CoMo No.1: Poland (May, 2022)

[sally]

władysław hasior - dżuma (1963)



dedicated thread to log/discuss everyone's CoMo watches - didn't want to swamp jiri's more expansive threads which might be better for rogue out-of-season watches anyway.


you don't even have to watch movies to participate - any commentary, fave directors, recommendations, curses, delirium etc welcome!


but if you do watch something and mark it #CoMoPoland anywhere on the site I'll collect them all at the end of the month and make a letterboxd list of our journey if anyone thinks that's worthwhile?


notable directors:


documentary:
kazimierz karabasz
marcel łoziński
pawel łoziński
wojciech wiszniewski
andrzej brzozowski
jan łomnicki
maciej drygas
irena kamieńska
władysław ślesicki
danuta halladin
jacek bławut
maria zmarz-koczanowicz
andrzej titkow
krystyna gryczełowska
bogdan dziworski
marcin koszałka

animation:
jan lenica
piotr dumała
jerzy kucia
witold giersz
julian józef antonisz
zbigniew rybczyński
piotr kamler
hieronim neumann
kazimierz urbański
jerzy zitzman
bronisław zeman
ryszard czekała
daniel szczechura

features:
andrzej wajda
krzysztof kieślowski
roman polański
jerzy skolimowski
walerian borowczyk
aleksander ford
krzysztof zanussi
agnieszka holland
andrzej żuławski
jerzy kawalerowicz
wojciech jerzy has
andrzej munk
kazimierz kutz
janusz majewski
lech majewski
grzegorz królikiewicz
stanisław różewicz
witold leszczyński
andrzej kondratiuk
tadeusz konwicki
piotr szulkin
jerzy hoffman
stanisław lenartowicz
tadeusz chmielewski
wojciech marczewski
henryk szaro
edward żebrowski
barbara sass
filip bajon
dorota kędzierzawska
janusz kondratiuk
janusz morgenstern
ryszard bugajski
marek piwowski
marek piestrak
andrzej jakimowski
małgorzata szumowska
jan jakub kolski
juliusz gardan
jerzy stefan stawiński
janusz nasfeter
jan rybkowski
andrzej barański
krzysztof krauze
jerzy gruza
henryk kluba
robert gliński
marek koterski
jerzy stuhr
sylwester chęciński
stanisław bareja
juliusz machulski
wojciech smarzowski
ryszard bolesławski

[sally]

pawel i wawel - krzysztof kaczmarek (2014) #CoMoPoland

guess where i am!!!!

Pawel and Wawel gathers unique images and sounds from a journey through Iceland that position themselves between documentary gesture and performative strategy. The starting point and anchor of this trans-genre diary film, road movie, documentary film project, is the film festival initiated by Krzystof Kaczmarek “What`s the difference between Pawel and Wawel,” which more or less unsuccessfully tours the island with Polish classics.

i only really watched this as a perfect transition film from 1946 poll, not expecting much from contemporary polish stuff (anyone?) but i absolutely loved this - absurdist doc-diary touring iceland attempting to show polish classic films to the mad inhabitants (spoiler: they don't give a shit)

great surprise start to CoMo

[sally]

help! the movies are sending me messages!

i've stewed in my inclinations overnight and it turns out i'm more cooked on poland - so sorry 1921, but i'm mostly gonna be here watching the unflashy cinema-of-moral-concern offspring of kieślowski battle it out with the fever-dream children of Has and majewski

also i will mainly be getting my movies from here: https://35mm.online/en - films from all periods, including the canonical, with subs - so i don't think i'll be needing any help to find films for this CoMo...

although, thanks to R for:

cud nad wisłą / the miracle at the vistula - richard boleslawski (1921) #CoMoPoland

it may have been nicely shot but it's incomplete and despite the beginning notice that the narrative was still largely comprehensible, i still have no idea what the posh family was in it for, or even what the miracle was...





pociąg / train - andrzej brzozowski (1970) #CoMoPoland

sly kieślowski-school doc!






życiorys brunona s. wyciągnięty z szuflady - the life story of bruno s. retrieved from a drawer - alina skiba (1979)
#CoMoPoland

the schulz side!

[sally]

szczęśliwa trzynastka / lucky thirteen - marian czauski (1938) #CoMoPoland

WHY DOES THE PICKLE NEVER SING

The question that our title
has cast in deathless bronze
is painful yet so vital,
we owe it a response.

If our little green friend
won't sing, croon, lilt or chant,
it's clear that, Heaven forfend,
it most probably can't.

But what if evil stars
trample its throat? If divine
airs die in air-tight jars,
engulfed by teary brine?

Meanwhile, time flies, alas
first sunshine, then rains trickle,
and still we callously pass
by many a pained pickle.

- konstanty ildefons gałczyński, 1905-1953

[der kulterer]

this is my (initial) CoMo plan...

1/ first of all, i (ofc) investigated the CoMo & 1921 overlaps...

Miracle at the Vistula (Richard Boleslawski, 1921) ... certainly gonna watch
People with No Tomorrow (Aleksander Hertz, 1921) ... is within reach without subs (so not sure yet if give it a try)
Sir Twardowski (Wiktor Bieganski, 1921) ... didn't find it anywhere so far (anyone???)

didn't know about "sir twardowski" legend (pact with the devil) and got curious → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Twardowski
i see even my countryman Jaroslav Vrchlický wrote a "twardowski" poem (1885).
in case the 1921 version is out of reach, i might try some later shot.

2/
in the past, i got somewhat curious (and tagged a few films) about "polish black series"...

https://www.kinometer.com/?tag=9430
1. Are You Amongst Them? (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1954, 7m)
2. Look Out, Hooligans! (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1955, 12m)
3. Children Accuse (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1956, 10m)
4. Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Władysław Ślesicki, Kazimierz Karabasz, 1956, 10m)
5. Lublin's Old Town (Bohdan Kosiński, 1956, 5m)
6. Warsaw 1956 (Jerzy Bossak, 1956, 7m)
7. Little Town (Jerzy Ziarnik, 1956, 10m)
8. Rocky Soil (Wlodzimierz Borowik, 1956, 16m)
9. Break Up the Dance (Roman Polanski, 1957, 8m)
10. The People From an Empty Zone (Władysław Ślesicki, Kazimierz Karabasz, 1957, 15m)
11. Sopot 1957 (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1957, 16m)
12. Article Zero (Wlodzimierz Borowik, 1957, 16m)
13. Place of Residence (Maksymilian Wroclawski, 1957, 16m)
14. Jazz Talks (Andrzej Brzozowski, 1957, 13m)
15. From Powisle (Kazimierz Karabasz, 1958, 10m)
16. The City on Islands (Bohdan Kosiński, Jerzy Dmowski, 1958, 9m)
17. Among Men (Władysław Ślesicki, 1960, 14m)

so far, watched only four: Are You Amongst Them? (1954), Where the Devil Says Goodnight (1956), Article Zero (1957), Among Men (1960).
thus i intend to improve my 4/17 rate.

if anyone (familiar with "polish black series") thinks some entries are missing on the list (or some are wrongly included) i will gladly hear the reasons/discourse!

3/
also intend to watch a local "polski film" → https://letterboxd.com/film/polski-film/
in case it is not complete nonsense → "interpro" (interchange program).


4/
(based on the posts above) i certainly intend to watch "Pawel i Wawel" (Krzysztof Kaczmarek, 2014)!

5/
otherwise, these are all the Polish films i logged (since 2016)...
(i might rewatch something and highlight it)

1. The Incredibly Elastic Man (Karolina Specht, 2014, 5m)
2. Warsaw Suite (Tadeusz Makarczynski, 1946, 18m)
3. Do Poznania: Conversations in Poland (Gordon Ball, 1991, 17m)
4. Axiliad (Witold Leszczynski, 1986, 82m)
5. What do you see when you close your eyes and plug your ears (Julian Józef Antonisz, 1978, 5m)
6. perhaps/We (Solomon Nagler, 2003, 11m)
7. Spadiemski Pwalki (Solomon Nagler, 1999, 6m)
8. Majdanek - Europe's Cemetary (Aleksander Ford, 1945, 24m)
9. Tango (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1981, 8m)
10. The Cathedral (Tomasz Bagiński, 2002, 7m)
11. Krakatau (Mariusz Grzegorzek, 1986, 10m)
12. The Rolling Stones (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 2013, 7m)
13. Pandemic (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 2017, 8m)
14. Chance? (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 1977, 8m)
15. The Adventure of a Good Citizen (Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson, 1937, 8m)
16. Jalu Kurek - RC (Rhythmical Calculations) (Ignacy Szczepański, 1985, 4m)
17. Bloki (Konrad Królikowski, 2016, 57m)
18. Colored Rhythm (Bruce Checefsky, 2005, 3m)
19. Coal Mine (Natalia Brzozowska, 1947, 10m)
20. Rondo (Artur Kordas, 2012, 6m)
21. Marriageable Girls (Janusz Kondratiuk, 1972, 45m)
22. My City (Wojciech Has, 1950, 6m)
23. Here and There (Andrzej Pawłowski, 1957, 6m)
24. Article Zero (Wlodzimierz Borowik, 1957, 16m)
25. Erotique (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1960, 3m)
26. ABC (Janusz Połom, 1974, 2m)
27. My Film (Józef Robakowski, 1974, 3m)
28. Exercises for Two Hands (Józef Robakowski, 1976, 7m)
29. Matter (Kazimierz Urbański, 1963, 9m)
30. Walls (Piotr Dumala, 1988, 7m)
31. The Occurrence (Hieronim Neumann, 1988, 9m)
32. Norm (Lucja Mróz-Raynoch, 1988, 3m)
33. The Order Must Be (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 1988, 8m)
34. Perpetuum Mobile (Piotr Kamler, 2015, 9m)
35. Talking Heads (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1980, 16m)
36. Railway Station (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1980, 14m)
37. Hospital (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1977, 20m)
38. The Photograph (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1968, 32m)
39. Refrain (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1972, 11m)
40. The Office (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1966, 5m)
41. Shifting Sands (Władysław Ślesicki, 1969, 76m)
42. Among Men (Władysław Ślesicki, 1960, 14m)
43. Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Władysław Ślesicki, Kazimierz Karabasz, 1956, 10m)
44. Archaeology (Andrzej Brzozowski, 1968, 14m)
45. Market of Miracles (Jerzy Hoffman, 1966, 8m)
46. A Souvenir from Calvary (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1958, 14m)
47. Shell (Jerzy Kalina, 1975, 10m)
48. Soup (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1975, 8m)
49. Are You Amongst Them? (Jerzy Hoffman, Edward Skórzewski, 1954, 7m)
50. Dream (Hieronim Neumann, 1993, 5m)
51. Awaiting (Witold Giersz, 1962, 9m)
52. Playthings (Kazimierz Urbański, 1962, 7m)
53. Mammals (Roman Polanski, 1962, 10m)
54. Everything (Piotr Szulkin, 1972, 7m)
55. One, Two, Three (Piotr Szulkin, 1972, 7m)
56. Chick (Michał Socha, 2009, 5m)
57. Backyard (Sharon Lockhart, 2009, 31m)

6/
and these are all my Polish "want" bookmarks i acquired on KM (since 2016)...
(so, gonna try to seize something)

1. Square (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1972, 4m)
2. Black Pearl (Michał Waszyński, 1934, 75m)
3. Is Lucyna a Girl? (Juliusz Gardan, 1934, 80m)
4. Holiday (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1975, 10m)
5. Oh! I Can't Stop! (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1975, 10m)
6. New Book (Zbigniew Rybczynski, 1975, 10m)
7. Invasion (Stefan Schabenbeck, 1970, 8m)
8. The Interplanetary Tale (Julian Józef Antonisz, 1975, 8m)
9. Office Art Movie (Julian Józef Antonisz, 1975, 10m)
10. Everyday Life (Piotr Szulkin, 1975, 16m)
11. Front Colision (Marcel Lozinski, 1975, 10m)
12. Breakfast on the Grass (Stanisław Lenartowicz, 1975, 6m)
13. Maszyna Trurla (Jerzy Zitzman, 1975, 8m)
14. 5/4 (Hieronim Neumann, 1979, 8m)
15. Failure (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 1975, 11m)
16. The Rain (Piotr Milczarek, 2019, 5m)
17. Analysis of Emotions and Vexations (Wojciech Bąkowski, 2015, 13m)
18. Brain (Roland Rowinski, 1983, 19m)
19. Everyone Gets What He Doesn't need (Grzegorz Królikiewicz, 1966, 11m)
20. The Vowel (Krzysztof Kiwerski, 1982, 7m)
21. Passenger (Andrzej Munk, Witold Leszczynski, 1963, 62m)
22. Little Town (Jerzy Ziarnik, 1956, 10m)
23. IN NI (Others) (Bruce Checefsky, 2005, 21m)
24. A Heart of Love (Łukasz Ronduda, 2017, 78m)
25. 19,876 Steps In Auschwitz / Birkenau (Johanna Bernhardson, 2017, 6m)
26. 1-39-C (Olga Wroniewicz, 2004, 7m)
27. Oberhausen, Duisburg, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Hamburg, or a Non-Camera Coverage of a Journey to the Federal Republic of Germany (Julian Józef Antonisz, 1984, 10m)
28. Lublin's Old Town (Bohdan Kosiński, 1956, 5m)
29. Lodz Symphony (Peter Hutton, 1991, 20m)
30. Dry Standpipe (Wojciech Bąkowski, 2013, 12m)
31. Storm in Poland (Jerzy Bossak, Waclaw Kazmierczak, 1947, 13m)
32. The Portraitist (Ireneusz Dobrowolski, 2006, 52m)
33. Construction of the Day (Wojciech Bąkowski, 2013, 9m)
34. Working Women (Piotr Szulkin, 1978, 6m)
35. City of Ruins (Damian Nenow, 2010, 5m)
36. The Devil (Andrzej Żuławski, 1972, 119m)
37. Es kommt alles aus mir selbst (Walter Heynowski, 1990, 17m)
38. Summer (Wieslaw Bober, 1993, 6m)
39. On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Żuławski, 1988, 166m)
40. The Third Part of the Night (Andrzej Żuławski, 1971, 105m)
41. Structure (Pawel Lozinski, 1989, 6m)
42. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (Jessica Oreck, 2013, 73m)

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I'm really excited for this! I've always wanted to explore national cinemas I'm unfamiliar with in a semi-systematic way, and this is the perfect way to make that aspiration a reality.

Thought I'd share this iCM list, as it may prove useful for others: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/avai ... /melvelet/

I've got Pan Tadeusz (1928) lined up. I'll definitely double-dip with Cud nad Wisla (1921) as well.

[der kulterer]

Evelyn, if you have any preferred countries, don't forget to vote for them (every month)!

[sally]

Thought I'd share this iCM list, as it may prove useful for others: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/avai ... /melvelet/

1032 movies! not quite sure i'll fit them all in

[sally]

2/
in the past, i got somewhat curious (and tagged a few films) about "polish black series"...

the PWA put out a polska szkoła dokumentu series of dvds a few years (a decade) ago and pretty sure i bought them all, inc. the black series one but can now only find the munk, wiszniewski, karabasz and gryczełowska/kamieńska/halladin sets. and worse, this was before any of them were on letterboxd and apart from munk i've no idea what i've watched or not...that's nearly 14 hours of short films....total logging headache...i suppose now is the month to finally sort it all out!

[sally]

majewski in two directions!

i don't know why but i always got it into my head that majewski snr (janusz) followed the same sort of path as Has - starting off with social realist stuff to avoid the censors and then going demented later, but i've just had a double-majewski-bill of an early short and a later feature and if anything the earlier one is madder - guess he began in the same breath as the prancing polanski shorts...

lekcja martwego języka / lesson of a dead language (1979) #CoMoPoland

this one has the 'decaying end of empire embodied in a body' thing which usually annoys me, but here it's a bloke and there's a brief penis shot to compensate, so it's fine. otherwise one of those lush, dreamy tales of death that equally apply to 1979 poland.





rondo (1958) #CoMoPoland

sure, politics (& cinema, is chaplin there like he is in munk's 1960 bad luck?) but also FUN! (battle between diner and waiter) also witold leszczyński doing distinctive cinematography - director in his own right, he was DP for only 5 other films spread decades apart, with one, randomly, in denmark.

[Angel]

Regarding Sir Twardowski (1921), I have not seen it... but the 1936 expressionist version is a favorite of mine!

[der kulterer]

sir on roosterback!
obviously, a must-watch.
thx, Angel!

[der kulterer]

#CoMoPoland (rewatched)

MARKET OF MIRACLES (Jerzy Hoffman, 1966)

https://vimeo.com/127462398

[sally]

sir on roosterback!
obviously, a must-watch.
thx, Angel!

okay so this isn't on 35mm, um, so if you find it with subs & grab it, please share! (but no worries if you don't because i have enough)





cztery pory roku / the four seasons - andrzej kondratiuk (1985) #CoMoPoland

i hadn't realised how much i was missing polish stuff - at this rate i'm gonna get witkacy's insatiability down off its shelf, read it again and have a nervous breakdown. until then i'm staying calm with this gorgeous, gentle, domestic, indulgent little film. acted by director (posing as 'artist') director's wife, brother & parents, it's just some time over the year spent mucking around in their summer cabin in the polish countryside, whilst they deal with the father's imminent death. sweet minor bliss.

[der kulterer]

um, so

i already grabbed (soon in "interpro").

[der kulterer]

there!

[sally]

♥

[der kulterer]

#CoMoPoland
POLSKI FILM (Marek Najbrt, 2012)

a czech film called "polish film"...

[sally]

LOL! am wondering if you have to be czech or polish to fully appreciate the film tho...is there much wordplay? for that matter can you understand polish jiri? a polish person once described czech to me as sounding like polish with a brain injury....a lot of slurring....i guess like danish sounds to greennui (still chuckling at his total contempt)

[der kulterer]

i can vaguely understand Polish without ever "learning" Polish.
i can, in general, understand what has been said but to "fully" understand i would need to learn vocabulary (the "grammatical structure" is "naturally" comprehensible but some words are hard to guess).

to fully appreciate the jokes one needs to know some local trivia.
for example, the other roles those four actors played (they are mocking their own acting careers).
including (for example) that one of them truly recorded a silly voiceover of the car navigation (that you can hear in the film), etc., etc., etc.

the pivotal Czech-Polish wordplay (used in the film as well) comes from a Polish "szukać" (to search, to look for) which sounds to a Czech ear like "šukat" (to fuck).
thus whenever a Pole says he/she is "looking for something", a Czech hears he/she (a Pole) is "fucking something".

also, a detail that is missed in (subs) translation (above) is what a Pole calls "Czech film" (i.e. something confusing, without much sense) we (Czechs) call (literally) "Spanish village" (and not "it is all Greek to me").

anyway, this absurdist comedy is in "interpro" and i would be quite curious about its perception abroad.

[der kulterer]

i mean, the main joke of all the POLSKI FILM is that Czechs (knowing that Poles refer to something confusing by the phrase "it's a Czech film") made an epithet of this messy nonsense and gave it (ironically) the title "Polish film" (i hope it makes sense?!).

[der kulterer]

a polish person once described czech to me as sounding like polish with a brain injury....a lot of slurring

this perception of the other language (Czech vs. Polish) as a "retarded" (slurred/lisped/childish) version of your own mother tongue is mutual.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Going back to Square One, here's my CoMoIntRo for the month...

It looks like the only Polish movie that isn't Wajda, Chytilova, Polanski or otherwise high-canon ready that I've watched in the last 3-4 years was
Celuloza - Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1954

I think I can fit in @ 3 feature-length per week, or equivalent, and I have these on my drive, plus whatever else I glean from suggestions here:

Mocny czlowiek (Henryk Szaro, 1929)
czy jestes wsrod nich AKA are you among them - jerzy hoffman 1954
Gdy Spadaja Anioly (When Angels Fall) - 1959 - Roman Polanski
Night Train 1959
Witold Giersz (Oczekiwanie Awaiting 1962)
About Something Different (1963) - Věra Chytilová
Labirynt
RENAISSANCE (POL 1964) Walerian Borowczyk
Zrcadleni 1966
Ruchome Piaski 1969
La tecnica e il rito (Miklós Jancsó, 1972)
Take Five – Zbigniew Rybczynski (1972)
Camera Buff 1979
Constans 1980
Kronika wypadków milosnych (Andrzej Wajda, 1986)
Zdarzenie 1986
Three Colors: Blue
The Roe's Room 1997
Katyn 2007

[sally]

Is lencho making his own 'polish film' joke? chytilová?

[greennui]

Surprised at how few Polish favs I have, Night Train, Third Part of the Night, probably forgotten some.

[sally]

maybe it's cuz i read the holy trinity of gombrowicz, witkiewicz & schulz (& lem! & čáslav miłosz! ) before i ever went near a polish film and those three are all so mad it infected everything since so that i see the insanity in every plain and static angle...

it was one of them anyway that declared poland to be feminine, in that it had been so repeatedly invaded from all directions, so raped and raped and raped, that the trauma had embedded into the cultural dna as some kind of writhing abyssal ironic scream.

this is all nonsense of course. but i lap it up.

if i think of something you might like i'll shout!

[sally]

oh. my. god. these movies are taking the piss




samotność we dwoje / the loneliness of the couple - stanisław różewicz (1969) #CoMoPoland

it's not a great movie, apart from the way he holds shots a little differently than expected and cuts like you can't tell fantasies from not (and the sound is good) but some things are really on the nose to the point of crassness, and i've no idea why....in the end it's a pale bergman-esque tale of complacent priest suddenly suffering and....well, not really having that much of a crisis...

BUT at some point unappreciated wife goes full madame bovary off to the below polish city and gets seduced by a fascist male-slut whilst there. LOL. LOL.







also did a short

postkarten - stanisław różewicz (1979) #CoMoPoland

the horror of war comes as the angel of cholesterol death

[sally]

in a futile effort to avoid overloading this thread i'm gonna limit myself to one screenshot per film, unless it contains magpies or spanish villages.

ślimaki / the snails - grzegorz szczepaniak (2015) #CoMoPoland

mocking doc about two guys and their stupid business adventure starting a snail farm. would have been funny if it wasn't so mean.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Excited to explore some more.

Most of my experience with Poland is the firmly established Giants. But Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers is a definite favorite, and relatively underseen compared to his more canonized works.

I'd also like to throw a recommendation in for Kieslowski's Personnel. Which doesn't seem to fare well with a lot of Kieslowski fans. But as someone who finds The Double Life of Veronique suffocating and unintentionally silly, I think I prefer his pseudo-documentary work.I also spent my youth working backstage in theaters, so I guess there's an emotional connection there.

[sally]

i've updated the OP (first time i've ever typed that!) with the names of some (83) notable directors, split into features/documentary/animation - the three key sections of polish film - although some directors slip between definitions, esp the docs, some are straight talking heads and others, eg wiszniewski, are slightly more 'interpretive'...

let me know if i've missed anyone out!

aiming to see at least one film from each name, which is not as epic for me as it looks, although i do have odd gaps and am not so keen on the more contemporary stuff....

also was going to make a best of polish film list, but seeing as everyone has ahem such disparate tastes on here, there's probably little point. maybe we could make it like a game. watch someone's recommendation, get to rec one yourself?

i would rec marcel łoziński's doc anything can happen - it's the director's 6 year old son talking bollocks with old people on a park bench in warsaw, so bear in mind it might be too cute & non-aggressive for some people here

I'd also like to throw a recommendation in for Kieslowski's Personnel. Which doesn't seem to fare well with a lot of Kieslowski fans. But as someone who finds The Double Life of Veronique suffocating and unintentionally silly, I think I prefer his pseudo-documentary work.I also spent my youth working backstage in theaters, so I guess there's an emotional connection there.

oh gosh, good call! i dismissed kieślowski for years because i watched veronique first and hated it, but it was only when i think someone raved about personnel on surrealmoviez that i realised i could quite like his earlier stuff. still never gonna watch any of the colors tho