Films This Week 8/27/21
by Gary Palmucci | 27th August 2021 | Gary's Corner
Hello everyone. Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska has been steadily building an international film portfolio over the past decade. Her ‘breakout’ film Elles premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (I later supervised its US release) and featured Juliette Binoche as a Parisian journalist who finds herself immersed in a prostitution ring run by university students. Its abundant NC-17-rated couplings did not ensure commercial art house success, but marked Szumowska as a provocative ‘filmmaker to watch.’
Her latest, Never Gonna Snow Again, was Poland’s ‘official submission’ for Best International Film at last year’s Oscars and debuts today on our Virtual Cinema. The veteran (and venerable) Hollywood Reporter critic Deborah Young wrote, “Emptiness and longing afflict the sad residents of a wealthy gated Polish community, until a mysterious visitor arrives offering massages with his strong, healing hands. At that point they realize what is missing from their lives and find it ‘almost’ within their grasp…With each new film, Szumowska seems to be breaking new ground with off-beat stories that challenge the audience to find a door into them.” This movie signals to me distant echoes of Italian provocateur Pier Paolo Pasolini’s late ’60s classic Teorema, featuring Terence Stamp. We’ll be featuring more new voices from Eastern Europe in September, and I’m also strongly recommending our recent documentary additions: Searching for Mr. Rugoff and What We Left Unfinished.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema