Jerzy Skolimowski

[fiendishthingy]

The Criterion Channel has a new interview with Skolimowski.

[MichaelB]

It's now looking all but certain that the London retrospective will include all eight of the Polish titles (the 1960s and 21st-century quartets) plus Le Départ, Dialogue 20-40-60, Deep End, The Shout, Moonlighting and The Lightship. I'm very much hoping to include Success is the Best Revenge as well, but we're still working on that one. The four missing titles (The Adventures of Gerard, King Queen Knave, Torrents of Spring, Ferdydurke) are ones that Skolimowski has pretty much disowned for various reasons. Screening dates TBC, but all are likely to be within the 28 March-30 April timespan.

Sadly, we had to drop Success is the Best Revenge - the BFI tracked down a French-subtitled 35mm print, but we couldn't identify the UK rightsholder for love nor money: the original distribution rights expired decades ago, and the production company has also been formally wound up, at which point the trail went cold. We even contacted Skolimowski himself on the off-chance that it was him, but he denied it, and said that he'd be happier in any case if it wasn't shown. And by then I was right up against a double deadline (since this is a joint BFI Southbank and Kinoteka project, and they're producing their own marketing materials complete with final screening dates), so I had no choice but to leave it out.

But everything else is going ahead as planned (complete with four film-school shorts playing as support to Dialogue 20-40-60, just to increase the amount of authentic Skolimowski in that programme), and there'll be Skolimowski personal appearances (plural) at the end of March.

[GaryC]

It's now looking all but certain that the London retrospective will include all eight of the Polish titles (the 1960s and 21st-century quartets) plus Le Départ, Dialogue 20-40-60, Deep End, The Shout, Moonlighting and The Lightship. I'm very much hoping to include Success is the Best Revenge as well, but we're still working on that one. The four missing titles (The Adventures of Gerard, King Queen Knave, Torrents of Spring, Ferdydurke) are ones that Skolimowski has pretty much disowned for various reasons. Screening dates TBC, but all are likely to be within the 28 March-30 April timespan.

Sadly, we had to drop Success is the Best Revenge - the BFI tracked down a French-subtitled 35mm print, but we couldn't identify the UK rightsholder for love nor money: the original distribution rights expired decades ago, and the production company has also been formally wound up, at which point the trail went cold. We even contacted Skolimowski himself on the off-chance that it was him, but he denied it, and said that he'd be happier in any case if it wasn't shown. And by then I was right up against a double deadline (since this is a joint BFI Southbank and Kinoteka project, and they're producing their own marketing materials complete with final screening dates), so I had no choice but to leave it out.

But everything else is going ahead as planned (complete with four film-school shorts playing as support to Dialogue 20-40-60, just to increase the amount of authentic Skolimowski in that programme), and there'll be Skolimowski personal appearances (plural) at the end of March.

Given that it was an early Dolby film, any chance of a showing of The Shout with the stereo soundtrack? (I don't know how many 35mm Dolby prints were struck - not many, I'd guess. Presumably a stereo DCP is more likely?)

[MichaelB]

It’ll be a stereo DCP.

[MichaelB]

An interview with me about curating the BFI/Kinoteka Jerzy Skolimowski retrospective.

[MichaelB]

...and my onstage Q&A with Skolimowski himself, recorded on March 28th.

[MichaelB]

Imprint have just announced The Lightship on Blu-ray. Full specs haven't been revealed yet, although they'll definitely be more substantial than the French edition that's been out for a few years.

[knives]

And this is a real good one too. Skolimowski does Hollywood well without losing his unique flavor.

[Maltic]

I hadn't heard of this, but it sounds cool.

A trio of robbers, two brothers and their twisted genius leader, invade a lightship, but don’t reckon on the crew fighting back.

You're instantly reminded of another mode-of-transportation potboiler from 1985 by an Eastern European auteur featuring some of your dad's favourite actors (Runaway Train).

[swo17]

Imprint have just announced The Lightship on Blu-ray. Full specs haven't been revealed yet, although they'll definitely be more substantial than the French edition that's been out for a few years.

Will there be more than this?

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by film writer and historian Michael Brooke
Interview with Editor Barrie Vince
Theatrical Trailer
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

[Maltic]

That's plenty!

[MichaelB]

You're instantly reminded of another mode-of-transportation potboiler from 1985 by an Eastern European auteur featuring some of your dad's favourite actors (Runaway Train).

I just checked to see if I mentioned Runaway Train in my commentary, but I didn't. Although it would have been a bit of a stretch - that film is all about a train moving at breakneck speed, whereas the thing about lightships is that they don't move at all; it would rather defeat their purpose if they did!

I did mention White Nights, though, an American film that wasn't directed by an eastern European auteur but did feature one in a major supporting role, namely Jerzy Skolimowski. The schedules for both films were so close together that Skolimowski had to leave the set of White Nights on his final day and board a flight to Europe in full make-up and costume because there was no time to change in advance!

(Despite being set off the coast of Virginia, The Lightship was actually filmed off the coast of Germany, for the practical reason that that's where they could get hold of an authentic working lightship. Which is why, although it's a US production, much of the crew is German or Austrian, including DOP Charly Steinberger, who'd previously shot Deep End and King Queen Knave in the early 1970s. And an info-nugget that I wasn't able to shoehorn into the commentary because he's only onscreen for mere seconds is that the film's stuntman Norbert Blecha was Ursula Andress's fairly recent ex-boyfriend.)