film a few actors were also great.)

The black and white quote was like an explosion of quality on screen. It produced a wave that went backward making it painfully clear that everything prior was lame. At home I researched the quote: it came from a flick by Earnst Lubitsch!

The only question is how could such a learned film scholar and a brilliant director in the past allowed for this self defeating blow proofing his lack of form. The “Squirrels to the nuts” (the earlier title of the film) would have been just a passable “shall we switch the channel, ah, let’s wait maybe it will get better” movie. Instead by the contrast with the quote it turned out into a disappointment that rubs its faults into its wounds.

Sometimes putting a truly great element into the work (quote or no quote) can seriously undermine it as a whole. Almost like a twisted “kill your darlings” application.

On many levels, it is a humbling and cautionary case.

Karski

FDR in "Karski and the lords of humanity" 

by Slawomir Grunberg

This documentary is about a Polish WWII hero, Jan Karski, who after being sneaked into a ghetto and a concentration camp, personally informed Franklin Delano Roosevelt about Holocaust. On the screen, when talking to Karski, FDR is presented as a pompous, grandiose figure, who with the exception of a few empty words, didn’t do much to stop the catastrophe in Europe.

The idleness of FDR, and inertia of the allies, who did not want to bomb Germany specifically to stop or at least to lessen Holocaust haunted Karski to the end of his days. He was tormented by the self imposed guilt that somehow he failed to convince the Wester powers, the Lords of Humanity. Seeing Karski trying to deal with this burden is heartbreaking. It is so because he did more than his share in opposing evil, yet those informed by him didn’t act on this knowledge.

The film ends with Karski urging everybody not to be idle when witnessing or being told about bad things, no matter how small they are.

The premiere

The premiere screening of "The View from a Cathedral".  

The event was opened by the Vice-President of Warsaw University, Prof. Alojzy Nowak, who said that during his frequent travels (he is responsible for the international cooperation) the most frequent question he hears is ...... "did you know prof. Siemek?" 

Hearing him and others talk about the hero of "The View..." made me realize how privileged I was to be able to work on this project. 

Thank you all for making it possible.  

Press release for "The View..."

"View from the Cathedral,” directed by Pawel Kuczynski, is a 90-minute documentary about MAREK J. SIEMEK (1942-2011), an esteemed professor of Warsaw University, a world class specialist on classical German philosophy, a recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn - the first post war German "honoris causa" title given to a Polish philosopher. Siemek was also a charismatic personality whose legendary Warsaw seminars shaped a generation.

The film is based on recreations (Siemek is played by Stanislaw Elsner-Zaluski), including the hero’s interactions with Hegel, Schiller, Fichte and Marx, interviews and archival materials. A central place among those who talk about Marek J. Siemek belongs to his beloved master, prof. Bronislaw Baczko, whose absence in Poland after the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 tormented Siemek with pain and guilt.

In addition to portraying Siemek the philosopher, the film attempts to explore an ideological and psychological dramatic split common among those Polish intellectuals who succumbed to the allure of Marxism. It is also a story about the difficult and almost always lost duels that ideas wage against reality.

The title refers to the two major themes of the film. “The View” represents the philosophy of an image as developed by Johann Gotlieb Fichte (“our consciousness consists of images”), “the cathedral," aside from an ethical metaphor, relates to the university departments divided into "chairs" (from latin "cathedra" meaning a seat with a back support).   This etymology becomes clearer in the world of polish academia where the university departmental structure (dismantled as part of the post-1968 repressions) was divided into “cathedrals"("katedra" in Polish.)   Marek J. Siemek belonged to a “cathedral” run by two intellectual giants, Bronislaw Baczko and Leszek Kolakowski, both of whom were later forced to emigrate. Some believe that Siemek’s failed attempts to recreate the tradition of his “cathedral” contributed to his stroke and premature death.

The first ever cast and crew screening of the film is scheduled for May 23rd, at 6:30 PM in the main auditorium of the “Old Library” building at Warsaw University. A reception will follow. Invitations through pawel@directing.com

More info at www.directing.com and deafearsmadness.blogspot.com

Press release for "The View...." (in Polish)

poster by Katarzyna Milkiewicz

(This is the Polish version of a press release, 

the English version will follow in the next post)

23 Maja, 2015 Uniwersytet Warszawski

Premiera pełnometrażowego dokumentalnego filmu pt. WIDOK Z KATEDRY, reż. Paweł Kuczyński.

Bohaterem tej pełnometrażowej, częściowo fabularyzowanej opowieści o tragicznym ideowym i ludzkim rozdarciu polskiego intelektualisty jest MAREK J. SIEMEK (1942-2011), Prof. ZW UW wybitny znawca klasycznej filozofii niemieckiej. Wyróżniony doktoratem honoris causa Uniwersytetu w Bonn. Wykładowca, którego charyzmatyczna osobowość i kultowe seminaria na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim uformowały nieomalże pokolenie, nie tylko filozofów.

W roli prof. Siemka występuje Stanisław Elsner-Załuski. W filmie wypowiadają się uczniowie, koledzy i przyjaciele Profesora. Szczególne miejsce zajmuje ukochany mistrz Siemka, prof. Bronisław Baczko, którego nieobecność w Polsce po 1968 roku spowodowała u Siemka zmagania ze “smugą cienia”. “Widok z Katedry” poprzez jednostkowego bohatera, częściowo opowiada również o tych, którzy ulegli marksizmowi, oraz o trudnych i zwykle przegrywanych potyczkach idei z rzeczywistością. 

 
Tytuł filmu nawiązuje do dwóch wątków: “widok” reprezentuje filozofię obrazu wg. Fichtego (“nasza świadomość składa się z obrazów”), “katedra” odnosi się do do rozwiązanej w ramach represji po marcu 68 struktury uniwersyteckiej, w której Siemek pracował w katedrze prowadzonej przez Bronisława Baczko i Leszka Kołakowskiego. Zdaniem niektórych, Siemkowe nieudane próby odwołania się do tej tradycji znacząco przyczyniły się do udaru i przedwczesnej śmierci.

Pokaz filmu odbędzie się o godz. 18:30 w Audytorium Starej Bilblioteki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28). Po projekcji spotkanie z ekipą i lampka wina. Zaproszenia poprzez pawel@directing.com