The life and times of one of eastern Europe’s wildest, multi-talented artists, Walerian Borowczyk, is to be celebrated at the 12th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, taking place from May 20 – June 29. The BFI will be hosting Cinema Of Desire: The Films Of Walerian Borowczyk, drawing on Arrow Films’ recently restored prints of Borowczyk’s films, including his landmark 1964 animation, Angels’ Games, while the ICA will host the first major UK exhibition of his work, Walerian Borowczyk: The Listening Eye, delving into his archive to pick out rare photos, preliminary work for his animations and wooden sound sculptures among others. There’ll also be the one-off programmed days – Borowczyk: A Forum, Eyetraps and Fetishes: On Borowczyk’s Objects and Bob Godfrey and Walerian Borowczyk – and a poster masterclasses over the festival’s duration.
Says Daniel Bird, Borowczyk expert, producer of the new restorations and curator of the events: "The process of researching and restoring these films has been decades in the making and a real labour of love for me. Thanks to Ligia Borowczyk, Arrow Films as well as everybody who took part in the Kickstarter campaign to restore Goto, Island Of Love, we are now finally in a position to rediscover Borowczyk’s work and re-evaluate his contribution to film history." Head to Kinoteka’s website for full details and whet your curiosity for the retrospective with the trailer above.
In further Borowczyk news, Arrow have just announced details of Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection, their limited edition box set of the remastered prints on DVD and Blu-Ray. The included films are Mr. And Mrs. Kabal’s Theatre, Goto, Isle Of Love, Blanche, Immoral Tales and The Beast, along with a rafter of extras, including documentaries, interviews, visual essays, introductions from the likes of Bird, Terry Gilliam, Craigie Horsfield, Leslie Megahey, Peter Bradshaw and a hardback book featuring essays and a collection of the filmmaker’s short stories. Feast your eyes on the image below and head here to order the box set; be quick, though, it’s limited to strictly 1000 copies when it comes out on June 30.
