nwFilmCenter

The Films of Lech Majewski

A Polish artist who works internationally, Lech Majewski is perhaps best known in this country for his screenplay for BASQUIAT, Julian Schnable's fictionalized biography of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. A graduate of the Lodz Film School, Majewski writes, directs, composes music for, and shoots his films while also working as a poet, painter, and celebrated stage and opera director. His stylized moving-image works eschew language in favor of music and fantastically expressive landscapes. His imaginative features are distinguished by a unique sensibility hovering not only between the absurd and the metaphysical, but also between the beautiful and the profane.

Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 7 PM	GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HARRY VISITING ARTIST DIRECTOR: LECH MAJEWSKI US Starring Viggo Mortensen, Jennifer Rubin and Rita Tushingham Majewski describes his maverick allegory as taking place when "the Pacific has dried up and California has become a desert. A couple try to make the best of it but life is hard; even sex hurts. The only person who enjoys himself is Harry, the tax collector." "This highly visual, beautifully shot film functions as a metaphor of modern discontent. As in a poem, we enter a dreamlike world where our imagination is given free rein...a vast allegorical canvas that embraces the political and the religious."—Toronto International Film Festival. ( 88 min ) Lech Majewski will introduce the film. ^ Top
Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 7 PM	GLASS LIPS VISITING ARTIST DIRECTOR: LECH MAJEWSKI POLAND A young poet, whose violent father's shadow looms over him, recalls traumatic episodes from his life while locked away in an asylum. Majewski originally presented this work—composed of 33 video pieces exhibited on multiple screens—as a gallery installation entitled "Blood of a Poet." GLASS LIPS reconstructs the elements into a narrative feature film. ( 97 min ) Lech Majewski will introduce the film. ^ Top
Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 7 PM	GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS DIRECTOR: LECH MAJEWSKI GREAT BRITAIN/ITALY In this intense tale of passion and mortality, a beautiful, dying London art historian, obsessed with Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," spends her last months in Venice and Madrid with her lover. He, in turn, documents their trip on video and later edits the images into an elegiac homage. "Stunning visuals and a sizzling performance by Claudine Spiteri: You're going to love this film and run out to see everything Majewski has directed."—V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST. Grand Prix, 2004 Rome International Film Festival. In English. ( 103 min ) ^ Top
Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 8:45 PM	ANGELUS DIRECTOR: LECH MAJEWSKI POLAND A painterly eye and dark humor inform this Silesian tale of a young male virgin who must be sacrificed to save the world. Majewski portrays a community that responds to World War II and Stalinism with primitive metaphysics. "When it isn't exciting the eye with its precise imagery, [it] amuses in a wry, absurdist fashion . . .The film's mode of setting up fantastically designed and lensed tableaux shots has a nearly hallucinating impact on the eye . . .a stunning sense of the imagination overcoming all obstacles."—VARIETY. ( 103 min ) ^ Top