KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI – SIGNS AND MEMORY
Museum Wiesbaden from 09.04. to 07.05.2006
To mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996), goEast presents an exhibition relating to his life and work. After starting out as a documentary filmmaker, the Polish director became the leading representative of the socially critical “cinema of moral anxiety” in the mid-1970s with his feature films PERSONEL / PERSONNEL and, especially, AMATOR / CAMERA BUFF. He came to the attention of a wider audience – particularly so in the west – due to the unusual ethical-moral perspective adopted in DECALOGUE, the series of films he shot for television in the late 1980s. That cycle and the trilogy THREE COLOURS: BLUE, WHITE, RED made him famous around the world, and Kieslowski now counts among the most important European filmmakers of the late 20th century.
The cooperation between the Film Museum in Lodz, which curated the original exhibition and adapted it for a German audience, the Polish Institute in Dusseldorf, and the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF in Frankfurt has made it possible to compile an interesting survey tracing Kieslowski‘s development. Alongside numerous posters for his films, the comprehensive documentation presents rare archive material and photographs from the director’s childhood and student days.

Museum Wiesbaden
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2
65185 Wiesbaden

Vernissage: Sun, 9 April / 5.00 pm
Opening times: Wed — Sun and public holidays 10.00 am to 5.00 pm
Tue 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
Closed Mon (including 1 May)

CAMERA BUFF / AMATOR
Poland 1979
/ Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski / 112 MIN
The factory worker Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr in one of his most important roles) founds an amateur film club. His unfiltered depiction of the daily grind in his factory wins a prize, and is even shown on television. But his films upset the balance of his fellow human beings and public life, something for which he must now accept responsibility. At the same time, he begins to realize that as an artist he can describe the world only if he also trains the camera on his own self. Kieslowski’s first international success is striking for its para-documentary style – crucially supported by Jerzy Stuhr’s performance – and its commitment to a truthful description of reality.

Caligari: 06.04. / 5.00 pm
Jerzy Stuhr will be present.

IN CONVERSATION WITH JERZY STUHR
Jerzy Stuhr, one of the leading actors of Polish stage and screen, honours goEast with a visit and talks to Martin Blaney about his history of working with Krzysztof Kieslowski. Stuhr’s unique acting skills were demonstrated in six films – for some of which he also wrote dialogue – completed in the course of this collaboration: BLIZNA / THE SCAR (1976), SPOKOJ / THE CALM (1976/1980), AMATOR (1979), PRZYPADEK / BLIND CHANCE (1981/1987), DEKALOG 10 / THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S GOODS (1988) and TROIS COULEURS: BLEU / THREE COLOURS: WHITE (1993). After being named best actor at Gdansk for his lead performance in AMATOR, he was viewed as the leading representative of the “cinema of moral anxiety”. Jerzy Stuhr won the “Golden Lily” at goEast in 2001 for DUZE ZWIERZE / THE BIG ANIMAL, the film he made on the basis of a screenplay by Kieslowski and in which he also played the leading role.

BLIND CHANCE / PRZYPADEK
Poland 1987
/ Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski / 122 MIN
The medical student Witek Dlugosz runs after a train. What course will his life take if he manages to jump on? Or if he misses it? From this point of departure the film moves on to unfold three different lives, one leading to membership in the Communist Party, another into the underground opposition under the cover of the church, while in the third version Witek withdraws into private life. Whatever destiny decides, Witek’s ethical standpoint remains the same – but any choice is pointless in view of the absurd reality of Poland in the 1970s. Witek finds himself invariably in opposition to reality. Kieslowski’s filmic discourse on freedom and determinism was banned immediately after the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. First screened to a general audience in 1987, it had long attained cult status among dissidents.
Alpha: 06.04. / 10 pm

THE STAFF / PERSONEL
Poland 1976
/ Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski / 72 MIN
Romek starts his first job, which is in the costume-making shop of Breslau Opera. His initial fascination with the theatrical world soon gives way to the realization that behind the scenes people are no different from anywhere else: Intrigues and nasty tricks rule the day. Caught up in a running battle between artists and technicians, Romek is forced to choose between betraying a friend or displaying courage and accepting the consequences of his action. Shot in the style of an on-the-spot report and demonstrating a fine instinct for authentic-seeming situations and dialogue, Kieslowski‘s full-length debut depicts the young man’s dilemma as a universal ethical parable. The film sparked off the “cinema of moral anxiety” movement (1976-1980). Main Prize International Filmfestival Mannheim.
Bellevue-Saal: 07.04. / 10.00 pm

A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE / KROTKI FILM O MILOSCI
Poland 1988
/ Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski / 86 MIN
The great love dreamt about by the shy 19-year old post-office clerk is something in which his neighbour, a mature and attractive artist, no longer believes. Through a telescope, Tomek watches Magda in her apartment evening for evening. When he finally plucks up the courage to confess his feelings, she humiliates him. Deeply hurt, Tomek attempts to commit suicide. Only then does Magda realize that his love is characterized by the sincerity so conspicuously absent from her own life. Shot for Polish television as the sixth instalment in Kieslowski’s DECALOGUE cycle, the cinema version of this skilfully narrated love story won prices at festivals including Gdansk, San Sebastian, Chicago, and São Paulo.

Alpha: 08.04. / 12.00 noon

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE / PODWOJNE ZYCIE WERONIKI
Poland / France / Norway 1991
/ Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski / 98 MIN
In Krakow the highly gifted singer Veronika catches a brief glimpse of her French double Veronique (both women are played by Irène Jacob). When the Polish singer drops dead during her first solo concert some months later, the French woman unexpectedly feels bereaved. Without ever having known her double, Veronique’s life seems to be influenced by that of her Polish namesake. One day, Veronique makes an unsettling discovery: She recognizes Veronika in her own holiday snapshots. Kieslowski’s mystical thriller, which was his first Franco-Polish coproduction, is largely sustained by Zbigniew Preisner’s enigmatic music and Slawomir Idziak’s magical images. Prize for Best Actress and FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes 1991.

Bambi: 09.04. / 2.00 pm