13 September 2018 Film programming at Conrad Festival
From Monday, October 22nd to Sunday, October 28th, you can join us for nine screenings connected to the programme of the Conrad Festival. As always, Pod Baranami Cinema will prepare a special film programming, featuring a number of treats for cinema lovers, including Ingmar Bergman’s films. Screenings will be accompanied by lectures presented by selected festival guests. See you there!
This year’s edition of the festival asks some critical questions about POP – about what is popular, what expresses the needs of the so-called people and determines its common cultural experience. A special film programming will be an extension of this discussion – including a voice on political correctness. Pod Baranami Cinema will present the laureate of Palme d'Or in Cannes The Square by Ruben Östlund , starring Elisabeth Moss (known for The Handmaid’s Tale and Top of the Lake ), Dominic West (Pride) and Claes Bang. The story of a handsome curator of a contemporary art museum, is used by the Swedish director as a medium, enabling him to juxtapose social norms with unbridled animalistic energy, achieving fantastically comical effects. The introduction to the film will be presented by film critic and editor of Tygodnik Powszechny Anita Piotrowska.
The will of the people becomes reality in Scarred Hearts, which won the Golden Leopard Award of the 2016 Locarno Festival. Radu Jude (who received the Silver Bear Award for Aferim!) managed to transfer the autobiographical novel by Max Blecher (1909-1938), a Romanian writer of Jewish origin, who suffered from bone tuberculosis for ten years, to the silver screen. Blecher, who was confined to the bed in a health resort, has not yet given up on his life in spite of overwhelming suffering, falling in love and conducting fierce political disputes with the other patients, while nationalist ideas became more and more prominent throughout the country. The screening of the film will be preceded by a lecture by the artistic director of the Conrad Festival, Michał Paweł Markowski.
One of the themes of this year’s edition is populism, the mechanisms of which were explored by the award-winning documentary film maker Marcel Łoziński in his film Jak to się robi (How It’s Done.) The director exposes the mechanisms of political marketing, proving that the immaturity of Polish democracy allows absolutely everyone to come to power. With the help of social engineering tricks and slogans, the clients of a famous public image creator become candidates tailored to the needs of potential voters, regardless of their own political views or the programme they propose.
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman's birthday, the Festival organisers decided to present the most important works of the Swedish master of existential cinema. The narrative used by the director in his works is deeply rooted in the literature that Bergman had studied before his film career. You will learn about their impact on contemporary viewer during the Bergman at Night marathon with an introduction by Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and film critic Mladen Dolar. The evening will begin with a screening of The Magic Flute, an adaptation of Mozart's famous opera, produced by Bergman for Swedish television. This magical story captured his imagination when he was a child and it is from this childhood perspective that the viewers follow the fate of the main character setting off to save his beloved. The marathon will also feature one of the director's early films Summer with Monika based on a novel by Per Anders Fogelström – a love story of two people from the poor working class who are trying to make their dreams of a better life together come true. Unfortunately, the post-war reality verifies the lovers' plans, and in the confrontation with everyday problems, their feelings are put to the test. Due to its frank depiction of nudity, the film helped to create the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated country. The marathon will be concluded with one of Bergman’s most important works – Persona, which the director himself described as a chamber piece for two instruments. This poignant psychological drama tells the story of a relationship between a famous actress who has lost her ability to speak for reasons unknown, and the nurse who takes care of her. A relationship that was established between the women was used by Bergman to create a study of loneliness and anxiety, provoking reflection on the sense of any artistic creation. Achieving such a fantastic effect would not have been possible without the amazing creations of Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, BAFTA Award nominee, which the Swedish Film Institute awarded in 1966 with the Golden Beetle Award for the best actress.
The audience in Krakow will be able to admire Liv Ullmann’s acting skills also in Saraband – the final piece by the Swedish master nominated for Caesar Award. After thirty years, Bergman returns to the protagonists of Scenes from a Marriage –a Golden Globe-winning miniseries from 1973. Many years after divorcing Johan, Marianne decides to pay him a visit in his summerhouse. Unwittingly, the woman falls into the middle of a family drama that takes place between her former husband, his son from second marriage and a growing granddaughter. Jan Balbierz, writer, translator and Scandinavian scholar, who has translated the Swedish monographic collection of texts devoted to Ingmar Bergman, will give a lecture accompanying the screening.
The film programming of the Festival will conclude with a screening of Jane Magnusson’s documentary Bergman: A Year in a Life, which premiered during this year’s Cannes Festival. Magnusson took a closer look at the turning point in Bergman's life, marked by the premieres of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. In her opinion, in 1957 Bergman discovered that films about him will be the key to his success. Thanks to conversations with his friends and colleagues, the director avoids putting the master on the pedestal. She creates a thoroughly honest portrait of an extraordinary artist, showing how imperfect he was as a human being. Liv Ullmann, Barbra Streisand, Lars von Trier and Lena Andre, who has worked with him for many years in the theatre, talk about their experiences with Bergman and his work. The screening will be preceded by a meeting with Thomas Sjöberg, author of the book Ingmar Bergman – A Story of Love, Sex, and Betrayal.
On Saturday October 27th join us at Pod Baranami Cinema for a panel discussion On Film Poems. Jakub Kornhauser will talk with Darek Foks, the author of an anthology of Polish poems related to cinema, and Bronka Nowicka, artist, writer and lecturer at PWSFTviT .
Additionally, the festival will feature a special meeting – Baranki Dzieciom - a series of film mornings for children. The programme of the series features screenings of Żubr Pompik animated films based on children’s books by Tomasz Samojlik. After the screening, the children will take part in art workshops with Joanna tworzy.
Ticket information Tickets: 18 PLN (standard) | 14 PLN (discount) Pass (5 screenings, with the exception of the Bergman at Night marathon): 60 PLN Bergman at Night (a 3-film pass): 36 PLN (standard) | 30 PLN (discount) Literackie Baranki for Children: 11 PLN On Film Poems: admission to the event is free (free passes can be obtained in the box offices, starting on October 26th) Tickets are available at the cinema box offices and on-line: www.kinopodbaranami.pl