Cinema Gallery 2007 / Summer Love / Poland, USA 2006
A western-style symbolic film featuring Karel Roden as the baddie and Val Kilmer as the star-cast corpse. Film director Piotr Uklanski is one of the most important (and most controversial) Polish artists on the current scene. Is this a parody? A post-modern quotation? An experiment? Decide for yourselves.
The film opens with Stranger (Karel Roden) riding into town with the corpse of a Wanted Man (Val Kilmer). This, the “first ever Polish western”, presents an unusual genre variation by celebrated artist Piotr Uklanski. He has created neither parody nor homage, but instead exploits “cinema’s most codified genre” as the framework for his symbolic film. The characters have no names, some of them don’t even speak during the story. The presence of a “star-cast corpse” is a kind of jibe at the need for Euro films to feature Hollywood stars. The Stranger soon becomes embroiled in a love triangle between the local barmaid (Katarzyna Figura) and the alcoholic sheriff (Bogusław Linda). Based on the principle of a “copy of a copy”, Summer Love, shot in the mountains of southern Poland, is steeped in dark humour, reminiscent of the depressing western atmosphere. Since its premiere at the Venice festival, the film has been screened in the context of both contemporary art and film.
93 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Piotr Uklanski
/ Screenplay Piotr Uklanski
/ Dir. of Photography Jacek Petrycki
/ Music Karel Holas, India Czajkowska
/ Editor Mike Horton
/ Producer Staffan Ahrenberg, Hamish Skeggs, Pitor Uklanski
/ Cast Karel Roden, Katarzyna Figura, Bogusław Linda, Val Kilmer
/ Contact Bontonfilm, a.s., Studiocanal
/ Distributor Bontonfilm, a.s.
www: www.summerlovefilm.com
Piotr Uklanski (b. 1968, Warsaw), one of Poland’s best known contemporary artists, today lives in New York and Warsaw. The film world acknowledged his achievements with the controversial exhibition The Nazis (1998), photographs of Nazi film characters taken out of context and shown without permission from the actors. The exhibition in Poland was publicly trashed by outraged actor Daniel Olbrychski. Films include Dance Floor (1996) and Untitled [The Full Burn] (1998). The film Summer Love is his first feature.
Bontonfilm, a.s.
Na Poříčí 1047/26, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 257 415 111
E-mail: [email protected]
Studiocanal
50 rue Camille Desmoulins, 928 63, Issy les Moulineaux Cedex 9
France
Phone: +33 892 393 910
E-mail: [email protected]
Marek Jeníček
Distributor, Producer
Géraldine Lepicard
Sales Agent
Aleš Danielis
Distributor
Přemysl Martinek
Film Institution Rep., Producer
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