The Academy awards coming nearly a month earlier than usual this year (late February instead of late march) brought a certain "freudenschade" (Joy over other people's misery) to Western Europe and an air of gloom to Warsaw. The German newspapers were practically gloating over the fact that all four acting Oscars went to European rather than American performers (UK, France and Spain), whereas the Poles, placing high hopes on Andrzej Wajda's WW II Massacre epic "Katyn", recei...
"Greatness Comes to Those Who Take It!" "Mongol" is an influential historic epic depicting the life of Genghis Khan, from the years 1192(The Year of the Black Rat) -1206(The Year He Was Made Khan of the Mongols). Aside: Genghis Khan's actual lifespan was from 1162-1227, living to be 65 years old. The film is directed by Sergei Bodrov, and produced by Bob Berney, of "Picturehouse", and was nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film" at "The 80th Annual ...
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The Academy awards brought a certain "freudenschade" (Joy over other people's misery) to Western Europe and an air of gloom to Warsaw. The German newspapers were practically gloating over the fact that all four acting Oscars went to European rather than American performers (UK, France and Spain), whereas the Poles, placing high hopes on Andrzej Wajda's WW II Massacre epic "Katyn", received a painful letdown when the Best Foreign film award went to a relatively minor Austrian concentration camp s...
The 58th Berlin Film Festival closed out a rather unremarkable ten day run with Andrzej Wajda's massive indictment of Russian war crimes, "Katyn". The political significance of this film, especially in Germany, was underlined by the attendance at the final gala of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and other top level political dignitaries. Eighty year old director Wajda said that he hopes the film will help build new bridges between Germany and Poland. Considering that Poland suffe...
The 58th Berlin Film Festival closed out a rather unremarkable ten day run with Andrzej Wajda's massive indictment of Russian war crimes, "Katyn". The political significance of this film, especially in Germany, was underlined by the attendance at the final gala of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and other top level political dignitaries. Eighty year old director Wajda said that he hopes the film will help build new bridges between Germany and Poland. Considering that Poland suffered far mo...
GDYNIA, SEPTEMBER 18, 2007ALEX DELEON FOR www.filmfestivals.com"KATYN FEVER” IN POLAND AS THE WAJDA VERSION OPENS GDYNIA FESTAndrej Wajda’s new film “KATYN” concerning the mass murder of Polish Prisoners of War perpetrated by the Russians in 1940 and for years either hushed up or cynically blamed on the Germans, is more than just another film by a famous director. It has become a “cause celebre” and a national event stirring up the collective Polish memory of this incredible Rus...
80th Academy Awards Announced CategoriesPerformance by an actor in a leading roleGeorge Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)Performance by an actor in a supporting roleCasey ...
The 32nd Gdynia Film Review ends on Up-beat Note as 92 Year Old Actress takes the Cake ! by Alex Deleon, PolandThe Annual Review of Polish Feature Films in Gdynia on the Baltic seashore is quite unusual in that it is both a compendium of the entire Polish feature film production for the preceding 12 months, and also a kind of local Oscar competition in which a professional jury votes on the best work of the year in the usual categories. This year there was a total of 22 films in competition, abo...
On Tuesday Andrzej Wajda accompanied by a retinue of actors and others connected with the 'Katyn' production showed up in Gdynia as scheduled for a press conference preceding multiple screenings of the heavily anticipated film. (One screening especially for the foreign press had English subtitles). The 81 year old director sporting a full head of white hair, full cheeks, and a ruddy complexion, seemed to be in good health and spoke with confidence about his latest work before a roomful of journ...
Andrzej Wajda, 81, the dean of Polish filmmakers and generally recognized as one of the all time great film directors -- period -- will open the 32nd Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia on September 17. This long awaited dissertation on the egregious massacre of Polish officers (POW!) in WW II perpetrated by the Russians -- then cynically blamed by them on the Germans-- has been a pet project brewing in the mind of the Polish screen maestro for a number of years. The new Wajda opus will pr...
