In late April, the Barbican Arts Centre in London is hosting a week-long season, Censorship as a Creative Force, in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute, the Czech Centre and the Hungarian Cultural Centre.
I’ve already booked tickets for the two highlights – a panel discussion on April 25 with the extraordinarily impressive line-up of Andrzej Wajda, István Szabó and Jiří Menzel, and Menzel pops up again on April 27 to introduce a preview of his new(ish) film I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2006). The latter has been out on DVD in the Czech Republic for some time, but it definitely doesn’t have English subtitles.
Other screenings include Wajda’s Man of Marble (Człowiek z marmuru, 1976) on April 26, Szabó’s Taking Sides (Szembesites, 2001) and Miklós Jancsó’s The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, 1965) on April 28 (presumably separately) and Zdeněk Sirový’s Funeral Rites (Smuteční slavnost, 1967) on April 30. There also seems to be an extended run (30 March to 30 April) of Menzel’s long-banned 1969 film Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, 1969).
The BFI Southbank is also running a Wajda season in April so hopefully there’ll be the opportunity to see a great number of his films. I have only actually seen Kanal so would love to see the Man of Iron/Marble films, Generation, Ashes and Diamonds (which is on R2 DVD) and Innocent Sorcerors, amongst the others they might show.
Larks on a String looks interesting. IMDB has little on Funeral Rites so would have to see the blurb. As they’re cramming a lot into a short space of time, I think I might see the Jancso films at the Curzon rather than here.
The Wajda season is actually running throughout May, after the British premiere of Katyn (with Wajda Q&A) on April 22.
It’s nowhere close to a complete retrospective, but the thirteen titles are A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds, Everything For Sale, Land of Promise, Man of Marble, Rough Treatment, The Young Ladies of Wilko, The Conductor, Man of Iron, Danton, A Love in Germany and Korczak. Plus an illustrated talk by yours truly on May 6th, which is a general introduction to Wajda’s work aimed at people who might have seen the war trilogy (far and away the easiest Wajda films to see in Britain) but who might not be familiar with the rest of his output. (Hopefully, the interview I did with Wajda last year will see the light of day at about the same time – and I think Sight & Sound is planning to run the uncut 3,500-word version on their website, regardless of how much they end up shortening it for print).
I saw both Larks on a String and Funeral Rites on British television in the early 1990s, the last time Czech films were screened in any significant quantity (BBC2 did a short post-Velvet Revolution season in 1990, and Channel 4 showed some of the long-banned New Wave titles the following year). I’ll try to get a review of the DVD of Larks on a String up before it opens.
Yes of course it’s May. It was previewed in the April listings.
I can’t make the talk by the three directors on 25th , but hope to see Larks on a String and Funeral Rites.
I’m attending the Jancso Q&A + The Round Up at the Curzon Mayfair on Friday.
…as am I, and I’ve just received the very happy news that they’ve tracked down a 35mm print of The Round-Up.
Also, there’s apparently going to be a 35mm screening of Marketa Lazarová in London on April 20, which I almost certainly won’t be able to manage myself, but I’ll highlight it nearer the time when I know the venue.