Wednesday 18 February 2009

Vampires, Voodoo, Vixens, Victims

In what might seem something of a departure from the stated specialisations of this blog, a heads up that I'll be interviewing ... errr ... Ingrid Pitt on Resonance 104.4fm. Tune in (or listen online) on Friday 27th at 5pm.

I'm sure that no-one here needs reminding of Ingrid's striking presence in Gothic horrors like The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, as well as The House That Dripped Blood, which she is introducing on Friday 20th as part of the Barbican Cinema's tribute to Amicus (not the old trade union).


Thereafter I'll be returning to the more usual fare.

Here's the trailer for The House That Dripped Blood



Not much Ingrid there, so here's the trailer for Countess Dracula:

Monday 16 February 2009

Kinoteka, 2009: London, Belfast and Canterbury

A quick heads up on the forthcoming Kinoteka, aka the 7th Polish Film Festiwal [sic], which takes place over a variety of London venues: The Riverside, Tate Modern, the Barbican, BFI South Bank, the Prince Charles and Cargo. Look out for:

New Polish Cinema. Mostly from the last couple of years, and including shorts, docs and a focus on the (to me, unknown) Marcin Koszałka.

The Polish New Wave. Including Zanussi's study of unblinking rationality The Illumination (Illuminacja, 1973), shot by Edward Kłosiński (obit here), and Andrzej Żuławski introducing his own On the Silver Globe (Na Srebrnym Globie), a self-referential contemplation of a politically hamstrung torso.

Jerzy Skolimowski. Including his first four features and, after a seventeen year hiatus since Ferdydurke, his latest Four Nights with Anna (Cztery noce z Anna).

In addition, there'll be an exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of Kieslowski's Dekalog and its two longer offshoots A Short Film About Love and A Short Film About Killing. Some parts of Dekalog will be shown with supporting films from other directors.

Finally Michael Nyman will celebrate his love of Polish cinema with a new piece set to a montage of film clips.

After that, a selection of films will go to the Queens Film Theatre in Belfast, while Canterbury's Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival will include various Polish and Polish-themed films and several concerts including Penderecki conducting his own epic St Luke Passion, and the conference Polish Music Since 1945.

In the meantime, I'll be polishing up my collection of diacritics to comment on some of the films.