Adelheid

Poland, 1972
Length / Main feature: 89 minutes
Length / Special features: 46 minutes
Sound: Original mono (restored)
Colour
Original aspect ratio:
1.66:1 / 16.9 anamorphic
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English On/Off
PAL DVD9
Region 0
RRP: £12.99
buyRelease Date: 27th Jan 2014
Second Run DVD 077

Unanimous winner of all three main prizes at the 1973 Locarno International Film Festival, Zanussi's landmark film is a dazzling kaleidoscope of ideas and images. Illumination explores the life of a selfabsorbed young physicist trying to understand his place in the universe. He thinks science will provide the answers, but ultimately learns far more about himself through experiencing love, betrayal, loss, and facing his own mortality.

As much a philosophical essay as a narrative feature, Illumination is a cinematic mosaic combining art and science, intellect and emotion. Innovatively structured, this unflinching examination of one man's life became an iconic cultural marker for a whole generation.

The DVD is presented from a superb new high-definition restoration of the film approved by the director, and features a newly filmed, exclusive interview with director Krzysztof Zanussi, the short film A Trace (Ślad) - Marcin Latałło's acclaimed 1996 film about his father, the lead actor in Illumination, Stanisław Latałło, and a booklet featuring a new essay by film critic and author Michał Oleszczyk.

more about the film

Related Titles

Stanisław Latałło – Franciszek Retman
Monika Dzienisiewicz–Olbrychska – Agnieszka
Małgorzata Pritulak – Małgorzata
Edward Żebrowski – Physician


Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi

Screenplay – Krzysztof Zanussi
Cinematography – Edward Kłosiński
Editor – Urszula Śliwińska
Sound – Wiesława Dembińska, Witold Popkiewicz
Music – Wojciech Kilar
Production Design – Stefan Maciąg
Assistant Directors – Piotr Wojciechowski, Agnieszka Holland, Ryszard Bugajski


Related Titles
Illumination is also available on Second Run DVD as part of the Polish Cinema Classics Volume II Box Set.

Intimate


s

Special Features
• Presented from a superb new high-definition restoration of the film, approved by the director.

• Newly filmed, exclusive interview with director Krzysztof Zanussi.

• A Trace (Ślad) - Marcin Latałło's acclaimed 1996 short film about his father, Stanisław Latałło, the lead actor in Illumination.

• New and improved English subtitle translation.

Booklet featuring specially commissioned new essay by film critic and author Michał Oleszczyk.

 

Appreciation
Awards

1973 Locarno International Film Festival /
Winner: FIPRESCI Prize / Winner: Golden Leopard Award / Winner: Jury Prize

1973 Gdynia Polish Film Festival / Winner: Grand Jury Prize

"Of the third postwar generation of Polish directors... the most important is Krzysztof Zanussi"
David Cook, A History of Narrative Film

"A dazzling, cinematic Bildungsroman about a gifted young physicist, his intellectual and spiritual development, his marriage, fatherhood and intimations of mortality"
Philip French, The Observer

"Zanussi creates a visually complex, incisive, and compassionate examination of the essence of knowledge and truth" Strictly Film School

"Zanussi's astounding cerebral odyssey Illumination questions nothing less than the fabric of the known universe"
David Jenkins, Sight & Sound

 

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