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Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema was a 21-film series released by Milestone in partnership with Propaganda Foundation, DI Factory, CRF, KinoRP and The Film Foundation. The series featured brand-new restorations of classic works from some of Poland's most accomplished and lauded filmmakers, spanning the period from 1957–1987.

The second set 8 films from the series chosen by Martin Scorsese include some of the greatest films in cinema history.
-- Austeria, Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1982
-- Night Train (Pociag), Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1959
-- Illumination (Iluminacja), Directed and written by Krzysztof Zanussi, 1972
-- Knights of the Black Cross (Krzyzacy), Directed by Aleksander Ford, 1960
-- Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje), Directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1960
-- The Saragossa Manuscript (Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie), Directed by Wojciech J. Has, 1964
-- The Last Day of Summer (Ostatni dzien lata), Directed and written by Tadeusz Konwicki, 1958
-- Walkover, Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, 1965

Austeria (The Inn)
Jerzy Kawalerowicz spent decades trying to realise his most personal project, a tale of anti-Semitic persecution during the First World War that allowed him to suggest, without tackling the Holocaust directly, that the culturally-engendered pacifism and passivity of Poland's Jews sowed the seeds of their later destruction. This was – to put it mildly – a controversial notion, but Kawalerowicz’s sympathy and sincerity is evident throughout.

Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje)
After three successive films about Polish history, Wajda turned his attention to the (then) present, enlisting younger colleagues Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski to add verisimilitude to this study of disaffected twentysomethings. Newly qualified doctor and jazz fanatic Bazyli (Tadeusz Lomnicki) has so little time for emotional engagement that when he actually falls in love he doesn’t know how to handle it.

Knights of the Black Cross (Krzyzacy)
One of Poland's biggest hits, this lavish widescreen epic was based on Henryk Sienkiewicz’s much-loved novel, ‘The Teutonic Knights’. Set at the turn of the 15th century, it depicts the tension between the Poles and Lithuanians and their Teutonic neighbours, culminating in a thrilling reconstruction of the 1410 Battle of Grunwald (a pivotal event in Polish history) which featured thousands of extras.

Night Train (Pociag)
A sleeper train rockets through the night; among its passengers might be a murderer. ‘Night Train’ isn’t quite as overtly Hitchcockian as it sounds, as Kawalerowicz was primarily interested in the quirks that people show in artificial social environments. Leon Niemczyk (‘Knife in the Water’) and the director’s wife, Lucyna Winnicka, are strangers sharing a compartment while studiously hiding personal secrets.

The Illumination (Iluminacja)
Unanimous winner of all three main prizes at the 1973 Locarno International Film Festival, Zanussi's landmark film is a dazzling kaleidoscope of ideas and images. Illumination explores the life of a self-absorbed young physicist trying to understand his place in the universe. He thinks science will provide the answers, but ultimately learns far more about himself through experiencing love, betrayal, loss, and facing his own mortality.
Innovatively structured, this unflinching examination of one man's life became an iconic cultural marker for a whole generation.

The Last Day of Summer (Ostatni dzien lata)
Already an important novelist, Konwicki used his position as the Kadr Film Unit’s literary advisor to make his directing debut for a tiny budget, with no script and a cast of two – a revolutionary gesture at a time of rigorously pre-vetted projects. A man and a woman meet on a deserted beach, their obvious attraction undermined by traumatic wartime memories.

The Saragossa Manuscript (Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie)
You wouldn’t expect a rip-roaring widescreen Napoleonic adventure crammed with duels, damsels and cryptic manuscripts to be the favourite film of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. But this is actually one of the great 1960s ‘head-trips’ – an adaptation of Count Jan Potocki’s legendarily labyrinthine novel into a bewildering but exhilarating lattice of stories within stories within stories.

Walkover (Walkower)
Jerzy Skolimowski’s second feature (and first full-length narrative) cemented his status as a one-man Polish New Wave, with the rhythms of his films influenced as much by jazz and (his own) poetry as by more conventional storytelling. Skolimowski himself plays a dropout-turned-amateur boxer who’s distracted from his bouts when Teresa (Aleksandra Zawieruszanka), an old university friend, re-enters his life.

8 x Blu-Ray | 1080p AVC | 243 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English, Polish, Francais
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History, Music, Romance, Mystery, Thriller, War, Fantasy, Sport

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