19th Silent Film Festival // 19. Festiwal Filmu Niemego

Krakow is gearing up to host its 19th Silent Film Festival at Kino Pod Baranami and we couldn't be more excited each time it comes around!

Adored by all, this unique and totally beautiful festival runs from the 6th to the 9th of December and as per usual will be screening a really fabulous line-up of classic, oft forgotten and completely brilliant silent films. However, some of these films will not be so silent as accompanying their screening will be played a brand new, originally composed music score, performed live by musicians right in the cinema as the film plays. How incredible is that!

You can check out the full program here, with information on all the films.

All films will be presented with Polish and English subtitles (except for 'A Miracle at the Vistula River' & 'Mania')

 

"This year’s edition of Silent Film Festival is entitled Pola, Polonia, Polonica in celebration of 100 years of Polish independence. Apart from presenting Polish films, the Festival follows the trail of Polish people and places in world’s silent film, as well as extraordinary filmmakers of Polish origin and the incomparable Pola Negri, the first Polish actress who has made her dream of Hollywood come true.

Apolonia Chałupiec, known worldwide as Pola Negri, was a true trailblazer, enabling such icons as Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo to take their own chances in the Dream Factory. She will first enchant the viewers during the Festival’s opening screening, The Polish Dancer by Aleksander Hertz, which will take place at Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. Negri plays a girl who uses her wit and beauty in an unfair fight for a better life. The copy shown at the Festival has been digitally restored by the National Film Archive. The screening will be accompanied by live music performed by the renowned band Kroke, coming back to Silent Film Festival’s scene after 20 years, with a unique mix of klezmer, ethnic and jazz music. Afterwards, National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute invites the viewers to celebrate the start of the festival with a glass of wine.

Following the premiere of The Polish Dancer, Pola Negri moved to Germany, where she starred in another film presented at the Festival, Mania: The Cigarette Girl. Director Eugen Illés cast her as a model, who falls in love with a young composer. Soon she discovers, that her lover’s career depends on the goodwill of a wealthy man, who happens to fancy her as well. During the screening in Krakow the audience will see a digitally restored copy of the film with a new soundtrack composed by Jerzy Maksymiuk.

(Spot festival: Blek Music: "Groo Jezz" Tapeworm Collective)

Following the premiere of The Polish Dancer, Pola Negri moved to Germany, where she starred in another film presented at the Festival, Mania: The Cigarette Girl. Director Eugen Illés cast her as a model, who falls in love with a young composer. Soon she discovers, that her lover’s career depends on the goodwill of a wealthy man, who happens to fancy her as well. During the screening in Krakow, the audience will see a digitally restored copy of the film with a new soundtrack composed by Jerzy Maksymiuk.

Participants of the Festival will also have a chance to see the first Polish film star in a comedy-drama Hotel Imperial, the only fully preserved American picture created by the Swedish director Mauritz Stiller. It is a charming love story of a Hungarian officer and a resolute maid, who helps him hide from the enemy in a small hotel at the border. Hotel Imperial will be shown together with The Prima Ballerina, another movie by the same director. This captivating story of a talented dancer and a poor violinist, starts in a small Polish village acquired by Russia during the partitions of the country. All that stands in the way of the couple’s happiness is a deceitful count, who fell for the girl himself."

"A perfect way to complete the tale of one of the most fascinating characters in the history of Polish cinema will be the screening of a documentary Life Is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri. Using interviews with film critics, cinema experts, as well as the actress's friends, Mariusz Kotowski, an American director of Polish descent, recreated her path from the unknown Apolonia Chałupiec to the absolute legend.

Pola Negri is not the only Hollywood artist of Polish origin, whose films will be presented at this year's edition of the Festival. Kino Pod Baranami will also feature a star of theatre and film in Yiddish, the incredible Molly Picon, also known as Małka Opiekun, born in New York in a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. The popular actress appears in a charming comedy East and West, set in a traditional Jewish shtetl in Galicia. Molly Picon plays the role of an unpredictable American woman, who makes quite a fuss during a visit to her father's homeland."