Movie Night

about Tadeusz Kantor (PL)

Filmabend über den wegwweisenden Theaterregisseur, Maler und Bühnenbildner des 20. Jahrhunderts

Film

Kantor’s Circle (58 min. | Poland, 2015 | Polish with English subtitles)

Kantor’s Circle is a documentary about young Polish artists who worked underground in Krakow under Nazi occupation. During the Second World War, Tadeusz Kantor gathered talented artists around him, founded the Underground Independent Theatre with them in 1942 and produced the two plays “Balladyna” and “The Return of Odysseus” in private homes. The film contains many archive materials: videos, photographs and reproductions of unknown paintings and drawings from the time of the occupation.

Directed by: Adrianna Książek and Iwo Książek
Production: Studio-11 Iwo Książek
Co-production: Telewizja Polska S.A.
Funding: Polish Film Institute, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland

Dead Class (72 Min. | The full title of the recording: “The Dead Class – a seance by Tadeusz Kantor” | 1976)

The production “The Dead Class” (1975) is Kantor’s best-known stage play, which can be described as a happening with biographical references and at the same time as an installation sculpture. As in Kantor’s entire oeuvre, his private childhood memories blend with core themes from the cultural memory of the 20th century, including the two world wars and the annihilation of Jewish culture, which are still the themes of Polish culture today. The great old master of Polish film, Andrzej Wajda, filmed the play at the Krzysztofory Gallery, where it premiered in 1976. The play was performed over 1,500 times in many countries of the world.

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Production: P.R.F. “Zespoły filmowe” Zespół X
Producer rights: Telewizja Polska S.A.

Kantor ist da (46 Min.)

The exhibition “Von der Collage zur Assemblage” took place in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg in 1968, in which Tadeusz Kantor was also involved. In collaboration with Saarländischer Rundfunk, Dietrich Mahlow then shot the film “Kantor ist da” (1968), in which the artist can be seen, for example, at the happening “Lebende Emballage/Emballage Humain” in Nuremberg: He wraps his wife Maria Stangret, who stands on a pedestal in the congress hall of the Reich Party Rally Grounds, in paper.

Produced by Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) in collaboration with Dietrich Mahlow of Kunsthalle Nürnberg.