Agnieszka Holland Retrospective at MoMA
The 
Museum of Modern Art’s ongoing Agnieszka Holland retrospective in New York City continues until January 5, 2009. Holland, best known for her World War II era drama Europa Europa, The Secret Garden (above, lower photo), Washington Square, and Total Eclipse (top photo, with Leonardo DiCaprio), directed and wrote a number of lesser-known films in her native Poland.
Among the upcoming MoMA screenings are several efforts from her Polish period, including the 1981 political dramas Fever and A Lonely Woman, both of which were banned in Poland at the time.
Also screening are the intriguing US-made drama Anna (1987), directed by Yurek Bogayevicz, written by Holland, and starring a magnificent, Oscar-nominated Sally Kirkland, and the social drama The Offsiders (2008), directed by Holland’s daughter Kasia Adamik, and based on a concept by Holland.
(As an aside, on Dec. 31, MoMA will screen the David Lean-directed 1945 film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play Blithe Spirit. The supernatural comedy, about an unfaithful husband, his wife, and the ghost of his lover, is a delight. The cast includes Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, and scene-stealer supreme Margaret Rutherford as a medium. Screenplay by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Ronald Neame. Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 6:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2.)
Photos: Courtesy of MoMA.
Schedule from the MoMA website.
The Agnieszka Holland retrospective was organized by Department of Film curator Charles Silver.
Kobieta Samotna (A Lonely Woman). 1981. Poland. Written and directed by Agnieszka Holland. With Maria Chwalibóg, Boguslaw Linda, Pawel Witczak. Selected by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center for New Directors/New Films in 1987 (six years after both the film and the director had been banned in Poland), A Lonely Woman depicts the grim reality of a young Polish woman (Chwalibóg) who is broken down by a totalitarian system. In Polish; English subtitles. 110 min.
Sunday, December 28, 2008, 2:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 5:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
The Wire
The Wire. 2004–08. USA. Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Holland is proud to be a participating director in the HBO mega-hit series. This marathon screening includes the three episodes she has directed: "Moral Midgetry" (2004), "Corner Boys" (2006), and "React Quotes" (2008). Program approx. 150 min.
Sunday, December 28, 2008, 4:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 7:45 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Goraczka (Fever). 1981. Poland. Directed by Agnieszka Holland. With Olgierd Lukaszewicz, Barbara Grabowska, Adam Ferency. Although already a prizewinner, Fever was banned (as was A Lonely Woman) by the military government that took over Poland in 1981. The material, which deals with Polish anarchist resistance to Russian forces following the failed 1905 revolution, is treated in a manner worthy of Dostoevsky, showing that Holland could rival her mentor Wajda as a political filmmaker. In Polish; English subtitles. 120 min.
Monday, December 29, 2008, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Ekipa (Prime Minister). 2007. Poland. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik (Holland’s daughter), Magdalena Lazarkiewicz (Holland’s sister). With Marcin Perchuc, Janusz Gajos, Krzysztof Stroinski, Katarzyna Herman, Rafal Mackowiak, Andrzej Seweryn. Two episodes of a popular Polish political-thriller television show. In Polish; English subtitles. 103 min.
Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Bittere Ernte (Angry Harvest). 1985. Germany. Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Screenplay by Holland. With Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Kathe Jaenicke. Holland’s first international prize winner (Montreal World Film Festival) explores the questions of faith and ethics that would become central to her most important work. The film tells the story of a farmer who shelters—and falls in love with—a Jewish woman during the German occupation of Poland. In German; English subtitles. 102 min.
Thursday, January 1, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Anna. 1987. USA. Directed by Yurek Bogayevicz. Screenplay by Agnieszka Holland. With Sally Kirkland, Robert Fields, Paulina Porizkova. Holland’s first English-language script set the stage for Kirkland’s bravura performance as a has-been leading lady trying to survive in the unforgiving world of the New York theater. 95 min.
Thursday, January 1, 2009, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Saturday, January 3, 2009, 1:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Olivier Olivier. 1992. France. Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Screenplay by Agnieszka Holland. With François Cluzet, Brigitte Roüan, Grégoire Colin, Marina Golovine. With this film, Holland pays a visit to the French-provincial turf of Claude Chabrol for a mysterious but strangely moving tale that, like Europa Europa, is based on real-life events. In French; English subtitles. 110 min.
Friday, January 2, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Sunday, January 4, 2009, 6:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Boisko Bezdomnych (The Offsiders). 2008. Poland. Directed by Kasia Adamik. Produced by Krzysztof Zanussi. With Marcin Dorocinski, Eryk Lubos, Dimitrij Piersin. This is the New York premiere of the second feature directed by Holland’s daughter, Kasia Adamik. Based on a concept by Holland, the film depicts homeless people living in Warsaw’s Grand Central Station. In Polish; English subtitles. 126 min.
Sunday, January 4, 2009, 3:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (New York premiere. Introduced by Adamik)
Monday, January 5, 2009, 8:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (New York premiere. Introduced by Adamik)
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Tags: A Lonely Woman, Agnieszka Holland, Anna, Fever, New York Screenings, Sally Kirkland, The Offsiders, Total Eclipse, Yurek Bogayevicz
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Sally Kirkland should indeed have won the 1987 best actress Oscar. The problem was that Anna didn’t make shitloads of money like Moonstruck. It’s also too bad, really, that Sally never made a movie that good after her Oscar nomination. Not even close. Well, at least not the ones I’ve seen.
Leo looks so young!!!