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Release: August 24, 2021

$7.99

Description

A milestone of Polish cinema, this electrifying international sensation by Andrzej Wajda—the final film in his celebrated war trilogy—entwines the story of one man’s moral crisis with the fate of a nation. In a small Polish town on the final day of World War II, Maciek (the coolly charismatic Zbigniew Cybulski), a fighter in the underground anti-Communist resistance movement, has orders to assassinate an incoming commissar. But when he meets and falls for a young barmaid (Ewa Krzyzewska), he begins to question his commitment to a cause that requires him to risk his life. Ashes and Diamonds’ lustrous monochrome cinematography—wreathed in shadows, smoke, and fog—and spectacularly choreographed set pieces lend a breathtaking visual dynamism to this urgent, incendiary vision of a country at a crossroads in its struggle for self-determination. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary from 2004 featuring film scholar Annette Insdorf New video essay by Insdorf on the film’s legacy Andrzej Wajda: On “Ashes and Diamonds,” a 2005 program featuring director Andrzej Wajda, second director Janusz Morgenstern, and film critic Jerzy Plazewski Archival newsreel footage on the making of the film New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by film scholar Paul Coates Top About this item Similar From the Brand Reviews Ashes and Diamonds (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Release: November 19, 2019

$7.99

Description

This sweeping, delirious romance begins in the Polish countryside, where Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a musician on a state-sponsored mission to collect folk songs, discovers a captivating young singer named Zula (Joanna Kulig, in a performance for the ages). Over the next fifteen years, their turbulent relationship will play out in stolen moments between two worlds: the jazz clubs of decadent bohemian Paris, to which he defects, and the corrupt, repressive Communist Bloc, where she remains—universes bridged by their passion for music and for each other. Photographed in luscious monochrome and suffused with the melancholy of the simple folk song that provides a motif for the couple’s fateful affair, Paweł Pawlikowski’s timeless story—inspired by that of his own parents—is a heart-stoppingly grand vision of star-crossed love caught up in the tide of history. DIRECTOR-APPROVED DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director Paweł Pawlikowski and director of photography Łukasz Żal • New conversation between Pawlikowski and filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñàrritu • Press conference featuring Pawlikowski and Żal; actors Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, and Borys Szyc; and producer Ewa Puszczynska • Documentaries from 2018 on the making of the film • Trailer • New English subtitle translation • PLUS: An essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek

Release: September 23, 2014

$6.99

Description

In this Pawel Pawlikowski-directed drama set in 1960s Poland, an orphaned teenager planning to become a nun visits her aunt. When she learns that her birth parents were Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, she sets off on a journey of self-discovery.