Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces Of Polish Cinema
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Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces Of Polish Cinema

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“We’re the first [country] beyond America that is screening this collection of films. So it’s really quite exciting,” says ACMI Film Programmer and cinephile, James Nolen. Initially, Martin Scorsese Presents had only been scheduled to tour America, but when it kicked off its journey at the Film Society of Lincoln Library in New York, in February, earlier this year, it quickly garnered ACMI’s attention. “We saw the tour [was] happening in the States and we thought: ‘This is a brilliant idea! It’s so exciting to see a lot of films that have not been available for such a long, long time. Let’s see if we can be part of this. So, we got in contact with Martin.”

 

Their endeavour was a success. Scorsese allowed ACMI to screen 13 of the 21 films part of the original programme. A programme curated by Scorsese and based off what he considered the most influential Polish cinema between 1957 and 1987. The 13 films shown will emulate Poland’s new fledging identity during this period through cinematic existentialism, philosophy, satire and superficially bombastic WWII reflections. “We have 13 different titles and the one that I have watched about three or four times now is Night Train,” confesses Nolen, stressing that he watched more of the less commonly known Polish films of the program because he felt that he “wanted to promote those”.

 

Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Mother Joan of the Angels, Faraon) and starring Lucyna Winnicka and Leon Niemvzyk, Night Train (1959)depicts the eccentric tale of Jerzy and Marta, two strangers who share a sleeping-compartment on an overnight train set for the Baltic coastline. Jerzy is on the run from something and Marta is avoiding her scorned ex-lover. “A lot of people liken it to a bit of a Hitchcock thriller,” he notes, which is a reasonable conclusion. Especially once the police enter the train in search of a murderer. “It’s sort of like that [a thriller],” extrapolates the Film Programmer contemplatively. “But it’s also a deeper film about Polish history. Being made in the late 1950s, [Poland was] still recovering from any years of war in their country, the second world war particularly – so there’s a lot of subtext in these films [about that], which may be a very non-Polish perspective unless you grew up during that period. But there’s a lot of wonderful things you do get: you get this wonderful, very personal story being told in a very beautiful way [between the characters], with extraordinary cinematography and exceptional acting in a brilliant script.”

 

Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament) is another example of fine Polish cinema. Adapted from Jerzy Andrzejewski’s novel of the same name, Ashes and Diamonds follows a group of Home Army soldiers – the Polish resistance movement founded in WWII during Nazi-occupied Poland – charged with the task of assassinating the communist Commissar Szczuka. It’s violent, gritty and considered the finest film of Polish realist cinema. Martin Scorsese cited it as one of his favourite films of all time in 2012 and it was ranked #38 in Empire’s list of The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema in 2010. “No. No, I haven’t [watched it],” says Nolen reluctantly, before delving into the empathy of Polish cinema. “There is a universality with a lot of the characters,” in Martin Scorsese Presents. “There’s this film called Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje)[by Andrzej Wajda], which really focuses on 20-somethings in Warsaw and how there’s this new generation.”

 

Released in 1960, Innocent Sorcerers explores Polish identity – personal and national – through the perspective of a young girl and young male doctor. “They’re not like their parents,” he continues. “They haven’t fought in a war, [but] they may have witnessed it as a young child. But they’re just trying to find their identities and I think we all go through that in our [own] way, no matter where we are in the world. [In the films] there’s that search for home. There’s that search for our place in the world – existence and identity: these are the universal [themes] that connect us really.

 

“[What matters is] that in 30 years, you’ll look back and go: ‘What were the films that were instrumental to me?’” says Nolen, stressing how cinema can shape us. “Who knows what to say with each passing year? People are discovering films for the first time [and] who’s to say that it’s not Japanese [cinema] or animation? There’s an endless choice of genres and nationalities. Worlds that exist that could create the basis of your film understanding,” and Masterpieces of Polish  Cinema might be that new foundation and inspiration for Australia’s future filmmakers, producers, actors and creators, just as they were for Martin Scorsese at university.

 

BY AVRILLE BYLOK-COLLARD