Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema – June 5 to July 1 – TIFF Bell Lightbox

“This is a cinema of personal vision, social commitment and poetic responsibility from which we’ve all learned and which sets a high standard that, as a filmmaker, I strive to achieve with every film, every time out.” — Martin Scorsese
“Whether oblique or explicit, straight-faced or comically absurdist, all these films speak to an urgent seriousness of intent. Willingly inheriting the mantle of their artistic forebears, Polish filmmakers sought to explore and preserve their culture through yet another period of acute national strife. The extraordinary films in this series are eloquent testimony to the power that cinema — and art itself — can have for a people struggling for self-determination.” — Piers Handling, Director & CEO, TIFF

Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema screens at TIFF Bell Lightbox from June 5 to July 1, 2014. Director Krzysztof Zanussi appears in person to introduce his film The Constant Factor on Friday, June 13 at 8:45 p.m. All films are in Polish with English subtitles. All prints are new digital restorations.

TIFF Cinematheque presents this touring programme—created and organized by Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organization The Film Foundation—of 21 classic films from one of the world’s richest national cinemas, presented in stunning new digital restorations.The centrepiece of the retrospective—and Scorsese’s favourite—is Andrzej Wajda’s final installment of his superb War Trilogy, Ashes and Diamonds (1958).Also included are Wajda’s Innocent Sorcerers (1960), a jazz-fuelled portrait of postwar Polish youth, his magnificent adaptations of the Polish literary classics The Wedding (1972) and The Promised Land (1974); and Man of Iron (1981), one of the most critically lauded Polish films of the 1980s; Krzysztof Zanussi’s razor-sharp contemporary dramas Illumination (1972), Camouflage (1976) and The Constant Factor (1980); and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s intriguing metaphysical drama Blind Chance (1981) along with his Cannes-winning A Short Film About Killing (1988), an expanded, feature-length version of the fifth episode in his landmark television series The Decalogue.

For complete schedule visit website

Watch trailers:

Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament)
Austeria
Blind Chance (Przypadek)
A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu)
Camouflage (Barwy ochronne)
Eroica
Illumination (Iluminajca)
Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje)
Jump (Salto)
Knights of the Black Cross (Kryżacy)
Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza)
Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów)
Night Train (Pociąg)
Pharaoh (Faraon)
The Constant Factor (Constans)
The Hour-glass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod klepsydrą)
The Last Day of Summer (Ostatni dzień lata)
The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana)
The Saragossa Manuscript (Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie)
The Wedding (Wesele)
To Kill This Love (Trzeba zabić tę miłość)