Krzysztof Kieślowski: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is proud to present a retrospective of the sublimely transcendent filmography of esteemed Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski, in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York. In the thirty years since his untimely death at the zenith of his international renown, Kieślowski’s oeuvre and its otherworldly qualities continue to linger as a testament to cinema’s capacity for metaphysical queries and meditative explorations of the human condition. From the early documentaries capturing Poland’s working class and the social realist examinations of life under communism, to abstract reflections on universal complexities ranging from fate to virtue and everything in between, our retrospective honors the luminous work of the visionary behind a kaleidoscopic world of vivid humanity.

Replete with glowing refractions of light, dreamlike coincidences and an entrancingly melancholic performance by Irène Jacob, earning her the Best Actress Award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, our curated series begins with Kieślowski’s international sensation THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE. An unforgettable reverie on the fragmentation of identity and the mysterious nature of love, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE is an essential entry in the Polish master’s repertoire.

We continue our retrospective with the last three films of Kieślowski’s career as a marathon screening of his lyrical Three Colors trilogy. Named after the colors of the French flag and themed around the national motto of “liberty, equality and fraternity,” the trilogy is led by four spellbinding performances conjured by Juliette Binoche, Irène Jacob, Julie Delpy and Zbigniew Zamachowski. The first of the series, the symphonic BLUE, ruminates on the concept of liberation within a story about a woman who loses her husband and young daughter in a car accident, headed by a mesmerizing Juliette Binoche as the grieving widowed mother. Dark comedy WHITE revolves around a French woman played by an ethereal Julie Delpy who divorces her Polish husband and the tale of revenge that ensues, simultaneously dissecting the theme of equality through economic and cultural quandaries in the context of post-communist Poland. Kieślowski’s last film and final installment of the trilogy, RED, follows an effervescent Irène Jacob as Valentine, a young student and model who forms an unlikely connection with a retired judge. Garnering three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Kieślowski, and nominated for the Palme d’Or, this vision of destiny and circumstance examines the tenet of fraternity while closing out the career of an almost mythic cinematic figure.  

A retrospective of Kieślowski’s career would be incomplete without spotlighting the documentaries from the nascence of his filmmaking. Our documentary shorts program includes six nonfiction short films from 1971 to 1980, each observing different segments of Polish society. From the workers of a funeral home, to a group of veterans blinded in a minefield, and a security guard proclaiming his support for capital punishment, each short acts as a portrait of Poland’s working class, detailing the aspirations, fears and beliefs of a generation under communism.

BLIND CHANCE, one of Kieślowski’s first feature films, was initially censored by the Polish government for its politically contentious elements as the political collides with the metaphysical in this layered narrative of kismet that centers around a medical student ambivalent about his future. Rounding out the series is the entirety of the filmmaker’s masterful DEKALOG miniseries and the resulting two feature length films born out of it. Every hour-long installment is themed around one of The Ten Commandments and explores the lives of residents in a housing project, with Parts Five and Six being expanded into the feature films A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING and A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE respectively. The miniseries has received a myriad of praise internationally since its debut, as well as winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best International Programme, and has transcended the preconceived notions of television as an artistic medium.