77 Illumination

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

77 Illumination

#1 Post by RossyG » Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:32 am

Image

Released 27th of January, 2014.
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.

As much a philosophical essay as a narrative feature Illumination is a cinematic mosaic combining art and science, intellect and emotion. Innovatively structured, this unflinching examination of one man's life became an iconic cultural marker for a whole generation.

The DVD is presented in a superb new director-approved HD transfer with restored picture and sound and features Marcin Latallo's acclaimed 1996 short film A Trace ( lad) about his father, the lead actor in Illumination, Stanislaw Latallo.

New HD restoration with restored picture and sound; 16.9 anamorphic widescreen; New and improved English subtitles.

Extras New filmed interview with director Krzysztof Zanussi
Short film A Trace ( lad)
Booklet essay.
I've never heard of it, but it sounds fascinating. A must (blind) buy, for me. Previously part of the Polish Cinema Classics vol 2 set.

Oh, and well done for resisting the temptation to call the interview extra Zanussi: The Appliance of Science. ;)

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: Illumination

#2 Post by Bikey » Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:00 pm

"an irresistable work of self-consciously intellectual filmmaking that pushes the limits of narrative while being also nothing if not pleasurable"
- A great review in the latest Film Comment

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: Illumination

#3 Post by Bikey » Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:07 am

Full details now up at our website

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: Illumination

#4 Post by Bikey » Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:16 pm

4-star review in the latest Total Film

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Illumination

#5 Post by RossyG » Tue Jan 28, 2014 2:09 pm

I also gave it 4 stars on MovieMail.

Hey, every little helps. :D

(I'd have given it four and a half had I been allowed.)

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: Illumination

#6 Post by Bikey » Thu Jan 30, 2014 6:15 am

"Unique and progressive, Illumination is a triumph of storytelling and form"
Illumination reviewed at Close-Up Film

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warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: Illumination

#7 Post by warren oates » Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:03 pm

This is the first film I've seen by Zanussi, but what an introduction. A biography in fragments that doesn't so much cover a life as the life of a mind. The mind in question belongs to a callow young intellectual university student struggling to understand his world and make a mark for himself in it. Imagine The Mirror if it had been by and about a scientist instead of a poet, or maybe the essayistic effort a more deadpan Dusan Makavejev. What's impressive even now is how up to the minute all of science is, how seriously smart and scholarly Zanussi's engagement is with all of the questions his film asks -- about physics, biology (proleptic neuroscience too), philosophy. And how the film is equally comfortable in about a dozen different genres and tones, capturing scenes from the protagonist's life as if they were short self-contained films that are sometimes romances, domestic melodramas, hard sci-fi, surreal dream sequences, adventure (his hobby is mountaineering), even slapstick comedy and documentary. Yet it all flows together and feels of a piece. This is easily my favorite Second Run discovery since Marketa Lazarova.

The supplements are fantastic. And Zanussi is even more impressive speaking about his own work than I imagined he would be.

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Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: NYC

Re: Illumination

#8 Post by Black Hat » Sun Mar 16, 2014 12:55 pm

In what ways were you reminded of The Mirror? Is this a connection many have made? Because I don't see it at all. Having said that it's a terrific film that teeters on the line of wildly thought provoking and uncomfortably irritating. I definitely see a connection between this film and The Constant Factor but the best Zanussi I've seen is Camouflage. An incredibly smart and funny film.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Illumination

#9 Post by zedz » Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:22 pm

Black Hat wrote:In what ways were you reminded of The Mirror? Is this a connection many have made? Because I don't see it at all.
I can understand the comparison, since they're both fragmentary biographies in which segments that are very diverse stylistically make up a portrait of the protagonist. As befits its subject, Illumination is more empirical, whereas Mirror represents Alexey's stream of consciousness.

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Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: NYC

Re: Illumination

#10 Post by Black Hat » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:42 am

I suppose I can see it in that way as well but it still feels to be a bit of a stretch. Tonally the films to me are about as far as you can get with Illumination being a far more in your face, sharply edited affair which I suppose is aided by the fact that we see and live with the biographee.

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: Illumination

#11 Post by Bikey » Fri Apr 18, 2014 7:19 am

A new review from Backseat Mafia

Stefan Andersson
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am

Re: Illumination

#12 Post by Stefan Andersson » Tue Mar 24, 2015 9:54 am

Zanussi on censorship and Illumination:

"What problems did you have with censorship in the communist era.

My film Camouflage was not really mutilated. I don’t want to overdo it. But there were many cuts and also on Illumination, there was a very strong intervention of the censors. The whole social and civic involvement of my protagonist in Illuminations was cut. In the film, there is only a hint - I negotiated it with the high ranking politicians that it would be mentioned there was anti-Semitic wave and there were student riots. My protagonist was jobless which shows that he was kicked out of the university.

There is a missing scene when he is going to join the students on the student strike. His wife tells him, listen, this is a hopeless case. He answers, quoting Joseph Conrad that you have to stick to your principles even if you know the battle is lost. All this was cut…there is one still picture of the riots that the censorship allowed me to use."

Source:
http://www.screendaily.com/features/krz ... 93.article" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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