Adelheid

Poland, 1972 / 1974 / 1990
Length / Main features: 344 minutes
Length / Special features: 95 minutes
Sound:
Stereo 2.0 / Original mono (restored)
Colour
Original aspect ratios:
1.66:1 / 1.85:1 - 16.9 anamorphic
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English On/Off
PAL DVD9 x 3
Region 0
RRP: £34.99
buyRelease Date: 25th March 2013
Second Run DVD 075

Second Run DVD presents a second volume in its Polish Cinema Classics series. Gathering together films from three of Poland's acknowledged master filmmakers, this special edition 3-DVD box set contains these celebrated films fully restored in new director-approved HD masters and released for the first time ever in the UK.

This 3-DVD Set comprises:
THE PROMISED LAND (Ziemia obiecana / Andrzej Wajda, 1974)
Adapted from Polish Nobel laureate Władysław Stanisław Reymont's classic 1897 novel, The Promised Land is the story of three young friends united in the ruthless pursuit of fortune. Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar® and presented here in its original uncut cinema version, Wajda's lavish epic is a Dickensian tale of greed, human cruelty and betrayal.

ILLUMINATION (Iluminacja / Krzysztof Zanussi, 1972)

Zanussi's landmark film is an insightful fusion of science and art - and is as much a philosophical essay as a dazzlingly kaleidoscopic narrative feature. A cinematic mosaic of precision, intellect and emotion Illumination became a defining event for a whole generation.

ESCAPE FROM THE 'LIBERTY' CINEMA (Ucieczka z kina 'Wolność' / Wojciech Marczewski , 1990)
Marczewski's anti-totalitarian satire is a darkly comic examination of the nature and effects of censorship, directed by one of Poland's leading intellectual - and much censored - filmmakers. Multi-award-winning, and with shades of Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. and Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo it is a key film of the seismic political change of 1989.

more about the film

Adelheid Stills

Appreciation
The Promised Land:
"For many Polish viewers the Wajda film of the greatest relevance became The Promised Land"
Paul Coates, The Cinema Of People's Poland

"Overpowering in its realistic reflection of the period... Lensing, music and art direction are also outstanding" Variety

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

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

Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema:
"A poetry of images and individual courage" István Szabó

"A rich mixture of dark political satire and poetic allegory"
Wally Hammond, Time Out

"An exuberant attack on censorship" Variety

 

Special Features
• Presented from a superb new high-definition restorations of the films, approved by the filmmakers.

• Newly filmed, exclusive interviews with directors Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi and Wojciech Marczewski.

• 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 translations.

Booklets featuring specially commissioned new essays on the films by David Thompson, Michał Oleszczyk and Michael Brooke.

Related Titles
Andrzej Wajda's acclaimed 1960 feature Innocent Sorcerers
(Niewinni czarodzieje)
is also available on Second Run DVD as part of the Polish Cinema Classics Box Set or as a separate release.

Audition Intimate
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