This second edition of the "CELEBRATION OF SILENT CINEMA" is part of a campaign titled "Film w Starym Kinie" / "Film in an Old Cinema," initiated in 2003 by the Polish National Film Library and "Film" monthly.

This year the festival will transport viewers to the wild 1920s - the true golden years of silent cinema. Screenings will focus on pictures that confirm the grandeur, richness and sophistication of the era that turned cinema into an eternal icon of mass culture. Live music performed by outstanding Polish and foreign musicians will accompany each film. Performers will include Urszula Dudziak, Leszek Mozdzer, the "Hurda" Highlander ensemble with Jan Karpiel Bulecka, the Motion Trio, Brygada Kryzys, Flamenco Passion (Spain) and Karim's World Quartet (Cuba, Madagascar, Brazil).


"Odnalezione filmy polskie" / "Rediscovered Polish Films"
The festival will begin traditionally with a screening of a Polish film. This year this will be "WIATR OD MORZA / WIND FROM THE SEA", a film that was rediscovered in 2001 in a Prague-based film archive. The movie, which features outstanding pre-war actors Eugeniusz Bodo, Adam Brodzisz and Maria Malicka, was described by critics of its time as a "great epic of the sea."

"Najwieksi kochankowie ekranu" / "The Greatest On Screen Lovers" - Greta Garbo, Pola Negri, Rudolf Valentino
Three evenings will focus on films starring some of the greatest lovers to appear on screen in the history of cinema. The featured actors will include Greta Garbo, the woman-temptress referred to as the "white flame of Sweden" ("SYMFONIA ZMYSLOW / FLESH AND THE DEVIL"), as well as Pola Negri, the fiery, sensual and simultaneously innocent Slavic goddess of love ("GORSKA KOTKA / THE WILDCAT"). Viewers will also have an opportunity to fall under the spell of the gaze of Rudolf Valentino ("KREW NA PIASKU / BLOOD AND SAND") and to be dazzled by the deadly, styled mustache of John Gilbert.

"Metropolie Europy lat 20." / "European Metropolises of the 1920s"
This series will focus on the grand cities of Europe and include films depicting life in Paris, Berlin, Prague and Warsaw, offering audiences a look at the fascinating atmosphere of Europe in the 1920s. The films depict the everyday lives of urbanites, city traffic, aspects of the nightlife, fleeting images of cities caught in the act of existing. With his outstanding film about Berlin, Walther Ruttmann entered the history of cinema as one of the creators of the montage film and a chief representative of the German film avant-garde. He built a visual symphony in which excellent editing imbued images of the city with rhythm, painting a fascinating portrait. The success of this picture prompted the production of an entire series of films about cities.

"Arcydziela awangardy" / "Masterpieces of the Avant-Garde"
The 1920s was a special time during which artists sought out cinema as a new, original means of expression. One of the festival screenings will demonstrate how avant-garde artists mocked film conventions and reigning schemes. Ignoring the laws of logic and drama and drawing on the achievements of Dada and Surrealism, they often utilized the most unexpected points of view. They created a sophisticated cinema that remains highly contemporary and continues to delight. A film by one of the world's first feminist directors, Germaine Dulac, will be a special addition to the screening.

"Wieczor Specjalny: Wladyslaw Starewicz" / "Special Evening: Wladyslaw Starewicz"
Wladyslaw Starewicz has been forgotten in Poland but continues to be valued around the world for his masterful puppet animations. This evening of his films will include an appearance by special guest Mrs. Leona Beatrice Martin-Starevitch, granddaughter of the great artist. The screening will feature a series of unique films by this director, brought in especially for the festival from France.

"Erotyki" / "Erotica"
A series of spicy erotic films from the Saturn Studio will be presented during this nighttime screening. The films, on loan from an Austrian film archive, are excellent examples of erotica of the silent era.

"Wieczor z komedia" / "An Evening of Comedies"
"THE UNUSUAL ADVENTURES OF MR. WEST IN THE LAND OF THE BOLSHEVIKS" is a humorous and highly original satire on the anti-Bolshevik prejudices of Americans. The makers of this film suggestively, masterfully and very humorously strove to convince audiences that all prejudices against the young Communist Soviet state were fundamentally false and extremely hurtful. Director Lev Kuleshov educated many generations of Soviet filmmakers and authored classic texts on the theory of film. Strengths of this film include excellent acting, especially by Vsevolod Pudovkin, one of the Soviet Union's best-known directors. This film will be preceded by a short animated propaganda film of the same period.

"Noc z horrorem" / "A Night of Horrors"
This nighttime screening will feature an excellent German Expressionist thriller. Robert Wiene tells the story of a famous composer whose hands must be amputated following an accident. A mysterious doctor attaches two new hands, however, these turn out to be the hands of a murderer...

"Seans dla dzieci" / "Children's Picture Show"
For the first time the festival will include a screening of short features and animations for children, many of which are too funny to let the children see them alone.

This second edition of the CELEBRATION OF SILENT CINEMA is part of a campaign titled "Film w Starym Kinie" / "Film in an Old Cinema," initiated in 2003 by the Polish National Film Library and "Film" monthly. The purpose of the campaign is to collect funds for the restoration of pre-war Polish films.

Kino "Iluzjon"
ul. Narbutta 50a, Warszawa
tel. (+48 22) 646 12 60
Organizer: Filmoteka Narodowa
tel. (+48 22) 845 48 43 ul. Pulawska 61, 00-975 Warszawa
www.fn.org.pl

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