Following a string of contemporary and classic Polish film screenings in a variety of venues across London, the 15th Kinoteka came to a spectacular close in the labyrinthine Barbican Centre (on Wednesday 5th April, 2017).This annual Polish Film Festival always creates something original,besides the usual programmes of features and documentaries, workshops and presentations- another on-screen logo by the local Quay Brothers, and this year Kinoteka commissioned new scores to be performed live on the stage of the large Barbican Hall by the indierock band British Sea Power to accompany an eclectic selection of Polish classic animated shorts, ranging in date of production from 1932 to 1983. The visual eccentricities of films made under the watchful eyes of communist censors partnered well with the insistent rythms of the six-strong group of modern musicians who drew a capacity crowd to the large venue.Highlights onscreen were The School,made in 1958 by Walerian Borowczyk, later famed for his colourful erotic features (and a jolly Jury Member at the Oxford International Film Festival where a different kind of censorship prevented the complete Caligula from competing as film surprise in primo mondiale,though W.B.and fellow juror Lina Wertmuller had privately seen it in Rome and for a time threatened to prize it-- even though the representative of Customs and Excise, or some such entity, who had viewed it with the then Secretary of the British Board of Censors James Ferman, threatened to burn the print due to be sent by Bob Guccione from New York, since he believed it contained 9 minutes and 28 seconds of obscenity, within the meaning of the Act, which could not be removed when the 35mm print would reach Heathrow airport en route for its Saturday night premiere at the largest theatre in Oxford),and Black Riding Hood,made in 1983 by Piotr Dumala.a very dark version of the traditional fairytale.From the charming stop-frame animation of the oldest film The Lion and the Fly (1932) by Ladislav Starevich to the repetitive trickery of Tango (1980, Zbyniew Rybczynski) in which 20 photographed figures are made to pirouette in and out of a modest domestic room, the new live musical soundtracks made a fascinating counterpoint to the visual techniques of shorts with, for the most part no spoken dialogues, or an occasional semi-human sound. The 90-odd minute show was enthusiastically received, as was, for the fortunate invitees, an elegant after-party in an adjacent Barbican salon, lavishly decorated by atractive posters of Poland, with the traditionally tasty birthday cake (The Polish Bakery happily still a sponsor) and, in the absence of any stock of wodka, a lively delegation from festival hotel partner The Melia White House, with discount vouchers for its Dry Martini Bar.Even the canapes seemed to be nouvelle elaborations of traditional Polish cuisine.
Phillip Bergson
www.barbican.org.uk