director Filip Bajon
screenplay Filip Bajon
director of photography Jerzy Zieliński
music Zdzisław Szostak
with Krzysztof Majchrzak, Pola Raksa, Roman Wilhelmi, Bogusz Bilewski, Wojciech Pszoniak, Ryszard Pietruski, Zdzisław Wardejn
awards (selection) ’Best Direction Debut’ at the International Independent Films Festival in San Remo, 1980
Individual Prize, Bronze Lions, for ‘Best Direction Debut’ and ‘Best Cinematography’ at the 6th Polish Film Festival in Gdańsk, 1979
Jantar Prize and Journalists Prize for ‘Best Debut’ at Youth and Film, Film Meetings in Koszalin, 1979
the Zbyszek Cybulski prize for Krzysztof Majchrzak, 1980
[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]
Siedelmayer: And now I’ll show you the fourteen ugliest people in the world. Look at the woman wildly overgrown with hair. She was found in a Transylvanian nunnery. No-one wants to talk about how she got there, but I’ll tell you the secret: she is a daughter of the devil and a nun. And here is the King of Greenland, who was struck dumb and froze into this position (…). Góralewicz: Could you take us in please? Siedelmayer: And what can you do? Góralewicz: They say I’m the ugliest man in town. Siedelmayer: And what’s your story? Come back when you have a story of your own.
KRZYSZTOF MĘTRAK, BETWEEN THE OPERA AND THE CIRCUS [MIĘDZY OPERĄ A CYRKIEM], ‘KULISY’, 1979, NO. 46
This is a real feast for the eyes and ears: an integral and complete visual creation, one of rigorous structure. (…) ‘Aria for an Athlete’ is a display of cinematic ornamentation, of visionary imagination bringing out Art Nouveau shapes, using halftones and coloraturas. (…) And then there is the tone of pastiche, almost overlooked by the critics, which blurs the line between fiction and reality. (…) Sometimes the parodistic borders here on the surreal in the alternation of tone and setting.
history periods
