Nearly thirty years ago, the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies began the Polish Film Festival here in Rochester, and for more than a decade, the Dryden has paired those newer films with classics of Polish Cinema. This year we are celebrating Poland’s first great cinematic actress, Pola Negri, with a screening of The Wildcat on October 20, which has never screened before at the Dryden. In addition, we are recognizing the centennial of Adrzej Wajda, who defined the “Polish Film School” movement with a screening of his classic Ashes and Diamonds on October 29. Then stop back in on November 3 for the kickoff to this year’s official festival.
Dates and Titles:
October 20: The Wildcat (Die Bergkatze, Ernst Lubitsch, Germany 1921, 79 min., DCP)
October 29: Ashes and Diamonds (Popiól i diament, Andrzej Wajda, Poland 1958, 103 min., 35mm, Polish with English subtitles)
Events in this Series
The Wildcat (DCP)
Silent Tuesdays | Schweigen! | Polish Film Festival Years before his iconic “touch” was established, Ernst Lubitsch directed this broad farce about the military-and-marriage complex starring Polish emigré Pola Negri. Rischka (Negri), the daughter of a gang of robbers high in the snowy mountains of Germany, is a real wildcat and runs her father’s gang with ruthlessness.
Ashes and Diamonds (35mm)
Polish Film Festival Wajda’s first bona fide masterpiece and the conclusion of his informal “war trilogy,” Ashes and Diamonds bravely depicts the uneasy Polish political realities in the immediate aftermath of World War II.