Walerian Borowczyk – short films 2

88’

The Astronauts

Les astronautes
France 1959 / 12’

Borowczyk’s first professional film outside of Poland, The Astronauts takes the manipulated photograph technique of The School to dizzying new heights. The first of several Borowczyk films produced by the Polish-French producer Anatole Dauman, The Astronauts is credited as being co-directed by the late, legendary cine-essayist Chris Marker. According to Marker, his main contribution to Borowczyk’s film was the loan of his owl, Anabase. Fellow animator and sometimes Borowczyk collaborator Michel Boschet plays the lead role in a film which invokes the wonder of Georges Méliès and the slapstick of Buster Keaton.

director: Walerian Borowczyk, Chris Marker
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk, Chris Marker
cinematography: Daniel Harispe
editing: Jasmine Chasney
music: Andrzej Markowski
cast: Michel Boschet, Ligia Borowczyk, Anatole Dauman, Philippe Lifchitz
producer: Anatole Dauman
production: Argos Films, Les Films Amorial
sales: Argos Films
source of print: Tamasa
language: no dialogues

Chris Marker

Chris Marker (1921–2012) is a French multimedia artist, director, photographer, and writer. His films often experiment with form, such as creative documentary and documentary essay.

Selected filmography

1952 Olympia 52 (doc.)

1959 Astronauci / Les astronautes / The Astronauts (co-dir., anim., short)

1962 Filar / La jetée / The Pier (short)

1977 Le fond de l’air est rouge / A Grin Without a Cat (doc.)

1983 Bez słońca / Sans soleil / Without Sun (doc.)

Grandma’s Encyclopaedia

L’encyclopédie de grand-maman en 13 volumes
France 1963 / 6’

Like both Stan Vanderbeek and Larry Jordan, Borowczyk saw the potential of animating cut outs from Victorian encyclopedias and novels. Like Lenica’s The Labyrinth (completed the same year), Borowczyk takes the idea at the heart of Max Ernst’s graphic novel Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness), and makes it move for both comic and surrealistic effect.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Francis Pronier
music: Avenir de Monfred
producer: Jacques Forgeot
production: Les Cinéastes Associés
sales: Dominique Segretin
source of print: Filmoteka Narodowa
language: no dialogues
colouration: b&w

Renaissance

France 1963 / 9’

Borowczyk’s signature work, Renaissance features a wrecked, handmade objects gradually reconstructing themselves into a still life composition before exploding once more… Dedicated to Hy Hirsh (the American photographer, cameraman and abstract filmmaker who died prematurely of a heart attack in 1961), the objects (which include a doll, a stuffed owl, a trumpet etc.) in Renaissance serve as a concentrated microcosm of a larger, off screen drama. A frequently humorous and sometimes ominous sound track (not to mention a brief flash of colour) make Renaissance one of Borowczyk’s most perfect films.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Guy Durban
editing: Claude Blondel
music: Avenir de Monfred
sound: Claude Blondel
producer: Jacques Forgeot
production: Les Cinéastes Associés
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: no dialogues
colouration: colour & b&w

The Game of the Angels

Les jeux des anges
France 1964 / 11’

Arguably Borowczyk’s masterpiece, The Game of the Angels is, according to the artist, a reportage in the city of angels. Based on a series of abstract, metaphysical gouaches that evoke Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte but which could only have come from Borowczyk’s paintbrush, The Game of the Angels evokes the horror of what Czesław Miłosz described as the concentration universe of both death camps and the Gułag. These unforgettable images combined with an astonishing soundtrack by Bernard Parmegiani, results in The Game of the Angels being one of the most affecting films in the history of cinema.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Francis Pronier, Gerard Cox
editing: Claude Blondel
music: Bernard Parmegiani
producer: Jacques Forgeot
production: Les Cinéastes Associés
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: no dialogues

Joachim’s Dictionary

Le dictionnaire de Joachim
France 1965 / 9’

Based on a sparse, singular design by Laurence Demaria (Ligia Borowczyk), Joachim defines twenty six words each beginning with a different letter from the alphabet. As with, Grandma’s Encyclopaedia, Borowczyk offers a succession of visual definitions which suggest a doomed attempt at mastering the absurdities of the world. Frequently hilarious, Joachim’s Dictionary is Borowczyk at his most anarchic.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Constantin Tchikine
editing: Catherine Kelber
music: Bernard Parmegiani
producer: Dominique Duvergé
production: Pantaléon Films
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: no dialogues

Rosalie

France 1966 / 15’

Of all his films, Borowczyk’s favourite was Rosalie. Based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, Borowczyk relates the plight of a servant girl who killed and buried her child in the garden. Featuring a profoundly touching performance by Ligia Borowczyk, once again Borowczyk uses animated objects to relate (horrific) action indirectly. An over-exposed, chiaroscuro image gives the proceedings an etherial quality halfway between one of Beckett’s monologues and David Lynch’s Eraserhead.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk, based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant
cinematography: Yann le Masson
editing: Catherine Kelber
sound: Jacques Boujon
cast: Ligia
producer: Dominique Duvergé
production: Pantaléon Films
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: French
colouration: b&w

Diptych

Diptyque
France 1967 / 8’

In hindsight, Diptych stands as in many ways the cornerstone of Borowczyk’s inimitable approach to cinema. Here, Borowczyk presents two, seemingly distinct ‘volets’. In the first, we see an old farmer, accompanied by his knackered dog, riding a clapped out jalopy back home. Shot hand held, with direct sound in grainy black and white, it makes a stark contrast to the second volet, which features a succession of tableaux vivant in startling colour featuring house plants and kittens playing against an aria from Bizet’s Carmen. While total opposites both in terms of form and style, the two volets nevertheless constitute a unified whole.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Guy Durban
editing: Marie-Louise Barberot
music: Georges Bizet
producer: Dominique Duvergé
production: Pantaléon Films
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: French
colouration: colour & b&w

Gavotte

France 1967 / 12’

Two bored dwarves fight over a cushion. Like Diptych, Gavotte constitutes a further step in the direction of live action filmmaking. Completely wordless, Borowczyk takes his dramatic cue from a gavotte by Jean-Philippe Rameau, played on a harpsichord off camera. Whereas the purveyors of concrete cinema pushed the boundaries of film form with often dry results, Borowczyk uses the constraints of the film frame for comic effect.

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Guy Durban
editing: Marie-Louise Barberot
music: Jean-Philippe Rameau
cast: Roberto Ludo
producer: Dominique Duvergé
production: Pantaléon Films
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: no dialogues

The Phonograph

Le phonographe
France 1969 / 6’

An old phonograph assembles itself, plays songs on wax drums before self destructing. In many ways The Phonograph is a companion piece to Renaissance, there is nevertheless something quietly affecting about Borowczyk’s final ‘object’ animation. Through a succession of loving closeups, there is a sense of both a love of craftsmanship not to mention a nostalgia for a bygone (i.e. pre-War) age. Look out for cameos of the phonograph in Borowczyk’s subsequent live action films (A Private Collection, The Story of Sin and The Blood of Dr. Jekyll).

director: Walerian Borowczyk
screenplay: Walerian Borowczyk
cinematography: Guy Durban
editing: Claude Blondel
producer: Dominique Duvergé
production: Pantaléon Films
sales: Dominique Segretin
language: no dialogues

Walerian Borowczyk

Walerian Borowczyk was born on October 21, 1923 in Kwilcz near Poznań. After the War he studied painting and lithography at the Jan Matejko Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1951. During the early 1950s he made satirical drawings and worked as a lithographer. In 1954 he moved to Warsaw and designed film posters. Later he collaborated on a series of animated films with fellow poster artist, Jan Lenica. In 1959 he moved to Paris where he worked at Les Cinéastes Associés producing short films and commercials. He made his live action feature film debut in 1968 with Goto, Island of Love, which he followed with Blanche in 1971, an adaptation of Juliusz Słowacki’s Mazepa. During the early 1970s, he produced Immoral Tales and The Beast, both of which were critical and box office successes. During the same period, he returned to Poland to direct an adaptation of Stefan Żeromski’s The Story of Sin. In addition to directing several features in France and Italy, he directed several short documentaries on artists as well as an experimental portrait of his adopted city. In 1984 he returned to animation with Scherzo Infernal. In 1992 he published a collection of short stories, L’anatomie du diable. He died in Le Port Marly on February 3, 2006.

Filmography

1946 Sierpień (short)

1949 Magik / The Magician (short)

1949 Głowa / The Head (short)

1950 Tłum / The Crowd (short)

1954 Photographies vivantes (doc., short)

1954 Atelier de Fernand Léger (doc., short)

1955 Jesień / Autumn (short)

1955 Le modeste photographe (short)

1957 Był sobie raz… / Once Upon a Time (co-dir., anim., short)

1957 Nagrodzone uczucie / Rewarded Feeling (co-dir., anim., short)

1957 Strip-tease / Strip-Tease (co-dir., anim., short)

1957 Sztandar Młodych / Banner of Youth (co-dir., anim., short)

1958 Dom / House (co-dir., anim., short)

1958 Szkoła / The School (anim., short)

1959 Astronauci / Les astronautes / The Astronauts (co-dir., anim., short)

1959 La foule (TV, anim., short)

1959 Terra incognita (anim., short)

1959 Le magicien / The Magician (TV, anim., short)

1959 La tête / The Head (TV, anim., short)

1959 Les stroboscopes: magasins du XIX siècle / Stroboscopes: 18th Century Stores (TV, anim., short)

1960 L’écriture / Writing (TV, anim., short)

1961 La boîte à musique / The Music Box (TV, anim., short)

1961 Les bibliothèques / Libraries (TV, anim., short)

1961 Les écoles / Schools (TV, anim., short)

1962 Koncert pana i pani Kabal / Le concert de M. et Mme. Kabal / The Concert of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (anim., short)

1962 La fille sage / A Well-Behaved Girl (TV, anim., short)

1963 Encyklopedia babuni w 13 tomach / L’encyclopédie de grand-maman en 13 volumes / Grandma’s Encyclopaedia (anim., short)

1963 Gancia (TV, anim., short)

1963 Holy Smoke (TV, anim., short)

1963 Renesans / Renaissance (anim., short)

1964 Le musée / The Museum(TV, anim., short)

1964 Zabawy aniołów / Les jeux des anges / The Game of the Angels (anim., short)

1965 Słownik Joachima / Le dictionnaire de Joachim / Joachim’s Dictionary (anim., short)

1966 Paluszek / Le petit poucet (TV, anim., short)

1966 Rozalia / Rosalie (short)

1967 Dyptyk / Diptyque / Diptych (short)

1967 Gawot / Gavotte (short)

1967 Teatr pana i pani Kabal / Théâtre de Monsieur et Madame Kabal / Mr. and Mrs. Kabal’s Theatre

1968 Goto – wyspa miłości / Goto, l’île d’amour / Goto, Island of Love

1969 Fonograf / Le phonographe / The Phonograph (anim., short)

1971 Blanka / Blanche

1973 Wyjątkowa kolekcja / Une collection particulière / A Particular Collection (doc., short)

1974 Opowieści niemoralne / Contes immoraux / Immoral Tales

1975 Ślimak z Wenus / Escargot de Vénus / Venus on the Half-Shell (doc., short)

1975 Bestia / La bête / The Beast

1975 Dzieje grzechu / The Story of Sin

1976 Margines / La marge / The Margin

1977 Za murami klasztoru / Interno di un couvento / Behind Convent Walls

1977 List z Paryża / Brief von Paris / Letter from Paris (doc., short)

1977 Miłość, potwór wszechczasów / L'Amour monstre de tous les temps / The Greatest Love of All Times (doc., short)

1979 L’Armoire (segment in Collections privées / Private Collections)

1979 Heroiny zła / Les héroïnes du mal / Immoral Women

1980 Lulu

1981 Hayaahi (short)

1981 Hyper-Auto-Erotic (short)

1982 Dziwny przypadek doktora Jekylla i Miss Osbourne / Le cas étrange du dr Jekyll et Miss Osbourne / The Blood of Dr. Jekyll

1983 Ars amandi

1984 Piekielne scherzo / Scherzo infernal / Scherzo Infernal (anim., short)

1986 Le lotus d’or (episode of TV series Série rose, short)

1987 Emmanuelle V

1988 Ceremonie miłości / Cérémonie d’amour / Rites of Love

1990 Almanach des adresses des demoiselles de Paris (episode of TV series Série rose, short)

1990 Un traitement mérité (episode of TV series Série rose, short)

1991 L’experte Halima (episode of TV series Série rose, short)