Potrzebie
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966)
During the 1960s, when I had a job doing film acquisition and copyright research for Germany's Beta Film, I was told that Roman Polanski had approached Beta to finance his Samuel Beckett-like feature Cul-de-sac (1966). So the story went, the Beta execs asked to see a screenplay, and Polanski supposedly said, "Screenplay? Why do I need a screenplay. I have a castle!" And he did: Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland, England (where he later shot some scenes for Macbeth).
Back in 1963 at the first New York Film Festival, we were all transfixed by Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962), with its tensions and drama that bubbled to the surface as a cinematic influence over decades, even to the present day. With an okay from Polanski, filmmakers went to the Catskills to do an interpretation of Knife in the Water on dry land, the psychological thriller Kaaterskill Falls (2001).
Cul-de-sac was Polanski's third feature after Knife in the Water and Repulsion (1965), his first British film, He had hoped to adapt Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, but the notion evaporated when Beckett responded by saying he did not want to have his play adapted into a film. Polanski nevertheless set out to make his own Godot-like variation, reworking a 1963 screenplay titled When Katelbach Comes, with additional inspiration from his brief marriage to Polish film star Barbara Kwiatkowska. Like Godot, Katelbach never arrives. The name derives from actor Andre Katelbach, who appeared in Polanski's 1961 short, The Fat and the Lean.
The sister of Catherine Deneuve, Francoise Dorleac, made a total of 20 films; she died seven months after the U.S. release of Cul-de-sac when her sports car flipped and burned near Nice, France.
Music by Krzysztof Komeda, who did the music for Rosemary's Baby (1968) and a dozen other Polanski films. Control-click title heading to hear Komeda's "Crazy Girl" track from Knife in the Water.
During the 1960s, when I had a job doing film acquisition and copyright research for Germany's Beta Film, I was told that Roman Polanski had approached Beta to finance his Samuel Beckett-like feature Cul-de-sac (1966). So the story went, the Beta execs asked to see a screenplay, and Polanski supposedly said, "Screenplay? Why do I need a screenplay. I have a castle!" And he did: Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland, England (where he later shot some scenes for Macbeth).
Back in 1963 at the first New York Film Festival, we were all transfixed by Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962), with its tensions and drama that bubbled to the surface as a cinematic influence over decades, even to the present day. With an okay from Polanski, filmmakers went to the Catskills to do an interpretation of Knife in the Water on dry land, the psychological thriller Kaaterskill Falls (2001).
Cul-de-sac was Polanski's third feature after Knife in the Water and Repulsion (1965), his first British film, He had hoped to adapt Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, but the notion evaporated when Beckett responded by saying he did not want to have his play adapted into a film. Polanski nevertheless set out to make his own Godot-like variation, reworking a 1963 screenplay titled When Katelbach Comes, with additional inspiration from his brief marriage to Polish film star Barbara Kwiatkowska. Like Godot, Katelbach never arrives. The name derives from actor Andre Katelbach, who appeared in Polanski's 1961 short, The Fat and the Lean.
The sister of Catherine Deneuve, Francoise Dorleac, made a total of 20 films; she died seven months after the U.S. release of Cul-de-sac when her sports car flipped and burned near Nice, France.
Music by Krzysztof Komeda, who did the music for Rosemary's Baby (1968) and a dozen other Polanski films. Control-click title heading to hear Komeda's "Crazy Girl" track from Knife in the Water.
Labels: dorleac, komeda, polanski
¶ 2:35 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 26, 2008
46th New York Film Festival
Michelle Williams and Lucy in Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy.
Clip: Wendy and Lucy
Alphabetical list of all films in all New York Film Festivals. Cosgrove's chronological list of New York Film Festival films from 1963 to 1992. A.O. Scott on the 46th New York Film Festival.
Trailer: Changeling
Trailer: Afterschool
Control click heading above to hear a short clip from Krzysztof Komeda's score for Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962), shown at the first New York Film Festival in 1963. Other films shown at the Festival in 1963: All the Way Home (Alex Segal, USA), An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan), Barravento (Glauber Rocha, Brazil), Elektra (Takis Mouzenidis, Greece), The Fiances (Ermanno Olmi, Italy), Hallelujah the Hills (Adolfas Mekas, USA), Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, Japan), Le Joli Mai (Chris Marker, France), Love in the Suburbs (Tamas Fejer, Hungary), Magnet of Doom (Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy), Muriel (Alain Resnais, France/Italy), RoGoPaG (Roberto Rossellini/Ugo Gregoretti/Jean-Luc Godard/Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France), The Sea (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Italy), The Servant (Joseph Losey, UK), The Sky (Takis Kanelopoulos, Greece), Sweet and Sour (Jacques Baratier, France/Italy), The Terrace (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Argentina), The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson, France).
Michelle Williams and Lucy in Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy.Clip: Wendy and Lucy
Trailer: Summer Hours
Alphabetical list of all films in all New York Film Festivals. Cosgrove's chronological list of New York Film Festival films from 1963 to 1992. A.O. Scott on the 46th New York Film Festival.
Trailer: Changeling
Trailer: Afterschool
Clip: The Wrestler
Labels: a.o. scott, afterschool, changeling, gomorrah, happy-go-lucky, komeda, marisa tomei, michelle williams, mickey rourke, new york film festival, the wrestler, waltz with bashir, wendy and lucy
¶ 10:51 AM 0 comments
