Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The People Without a Future

Not that anybody here is in Poland, but a report from the English Service of Polish Radio shows the importance of film preservation and the serendipity that not every lost film is lost:

Rediscovered Polish film set for 21st century premiere

A Polish silent film that had been considered lost for close to 100 years is to hit the silver screen once again after a print was found in Germany.

'People with no Tomorrow' ('Ludzie bez jutra') explores actual events that took place 125 years ago, namely the ill-starred love affair between Polish actress Maria Wisnowska and Russian cavalry officer Alexander Bartenev.

The Russian hussar killed his lover in a notorious crime passionnel in June 1890 at the actress's Warsaw apartment.

The film, by noted director Aleksander Hertz, premiered in 1921, but it was only recently rediscovered in Germany's Bundesarchiv.

A freshly restored copy will be screened on 15 December at Warsaw's Kino Iluzjon and on 16 December at Kraków's Kino Pod Baranami.(nh/rk)

Obviously I haven't seen the movie. Somehow, however, I doubt Bartenev wathces Wisnowska's husband playing Hamlet and gets up to go see Wisnowska every time her husband starts that famous soliloquy.

More seriously, it's wonderful to see that another film previously thought lost has been found. I'd presume at some point it's going to become available for the rest of the world, although I'd also guess that any DVDs are likely to be pricey, even though the movie should theoretically be in the public domain.

Although I quoted the entire text of the article, the link above also does include a still from the movie.

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