Andrzej Munk

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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Andrzej Munk

#1 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:57 pm

Andrzej Munk (1921-1961)

"I wanted to show how the overall atmosphere of foolhardy heroism influences even those individuals who do not have that 'hero culture', and turns them into heroes.

FEATURE FILMOGRAPHY
  • The Stars Must Burn (Gwiazdy muszą płonąć, 1954) - IMDB
    Black and white, 1.33:1, 66 mins.
    Reviews: Kinoblog (Michael Brooke)
    DVD: included on Polish School of the Documentary: Andrzej Munk (PWA, Region 0 PAL, Polish with optional English/French/German/Russian subtitles)

    Men of the Blue Cross (Błękitny krzyż, 1955) - IMDB
    Reviews: Kinoblog (Michael Brooke)
    DVD: included on Polish School of the Documentary: Andrzej Munk (PWA, Region 0 PAL, Polish with optional English/French/German/Russian subtitles)

    Man on the Tracks (Człowiek na torze, 1956) - IMDB/YouTube (complete feature, but without subtitles)
    Reviews: Dennis Grunes, Kinoblog (Michael Brooke), Strictly Film School (Acquarello)
    DVDs: Polart (Region 0 NTSC, Polish with English subtitles); Best Film Co (Region 0 PAL, possibly unsubtitled)

    Eroica (1957) - IMDB/YouTube clip (no subtitles)
    Review: Strictly Film School (Acquarello)
    DVDs: Polart (Region 0 NTSC, Polish with English subtitles); included in Best Film Co's 50 Years of the Polish Film School (50 lat Polskiej Szkoły Filmowej) box (Region 0 PAL, Polish with English subtitles); Best Film Co's separate Polish release may be unsubtitled. Second Run has announced this as a 2009 release (Region 0 PAL).

    Bad Luck (Zezowate szczęście, 1959) - IMDB/YouTube clip
    DVDs: Polart (Region 0 NTSC, Polish with English subtitles); included in Best Film Co's 50 Years of the Polish Film School (50 lat Polskiej Szkoły Filmowej) box (Region 0 PAL, Polish with English subtitles); Best Film Co's separate Polish release may be unsubtitled.

    Passenger (Pasażerka, 1961/63) - IMDB
    Reviews: Cineaste (Stuart Liebman), Cinescene (Chris Dashiell), DVD Beaver (Gary Tooze), DVD Times (Anthony Nield), Kamera.co.uk (Antonio Pasolini), The Observer (Philip French), Sunday Telegraph, Time Out (Wally Hammond), Vertigo (David Balfour)
    DVDs: Second Run (Region 0 PAL, Polish with optional English subtitles)
SHORT FILMOGRAPHY
OTHER RESOURCES
(more to follow...)
Last edited by MichaelB on Sun Aug 22, 2021 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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multivitamin
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 am

Re: Andrzej Munk

#2 Post by multivitamin » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:22 am

i reckon "black luck" is my favourite one. mainly thanks to genius performance by bogumil kobiela
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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: Andrzej Munk

#3 Post by Matt » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:31 pm

Film at Lincoln Center's Virtual Cinema is currently doing an Andrzej Munk retrospective, including restored versions of:

The Men of the Blue Cross (1955), preceded by Destination – Nowa Huta! (documentary short, 1951)
Man on the Tracks (1957)
Eroica (1957)
Bad Luck (1960)
Passenger (1963), preceded by A Walk in the Old City of Warsaw (documentary short, 1958)

Each individual program is a $5 rental, or you can get a package deal for $20. Either option gives you 5 days to watch (24 hours once you press play), but I don't know when availability ends. I'd never seen any of his work before, but what I've watched has been really good so far.
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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Re: Andrzej Munk

#4 Post by MichaelB » Sat Aug 21, 2021 6:03 am

You have to make allowances for Destination - Nowa Huta!, Men of the Blue Cross and Man on the Tracks being made under a compulsory Socialist Realist cultural policy, although only the first of those is unvarnished propaganda, and Man on the Tracks ranks up there with Andrzej Wajda's A Generation as the Polish feature that most intelligently works around these restrictions. But the others are flat-out wonderful - I have a particularly soft spot for Bad Luck, one of the best examples I can think of of Polish humour at its most morbidly fatalistic. (A recent film-school graduate named Roman Polanski was Munk's assistant on that film.)
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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Andrzej Munk

#5 Post by knives » Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:51 pm

Thanks for bringing this to me attention. I’m only at those pieces of propaganda and am nonetheless enjoying it so far.
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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Andrzej Munk

#6 Post by knives » Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:53 pm

Just finished and was blown away by Bad Luck. Out of curiosity did Kosinski ever cite it as an influence on Being There?
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