ABOUT CULTURE - 01-02.2010

Rabbit à la Berlin
The Polish documentary entitled Królik po berlińsku (Rabbit à la Berlin) has a chance to win an Oscar this year. Rabbits used to live between the two lines of the Berlin Wall. The famous rabbits, which in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) were the heroes of children’s fairs, organized under the allusive rabbit flag, became the symbol of freedom. It was, however, an ironic and ambiguous symbol – as the rabbits felt good in their imprisonment between the walls. In their documentary fairy tale, Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosołowski play with these notions, telling the story of Berlin rabbits after the Second World War in the form of a quasi-educational documentary accompanied with witty and intelligent comments.

„My life” in the National Museum
120 oil paintings and 200 drawings and watercolors by eminent Polish painter Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) will be presented at the exhibition „Moje życie” („My Life”) in the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe). In this way, the Museum wants to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the painter’s death that falls this year. The contents and form of Malczewski’s paintings have been fascinating the whole generations and they are still of great interest to the public and art collectors. The title of the exhibition suggests the representative and cross-sectional review of the artist’s output and, at the same time, it refers to the title of his triptych „Moje życie”. Malczewski freely drew on the rich iconography of the Ancient art and Christian culture, including their symbols in his own style of painting. The „My life” exhibition, presenting the works by Malczewski from the collection of the National Museum, will be open until the 7th of February.

Chris Rea in Warsaw Again
Famous British vocalist and guitarist Chris Rea is coming back to Poland with another concert. The performance is to take place on the 16th of February 2010 in Torwar in Warsaw. In 2010, Chris Rea starts a concert tour promoting his two-piece album entitled „Still So Far to Go – The Best of Chris Rea”. In 2006, the musician who suffered from a pancreatic cancer had his „Farewell Tour” and performed in Warsaw in Sala Kongresowa. However, in November 2007, he announced his comeback and soon launched the blues album entitled „The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes” (2008).

Oldest Polish Film?
Jan Łysko, a scientist from Warsaw, during his visit to Krakow has found in his parents” house a film dated at the beginning of the last century. It is „Kościuszko pod Racławicami” („Kościuszko in the Battle of Racławice”). It came as a great attraction to the workers of the National Film Library (Filmoteka Narodowa) due to its unique value. The specialists claim that the film must have been considered a very big production at the time. It featured 70 actors and 2,000 extras playing in outdoor scenes near Lviv, and the film was supposed to rival foreign productions. The film comes from 1907 and contains, for example, scenes of the oath of Tadeusz Kościuszko and battle scenes. The National Film Library plans to renovate the film and show it on the occasion of its one-hundredth birthday in 2013.

Another Hit in the Capitol Theater
Pomalu, a jeszcze raz (Slowly, and Once Again), a Czech Comedy with songs by Igor Šebo, is another hit of the Capitol Theater in Warsaw. The plot is set in a theater, during preparations for a premiere which is on the verge of unexpected disaster – something we like most, not only in Poland. During the dress rehearsal it turns out that one of the actors, who is the director of the performance at the same time, suddenly disappears. The costumes are ready, the tickets sold and the premiere banquet ordered. What to do now? The only solution is to find a replacement. If the events that are presented in the play were real – and experts say it is quite probable – we must believe that in theater everything can happen. The comedy is indeed very witty and very funny.

New Polish Star in Acting?
Polish filmmakers are predicting that actress Agata Buzek (a daughter of the President of the European Parliament and former Polish Prime Minister) is to be a great world success. For the role of Sabinka in the very popular film entitled Rewers (Reverse), Agata Buzek received the Golden Lion for the best female lead at the Film Festival in Gdynia. ‘Agata is an extremely sensitive and able actress. She is creative and very diligent. She is a very modest person, but I am sure that there is a great world career ahead of her. There are just few such able and interesting actors,” says Borys Lankosz, the director of Rewers. The film is the Polish nominee for Oscar. Maybe thanks to this, the talent of Agata Buzek will be recognized by film lovers all around the world.

She Has Been Singing for 50 Years Already
Irena Santor, one of the most popular Polish singers, has celebrated the 50th anniversary of her artistic work. Some people call her the first lady of the Polish song as she has over a thousand songs to her credit. Many of these songs were sung by the whole country. She was born on the 7th of December 1934. She started her career by singing in school choirs. ‘It all started because my heart needed that, and not because I wanted to become a singer, as I did not want to, in fact. It was a matter of chance”, says Irena Santor. In 1951, she joined the „Mazowsze” Song and Dance Ensemble, where she spent eight years giving concerts all around the world. In 1959, she left „Mazowsze”. Two years later, she represented Poland at the Sopot Festival, where she won the first prize for the Embarras waltz. Although she is one of the best recognized Polish singers, she says that fame is not a problem to her: ‘I do not treat popularity as something constant or unchanging which will be with me forever. It is a very nice gift of fortune which I do respect. You have to be able to enjoy popularity. And not to treat it too seriously”.