Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2010)

[tavernier]

The U.S. DVD (no Blu-ray) finally came out this week from Tribeca. There's a 5-minute Skolimowski interview as the lone extra.

[knives]

Good time to point out that the AE is region free.

[jbeall]

Caught it on netflix instant last night, and was very impressed. The long shots are especially gorgeous, even if conditions on the ground must have been frighteningly miserable. I definitely wouldn't call it an exercise in "pure cinema," as, despite gaps in exposition, it's got a narrative line. That said, Essential Killing is very formalist at certain moments, but it seemed to me always well done. And

Spoiler

the rather audacious scene with the bicyclist was simply staggering; I don't think I'd been that taken aback by a single scene since the suicide in Cache.

This was my first Skolimowski, so I'm looking forward to tracking down more of his stuff.

[knives]

I highly recommend BFI's region free Deep End. It's from a radically different stage in his career, but is just as great if not better.

[jbeall]

I highly recommend BFI's region free Deep End. It's from a radically different stage in his career, but is just as great if not better.

Thanks for the rec! I was going to order Second Run's Polish Cinema boxset next month anyway, so I'll pick it up then.

[JPJ]

Deep End is a must have,one of the best releases of 2011.I just found out(see identify this movie thread)that "a mystery movie"(no sleepless nights but I've been wondering what it was from time to time.)I saw accidently on TV around 1983, turned out to be Skolimowski's King.Queen,Knave(1972). I was 12 years old at the time so of course I didn't recognize David Niven or Gina Lollobrigida although I remember I was,(AHEM!)impressed by the latter.It's another Skolimowski film that unfortunately seems to be tied with the rights issues(As Deep End was).

[knives]

I highly recommend BFI's region free Deep End. It's from a radically different stage in his career, but is just as great if not better.

Thanks for the rec! I was going to order Second Run's Polish Cinema boxset next month anyway, so I'll pick it up then.

I should also note if you want a better connector to what you've seen and stuff like Deep End (though it all stands on it's own) Moonlighting is great and available on DVD. It keeps the dialogue very short while still having that more traditional flavour (traditional is a widely inaccurate word, but outside of '70s strange I'm not sure how to describe the relationship).

[davidprice]

Another vote for Deep End as a must. Not to diminish Deep End in any way, I actually think his 4 earlier Polish films are even better. Of course, Deep End is both more accessible as it is in English and relates more to a Western European experience of the time where the Polish films reflect the surrealism of life in the East Bloc.

Also agree on Moonlighting - and Four Nights with Anna is really worth the effort of seeking out.

[MichaelB]

Yes, I was about to say the same thing - the Polish quartet of the 1960s (Identification Marks: None, Walkover, Barrier, Hands Up!) is an absolute must, and the Telewizja Kinopolska box is very cheap.

There are some hefty caveats, though: picture quality ranges from "watchable" to "abysmal", and the subtitles are woefully inadequate. Second Run has been promising Barrier and Hands Up! for ages, but has no firm release date - and if those releases go according to plan, at the very least they'll have vastly superior subtitles. In fact, if I remember rightly, Skolimowski was very keen to approve them himself, as he's always hated the original ones (translated before he learned English himself).

And I also strongly recommend The Shout, whose UK DVD is excellent.

[davidprice]

Agree on the box set; it is first in a field of one. Still, watchable by my subjective standard.
I was fortunate to catch Identification Marks: None on the big screen (along with a half hour feature of Skolimowski's comments on the film) at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia last year (at the same festival where EK swept 5 awards including the Golden Lions).

[Zot!]

Saw this last night and I did not get it at all. I think it was trying to be a remake of the last third of The Human Condition. For think-piece military drama both Flanders (Dumont) and Alexandra (Sukorov) both had a lot more going for them. There was an interview with Skolimowski on the disc where he states that this was about the protagonist returning to an animal state in an effort to survive. Considering the movie starts with him blowing up 3 people with a rocket launcher, I'm not sure if I saw much of a progression really.