- Barrier
For the past couple of months, Polish cinema has been all over Chicago. The Gene Siskel Film Center is about to wrap up “Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema,” a program featuring some of the country’s best films—over a dozen of them in total. Meanwhile, at the Music Box, Paweł Pawlikowski’s J.R. Jones-approved Ida has enjoyed a prolonged residency. All national cinemas have distinct attributes and Poland is no exception: Scorsese himself puts it quite succinctly in his introduction to “Masterpieces of Polish Cinema” when he writes, “This is a cinema of personal vision, social commitment, and poetic responsibility . . . the subtext of great conflict and cultural identity is universal, even if you don’t know the history of Poland, the themes in these films will resonate, as they did profoundly for me.”
- Knife in the Water (dir. Roman Polanski, 1962) One of the best debut features ever made, Polanski’s first film is a cagey chamber drama that toys with audience expectations and takes significant liberties with traditional storytelling and characterization. The small cast, confined setting, voyeuristic camera, and looming threat of violence are trademarks the director carries to this day.
